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Finance worries Youngstown school board
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown Board of Education approved a resolution of “objection and concern” to challenge the constitutionality of House Bill 70 due to the board’s worry about spending and the five-year financial forecast.
HB 70 puts a CEO in control of a failing school district under the auspices of an academic distress commission.
“We are concerned not about how the district is operated, but concerned about the funding,” said Brenda Kimble, board president.
The five-year forecast assumes that by 2021, without making changes to current spending trends and without approval of a renewal levy, the district will be in a deficit spending of $6.9 million.
In a 5-2 vote at Tuesday evening’s meeting, members Michael Murphy, Ronald Shadd, Jackie Adair, Jerome Williams and Kimble agreed to “disclaim responsibility or accountability for fiscal deficits created by the CEO,” the resolution reads. “The board hereby expresses its collective concern for and objection to the CEO’s management of the district. The board urges the CEO to exercise fiscal and educational prudence.”
CEO Krish Mohip said he thinks the board doesn’t understand the deficit number is more or less a worse-case scenario.
“We should be able to make changes to end up being in fine shape,” he said. “We are not in the red now, and I have no plans of running this district into it.”
Board members Dario Hunter and Corinne Sanderson abstained from the vote after a lengthy discussion and 45 minutes of executive session spent determining how the resolution should be worded.
At a July 11 meeting, Sanderson presented a similar resolution that would result in the board no longer recognizing Mohip’s authority.
That resolution argued the CEO position is unconstitutional and the powers granted to the CEO have been abused.
Hunter argued the two resolutions were the same.
Murphy, however, disagreed.
“Sanderson’s resolution attacked the CEO, while this resolution protects our financial interests,” he said.
Kimble added Sanderson’s resolution called for the board to ignore the CEO, HB 70 and continue running the district as before.
“We are not going to ignore the law,” Kimble said. “That’s the difference between this and [Sanderson’s] resolution.”
Mohip said the board is entitled to pass its resolution and have an opinion, but “the board is still advisory, and it’s up to me whether [the resolution] moves forward.”