YSU worried about Early College funding

By Harold Gwin

The potential loss of state grant money could leave YSU with a substantial bill.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State University Board of Trustees is worried about the joint Youngstown Early College program the university runs with the Youngstown City School District.

The issue isn’t academics. It’s money.

There is concern that grant-funding that has helped the four-year-old program may soon no longer be available.

The issue carried enough weight to have the trustees’ Finance and Facilities Committee postpone a vote on the university’s proposed $149.5 million general-fund budget last week.

At issue is state money set aside for Ohio’s nine early-college programs through the Ohio Board of Regents and the Department of Education.

Although new funding is listed in both the state House and Senate versions of the proposed state biennial budget, no one knows for sure what the final version will provide, or whether the funding might be eliminated completely as the state seeks to balance a difficult budget.

That money has been paying the college-tuition costs for the YEC students who have been taking college courses on campus, and the university has said that can amount to as much as $600,000 a year.

The money also covers some of the costs of four YSU empoyees assigned to the program, said Dean Philip Ginnetti of the Beeghly College of Education.

The university has no general funds being spent in the program. It does provide an on-campus location for YEC in Fedor Hall.

However, the memorandum of understanding under which the YEC program operates calls for the university to pick up 49 percent of the college-tuition cost for the YEC students enrolled in university courses. The school district is to cover 51 percent.

Neither has had to pick up that cost in YEC’s first four years because of the state grant assistance.

If that aid disappears, YSU’s share of tuition could be around $300,000 a year, Thomas Maraffa, special assistant to the YSU president, told the trustees.

That potential liability raised concern among some of the trustees as they looked at YSU’s proposed 2009-10 general fund budget.

“I don’t see a game plan for the next five years,” said Scott Schulick, chairman of the board of trustees, referring to the long-term financial viability of YEC.

If YSU is forced to tap into a budgetary reserve to cover YEC tuition costs, some other programs may have to be cut, he said, suggesting that the trustees delay a vote on the budget until their June 19 meeting in hopes of getting a clearer financial picture by then.

Schulick said he has no quarrel with the program but is worried about sufficient funding to keep it operating.

David C. Sweet, YSU president, said the program has been through a four-year “startup” that involved some “pump priming” in the form of outside grants.

Some of that funding, most notably the $100,000 a year that Know-ledgeWorks Foundation provided in each of the first four years, is no longer available.

“We are planning on having an early college next year,” he told the trustees, noting that some modification of the YSU general-fund budget may be necessary in September or December if state early-college funding changes significantly.

Ikram Khawaja, YSU provost, said the university is in negotiations now with the city school district on a new memorandum of understanding that could change funding responsibilities.

Sweet said YEC, created to attract and encourage children at risk to pursue a college education, has been a role model in terms of fulfilling that goal.

Getting chosen to attend YEC is a competitive, selective process and students enter in the ninth grade.

The school had 32 seniors graduate this year, and one of them had enough college credit to be awarded an associate degree, said Michele Dotson, YEC dean.

It’s first graduating class last year had 41 members and four students earned associate degrees.

Wendy Webb, superintendent of the city school district, said between 13 and 17 students who are now juniors are on line to earn associate degrees by the end of their senior year next spring.

She acknowledged that college tuition is the biggest funding gap facing the program.

The university provides the space, and the school district picks up the $1.2 million to $1.4 million per year in the cost of school staff, books and other materials.

The city school district plans for the program to continue, she said, pointing out that the district is creating a Rayen Youngstown Early College Middle School to serve as a feeder school to YEC.

“We can show data that the program is working,” Webb said, adding that the morale of the students and staff would be very adversely affected should YEC be lost.

gwin@vindy.com