22-03-2025
Ashtabula schools getting reimbursed for snowstorm
ASHTABULA — Ashtabula Area City School District Treasurer Mark Astorino said at a Wednesday meeting the district will be reimbursed around $258,000 for expenses from the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm.
The state asked the district to pick its costliest days for reimbursement, he said.
Astorino said the district's reimbursement is around 75% for the week of the snowstorm, not for the whole winter.
'Our total snow removal cost, with all the roof snow removal, the parking lots, all the heavy equipment to move snow, the extra salt and all the maintenance over time was in the mid-$400,000 range,' he said.
Astorino is looking into how the reimbursement will affect the district, he said.
'We're working on an updated forecast, so we know where we'll finish the year at,' he said.
Astorino's forecast will also analyze how potential state cuts to public education could affect the district, he said.
Also at the meeting, the board approved an expenditure reduction plan.
Superintendent Lisa Newsome said she and district administrators were looking at changes to enrollment, possible state-wide public education cuts and where the district could cut.
'Right now, it's at $2.1 million,' she said.
Newsome said she does not want to be in the 'caution area' next year before the state finishes its budget.
'That's all I can cut right now,' she said. 'I'm not going to cut anymore until we get that budget.'
Board President Scott Yopp said people have been shielded from how cuts could affect them.
'We are now to the point where you're going to see it impact things,' he said.
The board approved bringing in Auburn Environmental to do an environmental study of Lakeside High School and GPRS to study the building's envelope. The high school's roof collapsed during the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm.
Board member and legislative liaison Laura Jones said she and Newsome went to Columbus Tuesday to testify to the Ohio State Senate in favor of House Bill 43.
The bill was reported by senate committee and is going to the senate floor.
Sponsored by Ohio State Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur and David Thomas, HB 43 would provide flexibility for graduation requirements, and waive not more than 24 of the required minimum number of hours a school building must be open with students in attendance.
Lakeside High School Principal Doug Wetherholt said at a board work session his students have been resilient.
'Our goal is to bring down discipline by about 15% from last year to this year,' he said. 'We've done a pretty good job. If you look at our suspensions, we went from 277 to 211.'
Cell phone use in school is common, Wetherholt said.
'We tripled the amount of discipline we're doing with cell phones, just to try to get them off of that,' he said.
Wetherholt said there have been more in-school suspensions that out-of-school suspensions.
'The major infractions have come down and we're addressing minor infractions,' he said. 'That's really where you want to live ... because kids are meant to make mistakes. They're going to make mistakes, and they just need to learn consequences.'
The high school's staff have been resilient, too, Wetherholt said.
The board voted to give district teachers a 2% raise over the next two years. Newsome said the teachers deserve the raise, because they put in extra work after the high school roof collapse.
'I wish I could give them more,' she said. 'With everything going on, they are working beyond their eight hours and beyond their 185 days.'
Astorino's office received an award from the Ohio State Auditor's Office, he said.
'They were just starting that audit when the roof issue happened,' he said.
