MANSFIELD — As officials at Mansfield City Schools take a hard look at the district’s finances, the Mansfield School Employees Association is weighing in on where cuts should be made.
In a letter sent to district board members and administrators last week, MSEA president Brad Strong criticized district administrators, accusing them of overspending for years and not responding to warning signs about the district’s financial status.
“The MSEA on many occasions challenged the hiring of additional administrative positions, as well as how many new teacher hires were occurring every year, but it fell on deaf ears,” Strong wrote.
“This financial ‘cliff’ has been discussed for multiple years, as the five-year forecast told us this was coming, yet this administration did little to prevent it. Now major reductions must occur all at once, when the administration could have chosen to ‘right size’ along the way.”
The union’s letter was signed by Strong, who told Richland Source the union’s nine-member leadership team voted to approve it.
What reductions did the union propose?
According to the union letter, officials from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce have visited the district and after examining its finances, concluded Mansfield City Schools is overstaffed by 42 teachers.
Strong didn’t argue that point. The union letter suggested reducing the teacher workforce by between 35 to 42 teachers, estimating that would save the district between $2.8 million and $3.8 million in salaries and benefits.
But the union also insisted the district has too many administrators and called for an estimated $2 million in non-teacher cuts.
“The current administration is claiming that central office is working with a skeleton crew, nothing could be further from the truth,” Strong said. “There are more people employed at the central office than in the history of the district.”
Some of the union’s suggestions include:
- Reducing the Human Resources department from 3 to 2 people.
- Reduce the treasurer’s office staff from 6 to 4 people.
- Eliminating central office registration and requiring parents/guardians to register students sat their respective school buildings.
- Not replacing Director of School Improvement Andrea Moyer, who is retiring at the end of the school year.
- Eliminating comptroller position.
- Eliminating an administrative floating principal position.
- Eliminating the district testing coordinator position.
- Eliminating the talented and gifted coordinator position.
- Eliminating EMIS coordinator position.
- Eliminating a board certified behavior analyst.
- Eliminating the retire/rehire transportation director, who has been training her replacement for most of the 2024-2025 school year.
- Eliminating one special education supervisor position.
- Eliminating the assistant food services director position (and giving food service employees a raise with the savings).
- Change the athletic director position from administrative to a bargaining unit position with a teacher’s salary.
- Closing the adult education program.
- Reduce the time spent by the district’s legal counsel in meetings with central office administrators.
Strong said the unions’ suggestions on which jobs to cut weren’t personal. He said some positions are luxuries the district can no longer afford, while others can be outsourced to other administrators or the district’s educational service center.
Mansfield City Schools Supt. Stan Jefferson said he respects all suggestions in terms of cost reductions.
“We are looking at every area in terms of reductions and we will be submitting a recommendation to the board for what those reductions are,” Jefferson said. “There will be cuts district wide.”
When asked about the district’s use of attorneys, Jefferson said district leaders are likely in contact with legal counsel on a weekly basis, but that communication varies based on what issues arise.
“We are trying to do everything we can to stay out of the litigation and to be compliant, and in order to do that, we have to talk to our legal counsel,” he said.
When asked about the district’s administrator ratio, Jefferson said meeting the complex requirements of modern education requires a team.
“There’s a number of different things that have been pushed by the (Ohio) Department of Education and the Ohio General Assembly on all school districts,” he said.
“In order to meet compliancy and to meet educational standards, we need expertise in areas that involve a lot of educational complexity. Without that, it’s hard to be compliant.
“Yes, you need to look at ways on how you can save money, and I understand that, and we are definitely going to do that,” Jefferson added. “We are definitely going to make sure that that is done.
“But at the same time, you’ve got to operate your district.”
Mansfield City’s administrative costs above state average
Mansfield City Schools has an enrollment of around 2,973 students and 32 administrators, according to the latest district profile report from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
According to the report, Mansfield City has a pupil to administrator ratio of 91.42 to one. That’s lower than the state average (116.92 to one), but very close to the average for ‘similar’ districts (91.38 to one).
‘Similar‘ school districts are determined by the ODEW based on factors like enrollment, urban versus rural population makeup, population density, median income, poverty levels, racial minority enrollment and the rate of adults in the community with a college degree.
When it comes to average administrator salary, Mansfield City Schools is slightly lower ($87,856) than the similar ($90,106) and state ($89,646) averages.
But despite having relatively typical administrator ratios and pay scales, Mansfield City Schools spends more much on administrative expenses per pupil than its peer districts.
‘Similar’ districts spend an average $2,592 on administration per pupil, while Mansfield City spends $4,034.
(The report did not provide a teacher-to-student ratio, but data ODEW data from the 2023-2024 school year shows Mansfield City Schools employed around 290 teachers.)
Strong said that’s likely because the district offers full ‘pick-up-on-the-pick-up’ retirement benefits to all administrative and central office staff who were on the administrative salary schedule as of June 2016.
In other words, the district pays both the employee and employer share of those administrators’ retirement contributions.
Certificated administrators hired since June 2016 are eligible for a 2-percent pick-up-on-the-pick-up that can increase by 2 percent until the maximum share is reached.
While the district profile report doesn’t distinguish between teacher and administrative costs, it does indicate that fringe benefit costs make up an outsized portion of the budget.
District officials recently said they were able to negotiate health insurance costs down and expect to save approximately $2.5 million over the course of the next year as a result.
State officials are requiring Mansfield City Schools to submit a deficit reduction plan
Mansfield City’s most recent five-year forecast projected an operating deficit of $3.9 million for the 2024-2025 school year. It also projected the district would run out of operating funds before the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
As a result, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce asked the district to submit a deficit reduction plan for the second time in seven months.
After the release of the district’s most recent five-year forecast in November, then-interim treasurer Jennifer Hedrick said she expects ODEW to place Mansfield City Schools under fiscal watch.
ODEW can place districts in financial straits into three levels of oversight — caution, watch and emergency. Mansfield City Schools was not under any level of fiscal oversight as of Jan. 3, when ODEW posted its most recent list.
“We have to fix our financial problems and right-size the district before we can expect this community to support us with a new money levy,” Strong wrote.
“We currently have enough money, now it must be used better and not wasted on unnecessary positions. The district must learn to live within our means and be good stewards of the tax dollars entrusted to us by the voters of Mansfield.
“We have to learn to think differently. We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done,” he added.
