Mohip fires back at school board member's latest complaint

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown Board of Education member said the school district, specifically CEO Krish Mohip, spends too much on legal fees for various law firms.

Fees paid to law firms in fiscal year 2017, which ended in June, were: $208,310 to Ennis Britton Co., $697,389 to Baker and Hostetler, and $70,656 to Roth, Blair, Roberts, Strasfeld and Lodge.

Roth, Blair, Roberts, Strasfeld and Lodge of Youngstown represents the board of education. The other firms were hired by Mohip.

Legal fees for the law firms combined come to nearly $1 million of the district’s $120 million budget.

That figure is up from the $229,000 spent in fiscal year 2016.

That led school board member Jackie Adair to ask: “Why wasn’t this money spent in the classroom?”

Mohip said Adair is misinformed.

About $4 million was spent on professional development for teachers for their classrooms in fiscal year 2017.

Mohip’s $165,000 salary is paid by the Ohio Department of Education per House Bill 70, which enables him to lead the schools with state-appointed academic distress commission oversight.

“Why then are we local taxpayers footing this [legal] bill?” Adair said. “The state should and must reimburse our local treasury. Taxation without representation is the battle cry.”

Adair continued: “And why two law firms?”

District spokeswoman Denise Dick said the reason for the two firms is simple: different duties.

But Adair said, “If we get a bang for our buck, you wouldn’t hear a word from me, but none of that in my opinion has anything to do with academic improvement of the students in our schools,” she said.

Mohip, however, feels differently.

“Last school year, many of our district vehicles couldn’t pass the minimum requirements of state inspection, making even the safe transport of students to school challenging.”

Mohip said the community should be more concerned about how the district has lost so many students – and the dollars that follow them – over the past several years because of the failures of the people who were in charge.

“The failure of this school board and school district has left thousands of families distraught and leaving the district,” he said. “Last year alone, this district lost $9 million to open enrollment and $20 million to charters because YCSD has not been a viable option. If we want to talk about dollars spent, let’s talk about something that really matters – and that’s this district paying 25 percent of the overall budget to other schools to educate our kids. This board, however, would rather discuss the 0.7 percent of our budget that goes to legal fees.”

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