Levy may decide Niles schools’ status

February 1, 2012 at 12:03a.m.

NILES

The Ohio Department of Education will wait for the outcome of a renewal-levy in the March 6 primary election before deciding whether to recommend that the state auditor place the Niles school district under fiscal emergency. Niles schools have been under fiscal watch since 2003.

“We’ll wait till the election and give them time to get it done, but I don’t see how they can avoid fiscal emergency if the levy is not approved,” said Roger Hardin, assistant director of the finance office of ODE.

The 4.65-mill renewal levy, which does not increase taxes, would generate $1.3 million for the school district annually for 10 years. However, the schools face a projected deficit of $2.5 million in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Hardin said the deficit amounts to more than 11.5 percent of the budget — a figure that is too high for the state. The ODE official said schools usually wind up in fiscal emergency when the deficit exceeds 10 percent.

“I’m not sure they can make up that $2.5 million deficit,” Hardin said. “That would be difficult for any district over the course of a year, and they might even need another levy.”

The school board is required to submit a financial-recovery plan to the state, which Hardin has 30 days to review. If he finds it insufficient and the state auditor declares fiscal emergency, a financial planning and supervision commission would take control of the district’s finances for an indefinite period.

Meanwhile Superintendent Mark Robinson disclosed to The Vindicator that three contract-bargaining sessions have taken place with the union representing the district’s 180 teachers, guidance counselors, school nurses and librarians despite his statement earlier this month that the board of education had presented its “last, best and final offer.” The teachers and district have been working under the previous contract that expired last August.

“The board as a whole made the decision to enter back into negotiations, and that vacated our final offer,” Robinson said.

One of the major stumbling blocks in the teacher contract is the payment of the health insurance premium. The district currently pays the entire premium for all teachers hired prior to October 2008. The superintendent said teachers are not opposed to paying a percentage of the premium, but the two sides have been unable to agree on the percentage.

The superintendent said a teacher contract that “assists the district financially” is one of three components necessary for the district to eliminate its deficit. “We also have to look at reductions in force in teaching and [nonteaching] staff, and we have to assume the community will pass the renewal levy since it does not raise taxes.”

Robinson said that Hardin will speak at the next school board meeting, which has been changed to Feb. 9, and that all school-district employees and the public will have an opportunity to ask questions to the ODE official about the district’s financial problems.