YOUNGSTOWN — Bryan Schiraldi, the Youngstown City School District’s treasurer, has announced his resignation to take a new position, effective Aug. 1.

“I saw an opening and knew it was a very good school district, and in the top 20 (in Ohio) academically,” Schiraldi said after Tuesday’s regular board of education meeting at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.

Schiraldi has a three-year contract to serve as treasurer of the Aurora School District, with a starting pay of $142,000 per year. His current salary is $115,000 annually.

The YCSD hired Schiraldi as treasurer in August 2022, and he began his position a month later, having replaced A.J. Ginnetti, who left to serve as treasurer for the Boardman Local School District.

After Tuesday’s session, Schiraldi said he was grateful to be part of the city schools as the district began to assume more autonomy via emerging from state to local board control — and out of the grip of Ohio House Bill 70, which gave a chief executive officer complete control over the district’s academic and financial decisions.

“Everything we did here, I’m proud of,” Schiraldi said.

Much of what he has done during his three-year tenure may not have been headline-grabbing, but it was vital to again ensure local control over the district’s decision-making processes, along with working to be sure day-to-day operations ran smoothly, the treasurer explained.

In addition, Schiraldi is pleased that the district has had clean audits all three years of his tenure. Each year’s management letters sent during the audits have contained fewer notes, he said.

Also, Schiraldi praised the district’s leadership regarding moving forward with the two-prong reconfiguration plan that was announced in May, the first phase of which will be implemented at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

The project will entail merging Chaney and East high schools into a single Youngstown High School that will be in the current East High building, 474 Bennington Ave., on the East Side, as well as Chaney and East middle schools into a Youngstown Middle School that will be in the current East Middle building, 940 Bryn Mawr Ave., also on the East Side.

Operating 14 school buildings in a district with fewer than 5,000 students is impractical, Schiraldi said. He added that the reconfiguration project will best suit the district in the long run.

Schiraldi said that after taking the treasurer’s position in the Aurora School District, he intends to bring his experience, job efficiency and sense of fiscal responsibility while with the Youngstown City Schools to bear on the job.

He also plans to work toward passing a new levy for the Aurora schools after Issue 32 failed in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election. That measure, a 7.57-mill issue, would have brought in about $136.3 million to build a new 27,000-square-foot high school, close an aging elementary school and remodel four of the other five buildings.

Specifically, he may be part of an effort to revise the bond issue, Schiraldi said, adding that one of his top priorities at the new post will be to listen to the community’s needs.

Another factor weighing in his decision to take the job was the belief that it would be beneficial to his family, though he will always be grateful for having served in the Youngstown City Schools, Schiraldi added.

“I will miss it here. I have lived in Mahoning County my whole life,” Schiraldi said, adding, “I wish the district nothing but the best.”

School officials are continuing to interview prospective candidates to fill Schiraldi’s position, board President Juanita Walker said during Tuesday’s meeting.