Correspondent photo / Sean Barron New Youngstown City School District Treasurer Michael A. Rock, left, swears in board member Joseph Meranto to a four-year term on the Youngstown Board of Education during the board’s organizational meeting Tuesday at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School. Also sworn in were reelected board members Tina Cvetkovich as board vice president, and the Rev. Kenneth Donaldson.

YOUNGSTOWN — The top Youngstown City School District official and others met Wednesday via Zoom with Ohio Department of Education and Workforce officials regarding having the Youngstown City School District removed from Academic Distress Commission oversight.

Despite the conversations, however, Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said that the district remains in academic distress after state officials declined to release the district from that designation, saying such a move would have to be the result of state legislation.

Late last month, the East Cleveland district found itself no longer under such oversight — the result of which stemmed from Ohio House Bill 70, adopted in 2015 — Batchelor said during the board of education’s regular meeting Tuesday evening at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.

“Everything we do in this district, whether people want to give us credit or not, has changed over the last three or four years,” he said, noting that the district is in the fourth year of its Academic Improvement Plan.

The three districts under the purview of HB 70 were Youngstown, East Cleveland and Lorain. Youngstown remains the sole district in Ohio under academic distress.

Batchelor has outlined key improvements the district has made in the past few years that pertain to meeting or exceeding 24 benchmarks from the Department of Education that are pivotal to the AIP. Even though he isn’t where he wants the district to be, it continues to see significant progress and key improvements related to “governance and academics,” the superintendent added.

NEW PROPERTY

TAX LAWS

Also during Tuesday’s regular meeting, Treasurer Michael A. Rock gave a presentation that pertained to this year’s changes in the state’s property tax system that had been enacted 50 years ago, which he feels will negatively impact and erode tax revenue for school districts statewide, including Youngstown.

Since 1976, a driving force behind governance of property taxes has been Ohio House Bill 920, which introduced “tax reduction factors” to prevent property tax revenues from automatically increasing with inflation-driven increases in property values.

Among other provisions, HB920 protected property owners from sudden tax hikes when their property values rose during mandatory reappraisals. Regarding schools, the legislation “limited the school tax levies to collect the original dollar amount or original levy tax rate. As property values increase(d), the tax rate is reduced to collect the same amount,” Rock noted.

During his presentation, the new treasurer gave a hypothetical example of a $100,000 home with a $350 tax bill under a 10-mill tax rate. If the home’s value increased to $120,000 with a levy limited to collect the original $350, the new tax rate under HB920 would be 8.33 mills, he explained.

Regarding the Youngstown City Schools, the effective millage rate is 39.08, well above Ohio’s 20-mill floor, which is a law that guarantees the state’s more than 600 school districts receive a minimum of revenue equivalent of 20 mills worth of property taxes for general operating expenses after state-mandated tax-reduction factors are applied.

Regarding the 20-mill floor, before last year, HB920 “could not reduce the total tax rate for the district below 20 mills.” After this year, though, HB920 can do so, Rock said.

Recent significant 20% to 30% increases in property values, however, have moved about 400 of the state’s 600 school districts to the 20-mill floor, he said.

“Value increases that were not fully reduced by HB920 created tax bill increases to taxpayers,” Rock said, adding, “Legislation (has been) created to circumvent the increases in tax bills.”

Despite the Youngstown City Schools having 39.08 in millage, a calculation applicable to state funding shows a $147,000 loss in funding “due to tax reforms interacting with the state funding formula,” Rock said.

In addition, the district likely will face another financial challenge, Rock warned.

“The elimination of emergency levies and renewal /replacement language will put a current revenue stream of $5.3 million at risk for YCSD, as the district will have to select a new levy type and place it on the ballot in 2029 (the year the current emergency levy will expire), with no increase to taxpayers,” Rock said.

He added that the district has not passed a new operating levy since 1988.

Also at Tuesday’s session, Batchelor asked the board to table a vote on a resolution city council approved last week that would support a 100%, 15-year tax abatement for 22 Market Street Ohio LLC, a New York-based investment group that bought the former Mahoning Bank building downtown and is spending about $18 million to redevelop the 13-story structure into a mixed-use space for apartments as well as commercial and retail office space.

Rock added that more information needs to be gleaned about the proposal before a vote is rendered, though a final decision pertaining to a 100% abatement is in the school board’s hands.

Preceding the regular board meeting was an organizational session in which three board members who were re-elected in November were formally sworn in for their next four-year terms. Those sworn in were the Rev. Kenneth Donaldson, Joseph Meranto and Tina Cvetkovich as board vice president.

AKIVA ACADEMY

Also Wednesday, Trumbull County commissioners approved annexing 1.193 acres on Gypsy Lane in Liberty to Youngstown, which will allow Akiva Academy to have its new four-classroom private middle school for students in grades five to eight in the Youngstown City School District.

The school, which is expected to have about 65 students, will sit on land that Allen Mirkin of Allen’s Pharmacy donated in 2025 after the business closed.

The new middle school is across the street from the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, which is on the city’s North Side. Gypsy Lane divides Mahoning and Trumbull counties.