Four of five designees were sworn in as members of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission of the Mansfield City School District on Thursday morning. Governor John Kasich has yet to appoint the final commission member.
Jill Haring, appointed by the State Superintendent, Mark Brunn, appointed by Mayor Tim Theaker, Sharon Hanrahan, designee of OBM Director, and Paul Marshall, designee of State Superintendent met at the Board of Education offices.
Mansfield City Schools officially entered fiscal emergency on Dec. 17, a decision that followed a school board resolution filed with the Auditor of State three weeks prior. Entering fiscal emergency allows the district access to programs, services and even financial support from the state in the form of an advance from the state’s Solvency Assistance Fund.
Along with those services, the state appoints a commission to provide fiscal oversight until the Auditor of State releases the district from fiscal emergency status.
“Typically the process takes about four years,” said Paul Marshall, chairman. “Mansfield is the fortieth district to enter fiscal emergency, and thirty-three have been released.” Currently, Mansfield is one of seven districts statewide that are in fiscal emergency.
Marshall is not a stranger to Mansfield, he also served in a similar capacity when the City of Mansfield entered fiscal emergency. “My experience when I was here before was that I was impressed with the sense of community in Mansfield. I think this is a good community.”
Marshall stressed that there are two key responsibilities of the commission. The first is to develop the financial recovery plan and the second is to monitor compliance. The commission has 120 days to develop the recovery plan, thus the due date will be May 2, 2014. Marshall will meet with Mansfield City Schools Superintendent Brian Garverick as early as next week to begin working on the plan.
The financial recovery plan must eliminate the conditions that prompted the Auditor’s declaration and prevent future fiscal emergency conditions. The commission will need to insure that all current financial obligations are met, debts are resolved, deficits are eliminated, a balanced budget is maintained, future deficits are avoided, and the district’s ability to secure long-term bond obligations are restored.
The district also will receive a performance audit. This will give the district professional insight and recommendations, and the district and commission will use the results of the audit to inform their decision making.
“The performance audit is an opportunity to have an outside person come in and make recommendations at no cost to the district, we welcome that perspective,” said Garverick.
The commission itself primarily has power over fiscal decisions. In addition to the fiscal oversight, the commission does have the authority to order reductions in force and remove the superintendent or treasurer, although there is not a history of past commissions exercising those powers.
“We’re here to provide assistance and help in any way we can,” said Marshall.
The first two orders of business for the commission were to approve the bylaws and a Letter of Engagement with the Auditor of State. Both passed unanimously. The next meeting was set for Jan. 28 at 4 p.m. Marshall also hopes to schedule a joint meeting of the school board and commission in January if possible.
Marshall invited Superintendent Garverick to address the commission and members of the community in attendance at the meeting.
“I’d just like to thank everybody, especially our community members who agreed to be a part of this commission and I’m confident in the members of the commission. They have great experience in dealing with fiscal emergency. My talk prior to the board meeting with Mr. Marshall has really put myself in a better light in terms of the process,” said Garverick, “I like the fact that you would like to attack this aggressively and put a plan together as soon as possible.”
Both local appointees also made public comments.
“Personally I’m just looking forward to working with the district and having a large stake with three children who graduated from Mansfield City schools and being a resident and business person in the community – being on the right track and seeing we can be a successful district in the future,” said Brunn.
“I am pleased to serve the district in this way. I’m just very concerned with the health of our community and our schools and I’m happy to lend a hand,” said Haring.
Garverick is optimistic about the process moving forward.
“Mr. Marshall has been through this dozens of times and he shared with me that we have to come out with fiscal integrity. That in and of itself is nice to hear. We want to work on the work. We want to focus on what is happening in our classrooms. This makes that possible,” said Garverick.
“My experience when I was here before was that I was impressed with the sense of community in Mansfield. I think this is a good community,” said commission chairman Paul Marshall.
