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City school board seeks new audit
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The city school board wants the Ohio auditor to determine how well it has done in reducing operating costs as suggested in a 2008 state performance audit of the district.
The information is important as the district moves forward with efforts to emerge from state-imposed fiscal emergency, said Anthony Catale, school board president.
The board has agreed to pay the auditor’s office up to $59,100 for the new audit and will ask the state fiscal-oversight commission now controlling district finances to approve that expense today.
The 2008 audit, among other things, suggested Youngstown could save $17 million annually by eliminating 376 jobs, reducing bus routes, negotiating a new special-needs busing contract and taking other action.
The district, over the last three years, has eliminated about 520 jobs and reduced spending by about $32 million a year through various measures.
For example, the state had suggested eliminating 10 bus routes, but the district was able to cut 23. A new special-needs busing contract saved $200,000 a year, and the district saved money by closing its East Side bus garage, another audit suggestion, school officials said.
The district is looking at an additional $1.5 million in cuts for next year.
William Johnson, district treasurer, said the 2008 audit was a useful tool, and Youngstown has met nearly every item it contained.
Superintendent Wendy Webb said the district hit about 98 percent of the audit proposals.
The new audit will take between five and six months to complete, Catale said.
It will focus on a number of key areas — financial systems (revenues and expenditures), human resources (staffing levels), facilities and transportation — as well as review of compliance with the 2008 audit recommendations.