South Range plans teacher cuts, fee extension should May levy fail

Staff report

NORTH LIMA

The South Range Board of Education will take action Monday night on possible teacher cuts due to projected deficits and changing the school calendar and valedictorian system.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the high school, 11300 S. Columbiana-Canfield Road. Those teachers cuts, or reduction in force, would be for two full-time teachers and another teacher who teaches a handful of classes a day, said South Range Superintendent Dennis Dunham. He also said those cuts would go into effect if a May school levy attempt fails.

“Suspending [those] contracts is due to financial reasons,” Dunham said. “There are programs affiliated with those positions. There will be ramifications down the road once those are acted upon.”

The transportation/activity fee will continue unless the May levy is approved. That is $100 per student per school year for all athletics and a maximum of $175 per family. The cost goes down for co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, with that maximum at $100 per family for multiple participation in those activities, such as $70 per student for speech team.

This is just the first phase of what would be future reductions to deal with approaching deficits, but a three-year, 4.9-mill operating levy would alleviate those projected deficits, district Treasurer Jim Phillips said. It would generate $931,838 over three years and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $171.50 a year.

“If the levy doesn’t pass, then obviously financially we have to continue, we have to make cuts that will get us where we need to be in fiscal year 2017 because that’s the year we show the deficit,” Dunham said. Fiscal year 2017 would be for the 2016-2017 school year.

“The cuts that we’ve been making, by not replacing retirees or by out and out laying people off is how we’ve been financing the district for the past three to five years, if not longer,” Phillips said. “What happens when you run out of things to cut and you still haven’t passed a levy?”

He continued, “Everything we’ve cut has hurt and now we’re still faced with cutting more.”

The tax levy for South Range is the only schools issue in Mahoning County on the May 5 primary ballot.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and Vindy.com.