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Trimble residents want more information from their superintendent and school board as more positions are cut
By: Theo Peck-Suzuki | Report for America
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GLOUSTER, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — It became apparent at Thursday’s board meeting that residents of Trimble Local Schools do not want to sit idly by as their district is stripped to the bone.
“We have one of the greatest communities around, and we’re not selling ourselves,” said parent Mark Brunton. “Let’s be leaders, not just trying to scrap and crawl and ‘Woe is me.’”
Brunton was one of several attendees who said they wanted to help the district navigate its deficit of almost $3 million. Others interrogated Superintendent John Hurd and board President Gary Arnold about what might be affected amid ongoing cuts.
The board spent a lively two hours answering questions before entering a lengthy executive session, after which it voted unanimously to cut 12 educational aides and one wellness coordinator.
A handful of attendees asked if they could raise money for things like extracurriculars. Brunton called on the district to seek solutions more proactively.
“Some districts — I know we’re not big enough — have development officers. How is development normally handled within this district?” Brunton asked. After a pause, he added, “Mr. Hurd, maybe you can talk to that a little bit.”
“I was writing down what you were saying,” Hurd replied, to laughs.
Later in the meeting, Brunton brought that moment back up when he called for better communication from the district.
“I ask about development, and the superintendent doesn’t understand what I’m talking about? That’s — I’m sorry, Mr. Hurd, that’s kinda bad,” he said.
Brunton wasn’t the only person to share a criticism of Hurd. Teacher Chrissy Sharp, who has organized a petition to remove Hurd as superintendent, spent 20 minutes describing problems she has observed in his leadership over the past several years.
“If he’s doing what he should be doing, why are we $3 million in the red?” Sharp asked.
Hurd did not answer Sharp’s question directly but later shared financial forecasts from the district, noting that the expense estimates from the previous treasurer had turned out to be far lower than reality.
“There was a discrepancy of salaries and benefits of $844,900. … These were estimated numbers that were provided to us to try to make decisions around this school district of what we should or shouldn’t do. Purchased services was off by $800,000. That’s over an 18-month period. … Capital outlay was off by almost $2 million,” Hurd said. “We felt we were in a healthier financial position than we ever were.”
Trimble officially entered fiscal emergency on April 8, which means a financial planning and supervision commission will soon take control of its finances. Arnold said more cuts will be coming, but it’s too early to know more.
“We will come up with that (list) shortly. It won’t be another month, I can tell you,” he said.
Arnold and Hurd acknowledged the cuts are painful.
“This is a barebone minimum,” said Hurd. “It is not a popular thing to do. We don’t want to do it. But it’s the reality of what we have to do.”
“It’s hard to look at your friends — most of these people, I mean, I’ve lived in this district all my life,” Arnold said. “Do I wanna see anything happen? No. But do you want the doors closed?”
Correction (4/21 1:12 p.m.): A previous version of this article misspelled Mark Brunton’s last name.