News
A tumultuous Trimble board meeting ends with a surprise vote and a daunting projection
By: Theo Peck-Suzuki | Report for America
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GLOUSTER, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — In an unexpected twist, the Trimble Board of Education voted 3-1 not to cut additional teaching positions at its meeting Thursday evening.
The reduction in force would have eliminated an elementary preschool teacher and a kindergarten teacher, among others.
“I think it’s going to be too much, especially on the kindergarten,” said board member Kayla Simons.
It would have been the latest in a long list of cuts aimed to stabilize Trimble’s finances as the district navigates a fiscal emergency that grows more daunting by the month.
Gary Arnold was the lone member on the board, which was down one member following Dave Owen’s resignation this month, to vote in favor of the cuts.
The board did approve a separate reduction in force to eliminate three non-teaching positions, including a custodian, a cook and a bus driver. Had the board also approved the reduction in teaching staff, it would have left Trimble with just two kindergarten teachers, each overseeing an estimated 26 kids.
“We have more and more and more children with huge emotional needs, social needs, bathroom needs,” said kindergarten teacher Sher Heightland, whose position was up for elimination.
Eighth Grade Intervention Specialist Julie Gillem said she was worried cutting Heightland’s position would cause lasting problems for those students.
Reading experts say kindergarten is a critical time to reach kids who need assistance. It only takes about 15 to 30 minutes of intervention a week on average to get a kindergartener back on track with reading. That number triples in first grade and the time keeps getting longer after that.
Ultimately, the board decided not to cut Heightland and the other teachers’ positions. For now, Trimble still has three kindergarten teachers, but the situation is far from settled.
On May 28, per the rules of fiscal emergency, a state commission will take over Trimble’s finances. That commission will do whatever it deems necessary to make Trimble financially solvent again. It is too early to say what that will be.
However, the five-year forecast revealed Thursday suggests the district is facing a deficit of $11 million by 2029.
That’s an enormous number, and it left the audience noticeably shaken.
“So I guess the question is … what do we do?” one audience member asked. “We can’t sustain this. We can’t cut more.”
“Why are we even cutting people if it doesn’t matter?” another interjected.
“We’re going to have literally no specials, no counselors, no nothing. We’re not going to have a district,” someone said.
Finally, treasurer Ashley Miller said, “I know FY ‘29 looks disastrous and bleak, but if we try to focus on what we can do right now, for the survival of the school, that’s probably the best thing that we can do.”
Miller based her projections on a modest 9% increase in health insurance costs to arrive at her $11 million figure. If those costs rise faster, the deficit will increase.
Federal Hocking, which gets its health insurance through the same consortium as Trimble, has said its health insurance cost rose 40% in the last two years.
Miller said the state told her the best way the community could help Trimble would be to pass a levy. Her comment drew murmurs of discontent from the audience. Miller said that by her calculations, a new levy wouldn’t raise nearly enough money, anyway.
Trimble resident Mark Brunton said he had gone line by line through the district’s previous audits. He said both the 2022 and 2023 audits warned Trimble would soon face financial trouble because of its large graduating class in 2024. State funding for school districts is based in large part on how many students they have.
“Yet I don’t know what we’ve done to develop and increase enrollment, knowing that was coming down,” Brunton said. “What I have seen, and I have a lot of documents here — spin, spin, spin, spin, spin.”
At the April board meeting, Brunton asked superintendent John Hurd what kind of development work Trimble was doing. Hurd did not appear to understand the question. This time, Brunton was explicit in his criticism of Hurd’s leadership.
“I’ve talked to other superintendents in the area, and they were planning for this,” Brunton said. “I think it comes down to fiscal mismanagement.”
Brunton said that includes awarding no-bid contracts, some for as much as $1.7 million.
Bunton concluded by asking Hurd to step aside.
“And if you don’t, I implore the board to give a 15-day letter, if that’s what it takes. We cannot fire with cause until we have a full board. I think there’s plenty of cause,” Brunton said.
Hurd said in April the district overspent because of wildly inaccurate financial projections it received from its previous treasurer. He did not respond to Brunton’s allegations at Thursday’s meeting.
It also emerged at the board meeting that a $1 million charitable donation for new athletic facilities does not appear to be listed in the district’s financial records. Hurd insisted the checks had been given to the treasurer, but Miller could not find any record of them.
At that, Brunton spoke up again. “When I’ve looked at the audits, and I’m looking at the gifts and donations, one year it says like $13,000, says $14,000 — we all know that a lot more money is being run to this district, and it’s not in the gifts and donations line item, so”—
“Where is it?” another audience member chimed in.
With only four members, the Trimble school board now has a vacancy. Those living in the district are invited to apply by emailing the superintendent by 5:00 p.m. Thursday. The school board will hold a special meeting that evening.