Some folks are calling for more transparency at Youngstown City School District meetings.

While teachers are calling to be paid the three percent salary increase they were guaranteed in a new one-year contract they ratified about a month ago.

However, they say the district still has not lived up to its agreement - even after two paychecks.

"We agreed to something, we went back to work like we said we would," President of Youngstown Education Association Eric Teutsch emphasized. "We've done our part give us the pay you agreed to and quit holding it up." 

"Now we have been told that Mr. Batchelor stated we will not get that raise until that final contract has been signed," Theresa Bonder said.
 
But the union has no final agreement to sign.
 
The hold-up is because the contract has not been formatted and completed by the school district's attorneys and a mistake was found in the calculations. 
 
"We want to do things right, and sometimes that may seem like we're grading our feet, but we're not, we're just trying to get it right, so somebody else doesn't have to clean up the mess that we made, but we will get it done," Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said.
 
The school's treasurer explains the district is working with the union to see that the raise is in teachers' next pay hopefully by Dec. 1.
 
"It shouldn't take this long. It's been over a month and that paperwork needs to be taken care of whatever it takes," Youngstown City School Board Member Brenda Kimble said. 
 
A resident and retired auditor for the State of Ohio's Auditor's Office asked why the board is not providing both the financial and informational packets that are distributed to the board members and YCSD administrative staff to the general public in order for the public to be able to understand what is being discussed rather than being kept in the dark.
 
The monthly cash financial activity should be presented at a minimum for both the general fund and all other funds and should reflect the following cash financial activity which includes the beginning monthly cash balance, plus revenues, minus expenditures, and the ending monthly cash balance. Less the encumbrances which are outstanding purchase orders or obligations not paid and the total unencumbered ending monthly cash balance, according to the former auditor.
 
The Youngstown resident called for a voucher packet for expenditures. The packet would contain support documentation of the particular expense including a requisition, purchase order,  packing slip if applicable, board resolution if applicable, vendor's invoice, and a copy of the renumbered issued check for that purchase.
 
He requested that the information be provided to the public attending the meeting and emphasized this would help get folks more interested in what is taking place at the board meetings, instead of being bored and not understanding what is being discussed.
 
This would help provide at a minimum a true and complete summary of Youngstown City School District's cash financial position as of a particular month-end date.
 
During this meeting, the school board voted to correct administrators' salaries. 
 
The base salaries of the administrators and the dollar amount of increases were absent from the agenda - again leaving people in the dark. 
 
We asked the YCSD Treasurer Bryan Schiraldi why the total dollar amounts were not included for transparency.
 
"We are always looking at how we can improve and something like that's definitely something we will look at in the future," YCSD Treasurer Bryan Schrialdi said.