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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > December > 07 > Entry

Breaking News on school cuts, board member

By selliott | Thursday, December 7, 2006, 03:12 PM

Dayton Public Schools has planned a 4:30 press conference with Montgomery County Treasurer Hugh Quill to announce that the district will receive a multi-million dollar windfall from last month’s sale of delinquent tax liens. This is expected to have an impact on the plan for $9.4 million in cuts the board has planned for January.

Oh, and we have a new board member. And it’s not David Bohardt.

First the cash windfall. We’ll find out in a couple hours exactly how much the district is getting, but I think it’s safe to say it will be less than the $6 million it received last year when Quill’s office sold liens but more than the $2 million school officials hoped get from this year’s sale.

Here’s the deal with the liens. There are hundreds of property owners in the city who are delinquent on their property taxes. The county treasurer in the past has published lists of the worst offenders in hopes of shaming them into paying up. But last year, Quill’s office began making use of a state law that allowed it to sell this bad debt.

This works much like bill collectors who buy old debts from creditors. Companies, usually big banks, bid on the debt and then go after the debtors. Anything they collect they can keep. In the case of liens, the collectors can add a surcharge. The prospect of liens being sold also scares some delinquent property owners into paying their bills, which brings in more money, too. Most local property taxes go directly to schools. So its not an exaggeration to say school districts love Quill for this program.

So what will Dayton do with a few million bucks? Board President Gail Littlejohn said the money will be used to further reduce the number of layoffs and other cuts planned for January. Superintendent Percy Mack and his team have been working for weeks on a way to reduce the number of cuts anyway. So this new money raises the prospect that perhaps the cuts could be significantly reduced when combined with the changes that already were coming.

Littlejohn confirmed that there would be fewer cuts but she could not yet say how much the cuts would be reduced and what programs and positions would be saved.

Now onto the new board member. It is Ronald Jackson, a financial adviser with AXA Advisors and an active parent with two children attending Valarie Elementary School. Jackson will be sworn in on Tuesday.

Littlejohn said there were four strong candidates — Jackson, former mayoral candidate David Bohardt, attorney Drew Fuller and Nancy Nerny, a retired teacher. Any of them would have added helpful perspective to the board, she said.

It sounded like the decision came down to Bohardt and Jackson. Littlejohn said the board liked Jackson best because of his financial background and involvement with his school’s parent group but mostly because of his long term work with youth. She said Jackson puts on programs for youth to teach them about money and investing.

She said Bohardt interviewed well and that the board was impressed by his commitment to strong public schools. She said they considered his political and community connections a plus but ultimately decided Jackson’s skills were a better fit for the board’s needs.

I’ll have more on both these developments certainly in tomorrow’s paper and perhaps on the blog later today if I get a chance.

Also, coming Saturday here at Get on the Bus I’ll be posting some information from Dayton Public Schools that I think will be of high interest to may readers. So check back for a special post on Saturday.

Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools