Gadfly Bites 6/28/24—Suffering losses

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1. The long-serving treasurer of Girard City Schools in northeast Ohio resigned earlier this month, following release of findings from a state audit. Turns out, dude raked in nearly half a million dollars in compensation in FY 2023 upon the instatement of an overly-generous retire/rehire agreement. The State Auditor’s report called this an “excessive and extravagant use of district resources and behavior a prudent person would not consider reasonable and necessary business practices.” Yikes. District officials and elected board members are scrambling to apologize to the community, make amends, and change their process for approving contracts to make sure such a thing never happens again. Too bad no one listened to Fordham’s school funding guru Aaron Churchill way back in December of 2023 when he told the Tribune-Chronicle in response to the contract that giving the treasurer a 2.5 percent cut of any grants he brought into the district “seems like a lot of money.” He told the paper that “If the school districts are receiving more money [from those sources], the treasurer shouldn’t take credit for that.” (Vindy.com, 6/28/24)
   
   

2. Luckily for Girard, the district’s finances are “solid and stable” enough to absorb that hit. (I mean, it’s not like they’re going to get any of that money back.) Same goes for tiny West Clermont Local Schools in southwest Ohio. District officials say the $1.7 million financial loss they suffered as a result of what is termed a “social engineering attack” on their accounts payable system “will not lead to the elimination of any programs, student services, or a reduction in staff.” Phew. (WVXU-FM, Cincinnati, 6/25/24)
   
   

3. Staying on topic, the State Board of Education is reportedly facing a budget crunch since the legislature did not complete work on a bill that would have given them millions of additional dollars in operating funds. (This piece indicates the problem is due to a provision in a bill that passed, which is not correct. But let’s not quibble over specifics.) The state supe says the board has a couple of options to get the money he says they need—including via Controlling Board request and/or raising teacher licensure fees. (WVXU-FM, Cincinnati, 6/27/24) The Gongwer version of the story offers at least one more option to close the purported gap: downsizing operations to match the downsized mandate of the board. (Gongwer Ohio, 6/27/24)

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