YOUNGSTOWN – Ohio’s three school districts, including Youngstown, which are under state control due to several years of poor grades on state credentials, are now getting their long-awaited chance to return under local control.
Some local critics of the state academic oversight have been waiting for the opportunity and are now saying that all parties – the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission, the chief executive officer of municipal schools, Justin Jennings, and the elected education committee – must sit around the table to find a workable way out .
Jennings, meanwhile, says he would welcome the opportunity to remain as the district superintendent should the school board choose that option, as envisaged by new state law.
Youngstown, East Cleveland and Lorain may move away from state control because Governor Mike DeWine approved a two-year state budget that includes steps these counties can take to emerge from oversight by emergency academic commissions.
But the way to local control is neither quick nor easy, as the school authorities in the three municipalities have to meet special requirements. Districts must develop and implement three-year academic improvement plans and have them approved by the state superintendent.
Districts have until June 30, 2022 to develop these plans, according to John Richard, chairman of the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission. Richard is also the Assistant State Superintendent of Public Education in Ohio. The board chairs of the school districts and the commissions remain in place until the plans are approved.
THE PROCESS
∫ Once the three-year academic improvement plans are approved, the ADCs will continue to exist to support the districts – but they will give up operational and management control. However, during the transition period, school boards may decide to hire their commissioned CEOs as district superintendents while they implement their academic improvement plans.
∫ If they hire the CEO as superintendent, the state will continue to pay compensation under the terms of the CEO’s contract until the district is either returned to its commission or its ADC is dissolved.
∫ Districts that fail to successfully achieve the goals of their improvement plans are reassigned to the commissions that CEOs select to lead.
∫ The state auditor must perform a performance audit at least once during the implementation of the three-year improvement plans.
∫ Once the districts meet most of the plan’s benchmarks, the ADCs will be disbanded.
WANT TO STAY
CEO Jennings last week reiterated his interest in staying in the district but in the role of superintendent.
Joe Meranto, the last superintendent of Youngstown County, retired in June.
“I’ve tried to work closely with the school board and involve them in the decision-making process,” Jennings said. “I will continue to work with them until my time is up.”
Whether he stays with the district while the academic improvement plan is implemented is up to the board of directors, Jennings noted.
Board of Directors President Ronald Shadd said he was not clear about the future of the CEO after 2022.
“The board needs to understand the language of the legislation more clearly,” Shadd said. “It appears that the CEO position in the district could play a role beyond June 2022. The Ohio Auditor’s performance review may indicate changes in our governance structure that we may not be able to predict prior to the completion of the review. ”
At least one board member, Jackie Adair, continues to be critical of Jennings and unsure whether he should remain as superintendent for, in her opinion, the policies of his predecessor, former CEO Krish Mohip, to keep the district in the academic Need.
“We need a positive change agent with an aggressive plan to move Youngstown city school kids from the worst academic in the state to at least somewhere in the middle within three, not five years,” Adair said. “Not another five-year plan that has gone nowhere.”
At the schools in East Cleveland and Lorain, CEO Henry Pettiegrew II and CEO Jeff Graham have already been named superintendents in their districts by their education authorities.
COLLABORATION?
Youngstown ADC Chairman Richard said that if the focus remains on what is best for Youngstown school children, the commission, CEO and board can work together successfully.
“From the ADC side, it is best for us to work with the board and Mr. Jennings,” he said. “The main problem is trust between the school board and Mr. Jennings. We advise you in finding common ground. We should all work in the best interests of children, not adults. “
Community activist Kenneth Simon emphasized that the future of the district should not depend solely on the members of the school board.
“We are all stakeholders,” said Simon. “We have to make sure that all parties are seated at the table – the ADC, the CEO and the board of directors.”
Simon, who was an ADC member from 2014 to 2015, served prior to the passage of House Bill 70, called the Youngstown Plan, which brought in a CEO, Mohip. Simon was replaced on the commission when it was reconfigured.
The district was subordinated to an academic emergency commission for the first time in 2010. Five years later, HB 70 was approved and the CEO model established.
School board member Brenda Kimble described the ADC at the time as working with the board of directors to provide advice and guidance to move educational programs forward. At that time, the board of directors could send two people to the commission. These members can be anyone who lives in the community.
The commission format was later changed so that the board can only provide one ADC member and that person has to be an employee of the school district.
Simon agreed that Jennings and the board must work together to develop and implement a unified plan.
He believes the ADC in Youngstown was doomed from the start because the units – board of directors, CEO, and ADC – did not work together to achieve the same goals.
“Other districts have had some success with the CEO, board and ADC working together,” he said. “Our board of directors was ignored by the CEO and the ADC. All parties must be united without an agenda other than the children. ”
Simon, a senior pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, is a leader in the Community Leadership Coalition on Education, which campaigns for the eradication of HB 70 and promotes local control of the school district. He describes the takeover as a failure and states that there have been no significant improvements in state certificate grades over the past six years.
He is encouraged that the Board was invited to a joint meeting with the Commission last month.
BE INCLUDED
Youngstown residents can influence the future of the district by making sure they pick the best candidates for the three available seats on the Education Committee at the next election, Simon said.
“We want people whose interests are geared towards making this part of the city the best part of the city for the children,” said Simon. “Residents must stay involved after the election by attending board meetings and ensuring that members are accountable for their actions.”
Parents and local residents can also help by getting involved in their local schools in any way they can, he noted.
Jimma McWilson, founder of the African Education Party, said he was pleased that a pathway to local scrutiny was in place, but stressed that the district received bad marks for years before the state adopted the ADC and the CEO model was established.
McWilson works with a State Board of Education task force that studies best academic practices for raising black children.
“I believe in local control when they get results,” said McWilson. “Parents and students generally do the right thing. It is the system that is broken and not fixed. It is designed to be unequal for black children. “
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