Joseph Steger, retired president of the University of Cincinnati, said Tuesday that he had his first informal meeting with Mayor Charlie Luken on Monday.

Luken asked him to head the Budget Task Force on Cincinnati Public Schools last month after receiving a letter from school Superintendent Alton Frailey, asking for his help with what Frailey called the district's financial crisis.

Luken and Steger haven't established a timeline or procedures, but Steger said the commission's work could take eight months to a year.

The work might require as many as 25 people, including commission members and people from different financial and business sectors helping with the examination, Steger said.

"We're going to be getting help," he said. "Some of the organizations in town are going to have to loan us people," such as auditors and financial experts.

Luken and Frailey said the commission is necessary to help the 38,800-student school district find ways to operate more efficiently and stay within budget while also improving academic achievement.

The announcement came just two weeks after school officials acknowledged overspending the district's $436.4 million 2003-04 budget by almost $22 million. The district tapped into reserves to pay for the overruns.

School board members on Monday passed the district's 2004-05 budget. Despite declining enrollment, the $469.4 million budget was $11.3 million more than the district spent last year.

Steger said he plans to look at all areas of the district's finances, including the budget and CPS' $1 billion, 10-year school construction project, to see if the building plan and budgetary spending coincide with the district's declining enrollment.

He said he will give frequent reports to the public but might want to have some off-the-record discussions with commission members. Steger said he couldn't be specific because the details haven't been worked out and Luken left town Tuesday for a week.

Steger said he won't decide who will serve on the commission until Luken returns.

A year might be too long to wait for the financial report, said school board member Catherine Ingram, who added that she welcomes the expertise.

"If the renewal levy doesn't pass, that changes the picture of what we're working with completely and the expediency with which we have to work," she said.

The district placed a $65 million, five-year levy renewal on the November ballot. The issue won't raise taxes. Owners of a $100,000 home pay $299 a year for the levy. If it doesn't pass, officials say they must cut $32.5 million from the 2005-06 budget and $65 million annually after that.

Ingram, who chairs the school board's finances committee, said Luken and Steger have not contacted her. Most of the seven board members were surprised when Frailey and Luken announced the formation of the commission last month.

She said she hopes the commission considers not just spending, but how spending affects academic achievement.

Steger said Luken's request to have him head the commission "came out of the blue," but he agreed, in part, because he has a history and expertise in education.

"I think that if we have the expertise at the university and in the business community that we can throw at it, then we can help the system," he said.

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