MANSFIELD — The financial state of Mansfield City Schools has placed the district on the state government’s radar.
According to a special meeting notice, the board will meet Tuesday, July 30 to vote on a written plan to eliminate its projected deficit. The meeting notice stated the board is required to submit a plan.
State officials, Mansfield Supt. Stan Jefferson and district Treasurer Barb Donohue confirmed the requirement comes from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW).
Donohue said her office has been preparing the plan since before submitting the May five-year forecast.
“The state reviews the forecasts. If there’s any deficit in the first three years out, they’ll call the district and want to meet with them,” she explained.
“(The state) will review it, they’ll check it and make sure there’s no errors. Then they’ll send back an approval letter.”
What is a five-year forecast?
A five-year forecast is a tool to communicate and assess the financial health of a school district. It includes an overview of district revenues and expenditures over the previous three years and projections for the next five. School districts are required to submit five-year forecasts twice annually to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
The district’s May forecast projected Mansfield City Schools would operate with a $3.3 million deficit during the 2023-2024 school year. Donohue also projected a $2.2 million deficit in both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.
The forecast also projected the district’s unreserved cash balance would drop to negative $123,267 during the 2025-2026 school year.
“We would like to have 60 days (of operating expenses in our cash reserves),” school board member Chris Elswick said last month. “We’re more like 22.”
District evaluating health insurance, considering staff cuts
Donohoue and Kim Richard of ODEW said the district is not under any level of fiscal oversight.
Richard, who works for the department’s Office of Budget and School Funding, said it’s not unusual for the state to require a deficit reduction plan from a school district.
“Each forecast submission period, the department usually identifies several districts with potential deficits that are required to submit written plans,” Richard said.
“Through this written plan process, most districts can resolve projected deficits without the need for fiscal oversight.”
Mansfield City Schools entered state fiscal oversight program in 2006, and was in a state of fiscal emergency for three years. The district was released from fiscal oversight in December 2016.
As of July 1, only four Ohio school districts were under state fiscal oversight, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. None are in Richland County.
District leaders say they aren’t concerned about a return to state oversight, but that they continue to look for savings.
“We’re working with the state daily to go over our five-year forecast, the savings plan we have in place,” Elswick said.
“There’s going to be discussions over a reduction in force in December. There’s nothing in the district that is not being looked at when it comes to expenditures.”
Elswick said the district is also reevaluating its health insurance and may make changes by the end of the calendar year.
“They’re going to take our plan, take it apart into pieces and then we’re going to bid it out and look for different carriers and see if anyone can offer the same services at a better price,” he said.
Health insurance is one of the district’s biggest costs, with about $1.2 million in claims each month, the board president said.
“We have an experienced workforce. That tends to lead to more doctor visits, maybe an operation, something like that. It is a big expense,” Elswick said. “When you look at our five-year forecast, 85 percent of our expenditures are for our workers and for their benefits.”
School administrators say the district has already taken several cost-saving measures and anticipates a rosier forecast in November due to recent cuts.
The board made a decision earlier this month to close the Tyger Digital Academy, a pandemic-era hybrid learning program. Board members said discontinuing the program will save the district around $2 million.
