Youngstown schools' new executive team IDs $100K in savings since February

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown City Schools’ chief financial officer is pushing the district toward more efficient spending.

“What I do is all about digging into the dollars and the nitty-gritty,” said CFO Greg Slemons. “The devil is in the details.”

In the details is where more than $100,000 in savings was found since his Feb. 13 start date.

John LaPlante, district chief information officer, found a duplicated service costing the district $125,000 annually.

“We were bringing different eyes in and looking at contracts when he found that we moved – a number of years ago – to voice-over internet,” Slemons said. “We found that we’ve been paying AT&T [the duplicated service] still for years. ... Nobody’s eyes were on it.”

LaPlante isn’t the only one to help the district save. With Mohip’s neighborhood schools plan, district transportation supervisor Colleen Murphy-Penk estimates transportation costs will go down.

The neighborhood schools plan will place students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade into one of nine school buildings closest to their homes, cutting travel time.

The salaries of Mohip’s newly hired senior leadership team are often a hot-button issue.

Some of the hires are: Slemons as chief financial officer on a 12-month contract at an annual salary of $133,000; LaPlante as chief information officer on a 12-month contract at an annual salary of $123,000; and Pat Lowry as director of strategic initiatives on a 12-month contract with an annual salary of $75,000.

Slemons, however, said spending is right where it usually is.

Read more about the situation in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.