City schools continue to seek reprieve on debt

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board isn’t giving up on its efforts to persuade Ohio to forgive all or part of the remaining debt it has incurred.

The board sent a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland a year ago that outlines the district’s difficulties in dealing with what began as a $15 million general-fund deficit in fiscal 2007.

At the time of the letter, the school district had borrowed $25.4 million from the state to cover that original deficit and an additional $10,380,000 in red ink in fiscal 2008. Payback of those funds had started, and Youngstown still owed the state $18 million.

The district has since reduced that debt to $5.2 million but had to borrow an additional $3 million in solvency funds to close out fiscal 2009, bringing the debt back up to $8.2 million.

Read the full story in Monday’s Vindicator and on vindy.com