Federal reimbursement not expected for city school program
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
The city school district’s general fund advanced $950,000 to the district’s adult-education fund and at least $250,000 likely won’t be repaid soon.
Last summer, students registered for classes, believing they would receive federal Pell Grants. Those grants weren’t awarded, however, because the agency that formerly accredited Choffin Career and Technical Center, where adult courses are taught, stopped accreditation.
The school district had to find a new accreditation agency.
Joe Meranto, Choffin director, said the administration didn’t want to cancel the courses, penalizing students. “We didn’t want to do that if we didn’t have to,” he said.
He said former Superintendent Connie Hathorn was told by a federal official the process would be accelerated to allow reimbursement for those students.
The process, however, took longer than anticipated, and now the federal government won’t reimburse the district for the first semester of last year for those students, or $250,000.
The new accreditation agency wouldn’t issue accreditation right away though because of a lag in completion of the district’s state audit.
“We’ve never had an audit done on time,” Meranto said. “It’s not the fault of Youngstown City Schools. It’s because of the state always putting Youngstown as the last one to be audited.”
Treasurer James Reinhard expects the other $700,000 of what was advanced from the general fund to the adult education fund to be reimbursed with federal dollars.
Because the school district won’t be reimbursed for the first semester, those students effectively took classes tuition free.
Meranto said most who enroll in the courses require financial aid. Although the adult education program went through a period that it wasn’t accredited, each of the individual courses were accredited so students’ licenses and certificates are valid.
Jackie Adair, school board member, believes the school board should have decided about offering the classes. “That needs to be decided by the board, and it was not made by the board – to provide free tuition,” she said.