Schools’ fiscal commission hears about salary freeze

By JORDAN COHEN

news@vindy.com

NILES

Schools Superintendent Ann Marie Thigpen told the commission overseeing the school district’s recovery from state-declared fiscal emergency that she plans to request the board of education to freeze all 11 administrator salaries for the next fiscal year.

That salary freeze would include her own and that of the district treasurer.

Thigpen’s announcement came during the lengthy first meeting Monday of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission at the district’s administrative offices. The superintendent said she will “instruct” the board to approve the freeze at its next meeting April 17.

Niles City Schools were declared in fiscal emergency by state Auditor Keith Faber on Feb. 26 due to projected deficits exceeding $578,000 the current fiscal year, nearly $1.2 million in 2020 and $2.34 million in 2021.

“You’re looking to get out of fiscal emergency (and) not to increase expenses,” said Bob Foss of the Ohio Department of Education, the commission chairman. Foss said the average time a school district or municipality remains in fiscal emergency until recovery is assured is four years.

The district doesn’t have to look far for an example. The city of Niles was in fiscal emergency for more than four years until the designation was lifted just last month.

Thigpen told the five-member commission that “student enrollment is on the decline” at the elementary school level, a concern for the district, which currently has 2,288 students and 167 teachers.

One commission member, Barbara Mattei-Smith from the state Office of Budget and Management, asked Thigpen for a “staffing analysis (and) where it is in relation to similar districts.”

According to state law, the district must develop a financial recovery plan within 120 days of Monday’s commission meeting, which would be near the end of July. Like their city counterparts, the schools must produce a five-year financial forecast with no deficits.

Nita Hendryx, state-appointed financial supervisor, said she expects the financial forecast for the current fiscal year to be certified shortly. Hendryx served in the same capacity as fiscal supervisor for the city during its fiscal emergency.

The commission approved what Foss described as “a temporary recovery plan,” however the package contains no financial figures that would establish spending limits.

Without the data, commission members were unable to vote on several contracts and purchase orders they are obligated to review.

The commission has set its next meeting for May 6.