Deficits loom for Niles schools

October 18, 2012 at 8:45p.m.

NILES

A forecast of seven-figure deficits and concerns about the search for a new superintendent confronted the board of education during Thursday’s meeting.

The five-year financial forecast for the school district projects a deficit of $2.9 million by the end of the 2017 school year — an amount that would place the district in financial emergency if revenue remains unchanged.

Linda Molinaro, district treasurer, said that her figures anticipate a deficit of $83,000 by the end of the current school year, a figure that the Ohio Department of Education considers “manageable.” However, the numbers escalate rapidly in the following school years with deficits expected to climb to $1.4 million by the 2016 school year and more than double in 2017.

Molinaro said it is too early to talk about the need for additional revenue because of the uncertainty of state funding. “We have to wait and see what the governor does,” Molinaro said.

The bleak figures were released in the first meeting attended by interim Superintendent Frank Danso, hired by the board last week for the remainder of the school year following the sudden resignation of Mark Robinson, who had been on the job only 14 months.