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School board seeks guidance
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The city school board is looking for a clear picture of the school district’s finances.
Board members Tuesday expressed concern and some confusion over Youngstown’s financial status, citing conflicting comments from the state fiscal oversight commission which controls district spending while Youngstown is in state-mandated fiscal emergency and the Local Government Services office of the Auditor of State.
The oversight commission says Youngstown’s five-year financial forecast is too optimistic, yet the Ohio auditor’s own version of that forecast is in line with the one presented by William Johnson, district treasurer, said Anthony Catale, school board president.
Compounding the issue is a state Academic Distress Commission’s proposed academic- recovery plan designed to get Youngstown out of state-rated academic emergency. That open-ended plan has an annual price tag that could reach $4 million.
The recovery plan finances are based on using federal stimulus dollars and federal Title I grant money Youngstown already receives, but board members aren’t sure that funding will be sufficient, particularly in light of the fact that stimulus funding is scheduled to end next year.
The board did set aside $1.2 million in stimulus money to help launch the academic-recovery plan, but its members are asking what happens when that money is gone.
Catale pointed out that Title I funds are allocated by June 30 for the next school year.
The district needs direction from the Academic Distress Commission on what programs it should cut to make way for the recovery-plan programs, Catale said. There’s also a space problem to implement the plan’s proposed 15-1 student-to-teacher ratio in all kindergarten and first-grade classrooms, he said.
That could force Youngstown to reopen the closed Mary Haddow Elementary School at a cost of $1.5 million to $2 million, which would add to the cost of the recovery plan, he added.
Catale has written a letter to both the fiscal oversight commission and the Academic Distress Commission asking for a meeting with the board to seek some guidance.
“We need to be on the same page,” he said. The board tabled passage on the June version of its five-year plan until it has a clear picture of where the district’s finances stand.
Johnson defended his forecast, saying it looks positive because the district has cut $35 million in spending over a three-year period and has a four-year emergency tax levy in place to boost revenue.
The forecast notes clearly don’t paint a rosy picture, he said, pointing out that the tax levy will expire in 2013, real-estate tax delinquencies are in the $9 million range, and there is a serious potential loss of state revenue next year, perhaps as much as 10 percent, as Ohio works out its own budget problems.
Board member Lock P. Beachum Sr. asked Johnson where the district stands financially right now, and Johnson said he couldn’t give a definitive answer until the academic recovery plan and its impact on district finances are finalized.
Board member Andrea Mahone suggested that the board come up with a strategic plan now to deal with the potential loss of state revenue next year. The district isn’t in the red now, but that could change with a significant reduction in state support, she added.