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AUSTINTOWN -- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Austintown Local Schools a $191,000 Recycling and Litter Prevention Grant.
The school district will use the money next summer to resurface athletic fields with material from recycled tires, amid other capital improvements underway.
Officials say it's the latest in a series of fiscal moves they believe will help the district thrive.
"Overall, the district has done a great job," said Athletic Director Russell Houser, who joined Austintown in 2021.
"I walked into a good situation where they've saved a lot of money to be able to put toward the bleachers and these other improvements. It just shows that the board is committed to having first-class facilities for students and the community, and it's something that we as a community can take pride in."
The new bleachers are ready for the upcoming football season.
Next year, Austintown will add new restrooms, locker rooms and equipment storage underneath them, as well as an elevator to make the facility more accessible to those with disabilities.
The bleachers cost $2.4 million, and the overall improvements will cost $15 million. While the project is a major expenditure, Treasurer Blaise Karlovic said it was necessary and Austintown has managed the costs responsibly.
Karlovic said the district has saved roughly $3 million by scaling back on fixtures and material costs, and the facilities will serve the district for many years to come.
"The bleachers were at the point of not passing inspection," Karlovic said. "So, we were going to have to pump in over $1 million to get them up to code and get maybe another 10 years out of them, or we could put in a 40-year solution."
The EPA grant will help Austintown resurface the entire track, including the high jump area, as well as the runways for the pole vault and long-jump events.
"That covers half the cost of a 15-year track surface, that now we don't have to worry about," Karlovic said. "Any time we can go after grants to support infrastructure, that positively affects other financial factors."
COMPETITIVE GRANTS
Over the past year-and-a-half, Austintown has secured more than $900,000 from eight separate competitive grants, including a $400,000 Ohio K-12 School Safety and Security grant and a $122,000 Ohio Pre-K Stabilization grant as well as the Ohio EPA grant.
Grants coordinator Janet Polish said the funding has covered everything from reading programs and attendance coordinators to security systems and HVAC upgrades.
Grants are just one ingredient in Austintown's recipe for financial success. Karlovic said paying attention to market factors has yielded great benefits. The district earned more than $800,000 in income last year through the interest on securities investments permitted by the Ohio Revised Code.
"We don't have a lot of revenue sources," Karlovic said. "We get property tax revenue and state foundation funds and that's it. So being able to leverage those funds into investment earnings for the district has been really big here the past few years."
Karlovic said the district also studies its costs closely and looks for every opportunity to capitalize on savings.
"It's easy to look at the big-ticket items like salaries and benefits," he said. "But we're constantly looking at other items like our workers compensation policies, and asking what we can do to lower those kinds of ancillary and indirect costs."
Karlovic said Austintown has saved about $240,000 by educating staff on how to prioritize district resources over workers compensation. The district also assesses utility and insurance contracts on an annual basis.
Karlovic said Austintown has saved $75,000 to $100,000 on utilities over the past five years, and another $25,000 to $50,000 on its property and fleet liability policies.
"We look at those rates and what's included in those rates, which is something other districts may struggle to understand. We make sure that we're well educated so we can make the best decisions."