Yo. Board of Ed. concerned over spending, discuss levy renewal
Time is ticking away for the Youngstown City Board of Education to decide whether or not to put a renewal levy on the November ballot, money that is desperately needed to operate the school district.
But the decision, Tuesday night, was not an easy one.
Youngstown voters easily passed the last three renewal levies which generate around five million dollars a year.
It's happened in 2008, 2012 and in 2016. So why would there even be a question are to whether they should try again this year?
"This has been the most expensive 'F' in the history of Youngstown public schools!" said board member, Jackie Adair.
The reason there is debate about the levy is because the board is critical about having a CEO in charge of the district.
They claim CEO Justin Jennings hasn't showed them a viable spending plan for the district.
"He owes our taxpayers an explanation on how he is going to recover the money that was spent frivolously and how he is going to sustain our school district and he hasn't done that," said one man.
"He hasn't given us an inkling of the reductions in staff. Where are you going to make these cuts to balance the budget with the means we have right now?" said board member, Tina Cvetkovich.
There is a projected deficit of $12 million by 2023 and nearly $30 million by '24.
Because board members say the want to hear details of a spending plan from the CEO they are going to hold off on making a decision about putting a renewal levy on the ballot until they do.
And even then, some members say they are tired of spending more and more of the taxpyers money and still getting the same results of below average state report cards.
"We want to save the kids but we want the money to go to the classroom. We have numerous people working for the district making $100,000 plus but we got $13,000 in the classroom under this new CEO model," said board member Jerome Jennings.
The deadline to put a levy on the fall ballot is August 5th.
Jennings says the levy is crucial for district operations and he plans to announce spending cuts in the next couple of weeks.
