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youngstown city school district New coordinator helps recoup state funding
By Denise Dick
youngstowN
The city school district has created a new coordinator’s position to verify addresses of students attending charter schools in hopes of recouping some of the money lost to those institutions.
Last month, the school board hired Kari King as enrollment-verification coordinator. King, who worked part time for the district previously, will earn about $37,100 this year. The annual salary for the job is $42,300.
“We have 2,400 to 2,500 students attending charter schools,” Superintendent Connie Hathorn said. “We have to make sure their addresses are correct.”
State money allocated for a student follows the student from his or her resident district to the charter or open-enrollment school.
The Youngstown district loses about $21 million to charter schools, Hathorn said.
If a student has moved out of the district, however, the corresponding state dollars should come from the school district where he or she lives now, not Youngstown.
“The position is going to pay for itself,” the superintendent said.
That was the case in Akron, where Hathorn worked before coming to Youngstown, he said.
“In a district this size, with 2,400 students going to charter schools, you’ve got to have someone working on that full time,” Hathorn said.
Karen Ingraham, district communication director, wrote in an email: “This past school year, [Hathorn] authorized that a simple postcard be sent to all addresses that charter schools/open enrollment districts were claiming as enrolled in their school.
“About 800 of the 3,000 cards sent out were returned. As the addresses were traced and enrollment verified, YCS [Youngstown city schools] eventually reclaimed students ... and our state funding went up by $3 million.”