GIRARD — The Girard Board of Education granted Treasurer Mark Bello a new five-year contract last week that includes a unique percentage-based element incentivizing his ability to bring in grant money for the schools.

In Bello’s previous contracts, between 2022 and 2024, a clause in them stated “1% of all Federal, State, Local revenue of the district shall be paid to the treasurer each year at the treasurer’s discretion.”

As of Dec. 13, Bello said the school district has received $771,658 in grant money, which means he earned an extra $7,716.58, which is added on to his base salary of $110,000.

Records show that Bello received 2.5% of the district’s grant money from 2018 to 2022, but he said he received an extenuation for his role, on a two-year contract, from Sept. 5, 2022, to July 31, 2024, and took a salary reduction. During that time, the percentage of grant money added to his salary became 1%.

When Bello’s contract was renewed last week at Girard’s school board meeting — the last meeting of longtime school board member, president and mayor-elect Mark Zuppo, and the last meeting of the year before new board members are sworn in next month — Bello received a pay raise and that 1% was bumped to 2.5%.

“It’s just something that’s between me and the Board of Education,” Bello said about the way the contract clause was established. “It’s not something that’s required, but it’s based on how much extra money is brought into the schools.”

The new five-year contract takes effect Aug. 1, 2024, and Bello will be paid $112,200 for the 2024-25 year, $114,444 for the 2025-26 year, $116,732 for 2026-27, $119,034 for 2027-28, and $121,414 for the 2028-29 school year.

The approach taken to Bello’s contract by the district’s Board of Education is rare compared with other school districts in the Mahoning Valley. Of the districts this newspaper contacted, which included Liberty, Warren, Boardman, Lakeview, Austintown and Hubbard, none use any type of incentive-based approach in the amount of grant money brought into the school.

“I’ve heard of that before,” Austintown Local Schools District Treasurer Blaise Karlovic said. “But I’ve never seen it in a contract. Within the last 22 years, that hasn’t happened in Austintown — I think it’s rare. It might motivate them to generate more revenue, because it takes time to write grants and apply for those grants, so that could be a reason. Schools are always looking for additional revenue to enhance funding.”

But while it is uncommon, some of the schools saw the approach as trendsetting and, in some ways, cost-saving. Girard’s approach also has its detractors though.

Aaron Churchill of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education reform think tank, said the revenue percentage for Bello “seems like a lot of money.”

Churchill, the Ohio research director, explained that while he understands a school board using benchmarks, cost contingency and return on investment, he added, “If the school districts are receiving more money, the treasurer shouldn’t take credit for that.”

A JOB WELL DONE

Over the course of Bello’s tenure in Girard, Superintendent Bryan O’Hara, who also received a five-year contract renewal at last week’s meeting, defended the 2.5% incentive because of Bello’s work.

“We have been very financially sound here in the Girard district within his (Bello) 26-year tenure,” O’Hara said.

Bello, as the treasurer, is responsible for grant money the school district has receoved, and O’Hara estimated that Bello has been responsible for securing approximately $100 million in grant money.

“It’s probably close to $100 million, and the incentive has only been in the contract for the last two to three years,” O’Hara said.

Bello provided a list of recent grants “from the last couple of years” that included the following grants: K-12 School Safety Grant, Stronger Connections, Supporting Effective Instruction, Student Support and Academic Enrichment, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency, Improving Basic Programs, Special Education and School Bus Purchase.

He said these grants for the district combined amounted to $5,641,998, meaning he received $56,419 throughout the provided years.

COST SAVING

Many other local school districts have grant writer positions, either hired through the state, or brought on as an employee of the district. These positions generally are separate from the treasurer.

Bello explained that his contracts have been set up to bring him extra percentages because he does the “writing of all of the grants.

“Whether it’s applying for grants, budgeting the money, all of the reporting on expenditures, or sending all of these grants and reports to the state, I keep track of all the paper trails.”

As for the amount of money brought in through Bello’s role, he said, “It would take me a while to get the exact number, but I would say $2 million to $3 million per year. I try to do the best I can with what we have, and we just try to keep levies off the taxpayers.”

The Warren City School District is one of the local school districts that employs a person specifically for grant writing. Treasurer Karen Sciortino said they have “someone who is in charge of state and federal programs, who does all of our grant budgets. So it’s an additional position here. There could be additional duties placed upon the treasurer, but I have no idea.”

According to the Buckeye Institute website, which lists two salaries for the position of Executive Director of State and Federal Programs, Christine Bero was paid $119,550 or $116,858 by the district in 2022.

Warren City Schools officials could not be reached for this position’s exact salary.

OTHER DISTRICTS

Sciortino and Superintendent Steve Chiaro have independent contracts with the Warren City School District, but others in the district have union contracts. “So within my contract, and the superintendent’s contract, we have certain incentives for sure,” she said.

As stated in Sciortino’s contract’s compensation language, “Effective August 1, 2022, the Board shall pay the Treasurer a base salary not less than $108,500 per annum, plus any evaluation / performance based incentive, to be remitted in accordance with policy.”

Sciortino also received, and will receive a minimum 2.5% annual increase for the 2023 and 2024 school years. And each year for the 2025 and 2026 school years, she will see a minimum 1.5% increase. However, the treasurer said the district does not have the same system as Girard.

Boardman Local School District Treasurer Arthur Ginnetti said he does not have such clauses in his contract, but he wouldn’t deny them if he had the opportunity.

Ginnetti said he understands the incentive, as long as the individual is hired to manage specific grants, or if it’s a duty that could be picked up by an administrator.

“I believe they should be compensated,” Ginnetti said. “It’s also probably cheaper than hiring another position. But each district is different.”

Liberty Local School District Superintendent Andy Tommelleo said “none of us,” has a similar contract to Bello’s. “I think any incentive is to try to get the most out of people. Maybe to get stuff to go that extra mile.”

When told that other school districts don’t follow the same practices as Girard, Bello said he found it “hard to believe.”

The Lakeview Local School District does not have any contract similar to Bello’s, according to Treasurer Sean Miller.

“In my experience, we’ve just kind of stuck with the boilerplate contract,” Miller said about the extra money. “Although, in other places, they do those things frequently. But our contracts are all almost identical, except for, of course, the type of work we’re doing.”