Staff pay ate up 77 percent of Youngstown budget, yet the district received failing grades

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Do smart parents reward their children when they bring home failing grades?
Of course not.

But the Youngstown City School District has been rewarding its staff with raises and generous benefits, despite the district’s dismal report card from the state.

Youngstown teachers obviously have a generous union contract, based on the amount of money the school pays for their health insurance, automatic annual raises, and their current two percent general raise, which totaled nearly $8 million in 2012-13.

School administrators also obviously do well, considering that the 10 highest paid employees earned nearly $1 million in straight salary in 2012-13.

The entire staff really has nothing to complain about, since total salaries and benefits in 2012-13 came to about $72 million, which equals 77 percent of all school spending for the year.

So what does the school district and its taxpayers get for that type of “investment?”

Failure.

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