Warren projects deficit in 2012

Closing schools draws criticism from audience

By Sam Shawver, sshawver @mariettatimes.com
Warren Local School District can expect a $5.2 million deficit in fiscal year 2012 if current spending trends continue, Superintendent Tom Gibbs told an audience of approximately 200 at Warren High School Monday night.

“We’ve been in a deficit spending pattern since fiscal 2004, and the district’s cash balance is decreasing,” he said.

Gibbs made the comments in a report on the school district’s five-year financial forecast during a special public hearing with the Warren Local Board of Education.

He said a declining population that is expected to continue to dwindle over the next decade will exacerbate the problem.

“There’s a misperception that this community is growing, but since the 1980s we’ve had a decrease of almost 300 students,” Gibbs said. “And our incoming kindergarten classes are smaller than our graduating classes of 220 to 225 students.

“Our total revenue per pupil is growing, but not at the same rate as our expenses,” he added. “Last fiscal year, we averaged a little over $8,000 per pupil but our expenditures ran about $8,400 per pupil.”

Gibbs said 26 positions, 23 of them teaching positions, have been reduced over the last three years and the district is making other cost-cutting efforts, but much more is needed.

“We can either increase revenue, decrease expenses or do a little of both,” he said.

The superintendent listed several options the school board could consider to help overcome projected fiscal shortfalls, including cuts in supervisors and administration; reducing high school teachers; reducing elementary specialist positions; reducing all-day, everyday kindergarten across the district; reducing some custodial and maintenance staff; eliminating some support services staff positions; reducing junior high athletic teams; or eliminating transportation for high school students.

But the option of closing Bartlett and/or Cutler elementary schools, which Gibbs said the school board members had asked him to present, brought the greatest reaction from the audience Monday night.

Last month board President Willie Holbert said it’s possible that a vote on closing a school could come during the board’s May 19 meeting, but that would depend on information presented by administrators at that session.

Closing Bartlett Elementary and moving its 92 students to other facilities would save the district an estimated $404,880 a year, according to Gibbs. He said an additional $125,000 savings could be realized if Cutler were also shut down.

Gibbs noted that no classroom teaching positions would be cut if the facilities were closed, but teachers would be moved into other district schools.

“We are a small community; that’s why I love this community and why I know this is where I want my children to go to school,” said Jean Kennedy, a kindergarten aide at Warren Elementary.

“My family and I are distraught about the possible closing of Bartlett and Cutler schools,” she said. “I’m asking you (the school board) to allow 30 more days before making a decision.”

Molly Varner, who lives along Ohio 550 within the school district, said the local economy would be affected by a school closing.

“It would have a definite effect on business in the Bartlett neighborhood,” she said. “The Bartlett school creates a lot of foot traffic in that area.

“Also you may not see growth on paper, but we know there is growth occurring in the western end of the Warren district,” Varner said. “And several of us have formally signed on to help you find solutions to this issue.”

Martin Hansell, who lives on Ohio 676, said his four grandchildren attend school in the Warren district.

“You’re being efficient in operating this school system, but the problem is you’re not getting enough money. This is happening all over the country,” he said. “But this is a business, and it has to operate as a business. If you operate it in deficit, you will definitely go out of business.

“This problem is not going to go away, it will just get worse,” Hansell added. “You need to make a decision that’s equitable to all students.”

Robin Bozian described herself as “the proud mother of three graduates of Cutler and Bartlett elementary schools.

“We are now being told that we are approaching a financial crisis and need to cut costs,” she said in a prepared statement.

“Mr. Gibbs has said there hasn’t been much concern about the reductions to date,” Bozian said. “There is a good reason there hasn’t been much concern. Until this past month, I did not know that the school was in this kind of dire financial straits, and no one informed the public that we were headed down a path that might lead to this kind of drastic action.

“We deserve time to review the facts. We deserve time to give input. We deserve time to explore with the board other alternatives, including additional funding through a levy,” she said. “Thirty to 45 days is simply not enough time for such drastic action.”