Additional state subsidy to help relieve school debt

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown City School District will be getting $240,000 more per month in state subsidy funds beginning this month.

Treasurer William Johnson told the school board’s finance committee Wednesday that the additional funding is the result of the district’s recalculation of its pupil attendance counts and updating its teacher training, certification and experience data, all of which count when it comes to the state’s figuring out how much foundation money a district should receive.

The district had budgeted an anticipated $66.6 million in unrestricted state funding this fiscal year, but the state readjustment of pupil enrollment numbers in December cut the monthly state unrestricted funding from about $5.7 million to just over $5.2 million.

Johnson said the district’s latest recalculations, completed in February and already accepted by the state, will boost that number back to $5.5 million, and Youngstown should still make the $66 million mark in unrestricted state funds.

Unrestricted funds can be used for any education-related purposes. Youngstown will also receive about $14 million this year in state restricted funds, which are for specific poverty-based programs.

Johnson presented the committee with a revised five-year financial forecast that shows Youngstown could be out of the red in fiscal 2011.

The district was placed in state fiscal emergency in November 2006 after announcing that it was running a budget deficit that year.

Since then, spending cuts totaling some $26 million and borrowing some $25 million from the state have enabled the district to end each year in the black.

The district expects to borrow up to an additional $3.6 million from the state this year (although Johnson said the amount may be down to between $1 million and $2 million by June), but the forecast shows that the last of the state debt should be repaid in 2011.

Paying off that debt, combined with a 9.5-mill, four-year tax levy that will produce $5.29 million a year in new revenue and a proposed further $5.5 million in spending reductions proposed for next year show a positive financial picture, Johnson said.

Youngstown is also borrowing $5.2 million from itself this year to help cover the on-going deficit, taking the money from a bond fund in anticipation of the new tax levy revenue. That debt will be repaid at the rate of $1,340,000 a year for four years and doesn’t change the district’s overall financial projections, Johnson said.

Right now, the financial picture looks pretty good, said committee member Michael Murphy, and Lock P. Beachum Sr., committee chairman, agreed with that assessment, saying he is “very satisfied” with the progress the district is making.

gwin@vindy.com