Mansfield BOE president: District won’t cut Spanish Immersion school

MANSFIELD — There was standing room only at the Lowell T. Smith board room Monday night.

While school board members spent more than 190 minutes in executive session, parents and community members waited. The room echoed with chatter. Two women sat to knit. Another brought a package of cookies from the grocery store to share. A young boy hid behind the podium, hunched over a video game console.

More than 40 parents, educators and community members attended Monday’s Mansfield City School board meeting, spurred by rumors that Mansfield Spanish Immersion was slated for closure or relocation.

More than a dozen stayed until the meeting ended.

“Spanish Immersion parents, I don’t know where you got the information, but Spanish Immersion is not on the list to be cut,” board president Chris Elswick said at the end of the meeting. “We’re not talking about Spanish Immersion at all.”

The school, which relocated to the Woodland Elementary building this year, provides dual language instruction for grades kindergarten through 8th grade. It received a 5-star rating on the most recent round of Ohio School Report Cards.

Board members spent three hours in executive session, no vote on deficit reduction plan

Monday’s board meeting began with a vote to accept the agenda with a last-minute addendum that would have allowed board members to vote on a deficit reduction plan to submit to the state.

But after three hours in executive session, board members left without a plan to eliminate its $3.9 million operating deficit.

The board voted to enter executive session for two reasons:

• To consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of a public employee or official
• To prepare for, conduct or review a collective bargaining strategy

Board members spent more than 190 minutes in a closed-door meeting.

According to Elswick, the district must submit a deficit reduction plan to the state by Feb. 18. He said the board is working to merge recommendations from district administrators, the Mansfield School Employees Association and RedWin Educational Consultants, a firm run by former Mansfield Supt. Dan Freund, into that plan.

Elswick said the board will meet for another work session on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. He couldn’t say whether or not the board would vote on a plan then.

“I expected (a vote) today but this where we’re at,” he said. “We have three different pieces we’re trying to put together and there’s some disagreement on that.”