YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown City School District Treasurer Bryan Schiraldi said the district would have to increase enrollment by roughly 1,700 students next year to make up for the expected loss in revenue under Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed biennial budget.

DeWine’s budget seeks to cut more than $103 million from the funding for the state’s 611 public school districts.

According to the Statehouse News Bureau, an analysis by the Legislative Service Commission shows that more than half of Ohio districts would lose funding under the budget plan. Charter schools and voucher programs would see an increase of nearly half a billion dollars.

Schiraldi told the Youngstown Board of Education at Tuesday’s regular meeting that Youngstown would stand to lose more than $2 million.

He said the state’s funding formula would put many public districts like Youngstown at a disadvantage by weighing property values differently without increasing base cost input, and making the districts look wealthier than they really are. That calculus will reduce the amount of state funding the district receives.

“Without increasing the base cost input, it just skews the data and how the formula works,” he said.

Schiraldi said the current funding formula puts guarantees in place that keep public school districts from dropping below a certain amount of state funding, based largely on enrollment. For Youngstown, he said, the formula does not allow the district to receive less funding than it did in 2020 even if it loses some students. That amount was roughly $52 million.

The proposed budget would remove much of that guaranteed amount, Schiraldi said.

When districts like Youngstown, with lower property values — and corresponding lower tax revenue for schools — lose that state funding, they are left with few options.

“Generating revenue for a school district is not an easy task,” he said. “It usually involves going to your residents (in the form of tax levies) to ask for financial support.”

Increasing enrollment and increasing property tax revenues are the two other primary means of increasing revenue, but are usually difficult, if not prohibitive, to accomplish. Increasing Youngstown’s enrollment by the amount necessary to counter the loss in the proposed budget would be all but theoretically impossible.

Schiraldi said that while the district saw a slight uptick in tax revenue because of countywide property revaluations completed by the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office last year, the amount was not significant.

Board member Joe Meranto said he is losing patience with the governor and legislature.

“So we’re supposed to turn in a five-year forecast based on money we don’t even know if we’re going to have?” Meranto asked.

Schiraldi said that is indeed the case. The forecast is due for submission to the Ohio Department of Education in May.

“Someone needs to hold them accountable in Columbus, I’m tired of this,” Meranto said.

Meranto proposed that the district host an open forum with the state legislators who serve Youngstown, and allow officials and residents to ask them about their positions on the budget proposal.

Schiraldi encouraged similar interaction with state representatives and senators.

“I would say just keep reaching out to them. Talk to your legislators, and let them know how this will affect our community, our schools and our students,” he said.

Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, is the representative for the city in the Ohio General Assembly, and Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, is the district’s state senator.