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McDonald school board inquires about fiscal status
By Mary Smith
McDONALD
The McDonald Board of Education has asked the state auditor to see if the district has met the criteria for removal from fiscal- emergency status.
If so, the board has asked that Ohio begin the process to release the district from the status.
The school district was placed in fiscal emergency in October 2009, with a deficit of more than $2 million projected for the 2010 fiscal year.
The district borrowed slightly more than $2 million from the state to cover expenses to the end of the fiscal year, and a State Finance and Planning Commission board was appointed to oversee district operations.
Staffing and program cuts followed in June, and eventually totaled more than $850,000. Voters approved two operating levies to help the district financially — one in November 2009, a 4.9-mill, five-year emergency levy to generate $260,000 annually; and a 10.75-mill, five-year emergency levy in May to generate $580,000 annually.
The district has also learned that it will receive an additional $540,000 in state foundation money for 2011-12, with a net gain expected to be roughly $300,000 to $400,000.
Treasurer Brian Stidham explained that the state auditor will do a new five-year forecast of the district, essentially verifying his forecast, and an Accounting and Methods Report of the district just completed by the state auditor will have to be followed.
Anything in that report that recommends procedure or policy changes will have to be done to satisfy the state auditor’s requirement that the district can remain solvent.
Any policy changes by the board must go through two readings, which will take at least two months, Stidham said.
He said he did not have a time frame as to how long the state would need to lift the fiscal-emergency status.
In other business, the board voted not to approve 2-percent salary increases for the central office staff.
No step or percentage increases were granted during the 2010-11 school year to the three employees.
Though teachers and nonteaching workers still have step increases in their contracts, they are operating under a three-year wage freeze that started this year.
Board members cited the timing of the increases and felt the money should go to education, or that the decision should be delayed until a new five-year forecast is developed.
The board approved rehiring Mike Helco in the administrative position of transportation supervisor for 191 days at two hours a day at the hourly rate of $15.03 for a total of $5,741 annually effective Aug. 1 to July 31, 2012.
The board also approved hiring Gardiner Trane of Solon to replace two compressors on the air conditioning at Roosevelt Elementary School for $70,280.
The amount is expected to be covered by insurance, since the manufacturer believes the compressors were damaged because of several power outages that occurred in the village.
A new five-year service agreement will be covered by the district at a cost of $3,280 a year.
It is hoped the repairs can be made in time for the start of school or close to it.