Friday morning the Mansfield City Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a proposal to go into fiscal emergency. Once the plan is accepted by the state of Ohio, local control of the schools will be handed over to a state appointed commission early next school year.
It is expected to take about three months to certify the request. Once in fiscal emergency the district will have access to funding in the form of loans that will help the district to continue to meet financial obligations. This funding would come from the School District Solvency Fund.
This course of action follows the rejection of the district’s fiscal recovery plan by the Auditor of State. Mansfield City Schools has a 4.5 million dollar deficit and the contractual and other obligations made it impossible to cut enough from the budget to reach a plan that would be accepted by the state.
Additionally the board moved to enter mid-term bargaining due to exigent circumstances.
Jen Lepard, Mansfield School Employees Association (MSEA) President, prepared this statement: “Today is a sad day for the Mansfield City Schools, the employees who work here, and the community that supports us. Today the Board of Education voted to go into fiscal emergency, instead of submitting a fiscal recovery plan and asked the MSEA to enter negotiations early for both certified and support staff. Why, you ask? Due to years of a lack of institutional control of spending.”
It is important to note that the district did submit a fiscal recovery plan, but it was rejected by the Auditor of State. Also, entering early negotiations will ensure that these negotiations are conducted by the elected school board and MSEA before the state appointed commission comes into power. Early negotiations will allow one last opportunity for local decision making before the state takeover. Both employee unions’ contracts will expire this summer, thus negotiation was already imminent.
District Superintendent Brian Garverick was troubled by the announcement, “It’s a tough day,” he said. “At this point this is the best thing we can do given the circumstances that are outside of our control,” he continued, “ With decreased tax revenue, delinquent taxes, decreased state funding…We’re grateful to the community for supporting us in the levy, not only ours, but the entire ballot of levies. It spoke to our community and we’re very grateful for that.”
A typical fiscal emergency lasts about four years, but Garverick doesn’t want people to lose heart, “We’re up for the battle, we’re here for the long haul and we’re here for our kids and our families.”
“This is happening all across Ohio, I think our government needs to look at how we fund schools. I’m all about accountability, I’m for that in terms of student achievement and spending… It seems like in school districts all we get done is trying to pass a levy instead of working on the work,” said Garverick.
Sixteen years ago in the landmark case DeRolph versus State of Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the funding structure for Ohio schools to be unconstitutional. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeRolph_v._State. In the intervening years the Ohio legislature has failed to respond to the court decision by legislating an alternate funding structure. Thus, schools remain funded through property taxes with small appropriations from the state.
Garverick ended with this call to action, “I’d like to encourage you to visit our schools, see what really happens in our classrooms. There isn’t a harder working group of professionals than these teachers.”
From Mansfield City Schools Board of Education statement: Today the Board of Education voted to go into fiscal emergency, instead of submitting a fiscal recovery plan and asked the MSEA to enter negotiations early for both certified and support staff.
