The four-member state panel charged with overseeing Mansfield City Schools finances declined Tuesday to allow the reinstatement of four teaching positions.
Paul Marshall, chair of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, said no new hiring will be permitted until “significant problems” with the district’s five-year financial forecast can be resolved.
Specifically, Marshall said, the October forecast shows $2 million less revenue for the current fiscal year than the forecast submitted in May. The result, he said, is a projected revenue-expenditures deficit of just over $1.3 million by June 30.
“Property tax revenue estimates are $2 million lower now than in May. I don’t know what to think of it,” Marshall said. “What bothers me is such a significant change in a short time. There are significant problems here. Until they can be addressed I don’t want to bring the five-year forecast before the commission.”
District Treasurer Rosetta Stephens was unable to attend the meeting.
The commission began work in January after the auditor of state declared Mansfield City Schools to be in fiscal emergency. The panel also includes Sharon Hanrahan of the Ohio Office of Budget Management and Mansfield residents Mark Brunn and Jill Haring.
Brunn said the $2 million revenue discrepancy between the two forecasts could be an error but added that it would be difficult to understand how it could be that much.
Last week the board of education approved – in response to large class sizes – the reinstatement of a kindergarten teacher and a second-grade teacher at Sherman Elementary and the reinstatement of a science teacher and a social studies teacher at Mansfield Middle School.
While not permitting the four teachers, Marshall told Superintendent Brian Garverick the district may utilize $10,000 to hire highly qualified substitute teachers as a temporary measure to help alleviate the large class sizes.
The commission agreed to meet again on Nov. 12 in an attempt to resolve the financial forecast discrepancy.
Marshall also voided the board of education’s 3-2 decision Monday to hire nine safety security specialists. Instead, he said the commission would authorize $35,000 for security personnel to be hired through Maxim Staffing Solutions until Dec. 31.
Marshall said the commission understands problems with class sizes and the importance of security in school buildings, but he emphasized that the panel must assure that the district remains within its financial recovery plan. Until questions about the financial forecast are resolved, he said, additional significant spending cannot be authorized.
“Admittedly, this is a band-aid,” he said of using substitute teachers and the staffing agency. “What we’re trying to do here is reach a compromise. The other option is to do nothing.”
Haring agreed.
“I don’t like the position we’re in but I don’t think it is responsible to move ahead. I am good with waiting,” she said.
Jen Lepard, president of the Mansfield School Employees Association, told the commission that she would ask the union membership to give up $100,000 the district has set aside for incentive bonuses so the funds could be used instead to reinstate teaching positions.