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McDonald BOE seeks levy, hires schools chief
By MARY SMITH
McDONALD
The McDonald Board of Education asked the Trumbull County auditor Monday to certify the millage for a five-year emergency levy of 13.5 mills, which is expected to generate $715,000 a year.
Also, the board hired Ronald “Barry” Morrison of Pymatuning Lake, Pa., as new part-time superintendent of schools under a one-year contract from Aug. 1 to July 31,2011. He will be paid a rate of $345 a day and will work 80 days in the normal 180-day school year.
The board acted on the emergency levy as it prepares to place the issue on the Nov. 2 ballot, to help the district recover as quickly as possible from a $2.01 million deficit discovered in fiscal year 2010. The district was placed in state fiscal emergency in October 2009.
Although board members and residents attending the meeting expressed concern about bringing a large levy before voters, the need to restore financial solvency won out in the decision-making process.
Board member Jack Dugan noted that in a state auditor’s performance audit released last month, the district was shown to be spending $4,800 per student compared with an average of $6,500 per student by other districts considered to be its peers.
Board president Jeff Hughes commented on what he felt the size of the levy should be: “We need to do what we need to do to get better.”
Treasurer Brian Stidham told the board it has to show solvency for five years after the district is able to remove itself from fiscal emergency, which he projected will happen in 2013.
Out of a $6 million budget, residents support about $1.6 million of it, Dugan noted.
Stidham said the district has been warned by the Ohio State Financial and Planning Commission that the state department of education may be cutting as much as 10 percent of state funding with the new state budget.
He noted that one mill in McDonald generates $53,000.
The board also voted to approve placing a renewal of a 2-mill permanent-improvement tax to generate $62,728 for five years on the Nov. 2 ballot, and has asked the county to certify the millage.
Morrison will start work Monday under 15-day contract at $345 per day through July 31. He replaces superintendent Michael Wasser, who resigned.
Morrison, 63, retired in January 2006 as superintendent of Lake County Educational Service Center, where he was chief of schools from 1997 to 2006. He previously was superintendent in Painesville-Riverside Schools from 1993-97; superintendent of Ottawa schools in Port Clinton from 1990 -93; and Mathews superintendent from 1984-90. He began his career as a teacher in Bristol Local Schools in 1967 and served as a superintendent for 21 years.
He and his wife, Claudia, have two children.