Committee faces school district's fiscal fears

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Three Youngstown Board of Education members say they fear the CEO’s spending will put the school district into fiscal emergency.

Board member Corinne Sanderson suggested on Monday getting a financial restraining order to bar CEO Krish Mohip from spending “unnecessary” money.

Earlier this month, Mohip announced the hiring of several administrators, costing the district more than $500,000 in salaries.

Mohip has control over the district’s hiring and its spending under Ohio House Bill 70, which put a chief executive officer, overseen by a state-appointed academic-distress commission, in charge.

Although board member Dario Hunter didn’t disagree with Sanderson’s sentiment, he said obtaining such a fiscal restraining order would be a “legally high hurdle to claim at this point.”

The discussion arose during Monday night’s finance committee meeting, of which Sanderson and Hunter are members and which board member Jackie Adair attended.

Adair said she will stand strong against paying for Mohip’s expenditures down the line.

“If it gets to the point where we end up in the red [deficit spending] and I’m still on the board, I will not vote to place a levy on the ballot,” she said.

This situation is why the board needs to get appropriate legal representation, Hunter said.

“Independent from the fact that we have a limited bucket from which to spend, it is a danger for us to continue going on as we are,” he said. “We could be sent into the red and hurdling toward fiscal emergency in dribs and drabs, and it will be us to be left with the aftereffect.”

Mohip has stated many times that he is acting to raise academic performance in the district and bringing in qualified personnel to do so.

During the July 26 board meeting, members failed to pass a resolution to hire additional legal counsel with a 3-3 vote. Board member Jerome Williams was absent.

At that regular board meeting, board member Michael Murphy suggested the board review more firms as a group before agreeing to hire a firm.

That reasoning, Sanderson said, is just an excuse.

“If other members of the board were going to do this [review more law firms], they would’ve already done it,” Hunter agreed.

Adair raised the question as to what the board was supposed to do when no money was budgeted to it.

Mohip “expects us to shrivel up and die,” Hunter said. “Everybody is just kind of hoping we’re going to go away. ... They’re expecting we will implode as a board.”

Adair said she thinks it’s unfair to taxpayers that the board meets for $125 per person per meeting and gets no say in district matters.

Hunter agreed, saying the way the district is being run is “very undemocratic.”

“I will continue to review our options and not lay down and take it,” Hunter said.