Sunday, July 20, 2003
Four groundbreakings are set for September.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city school board awarded a contract to the Youngstown Area Urban League for monitoring of minority, female and school district resident hiring in the district's $182.5 million, six-year schools construction and renovation project.
The one-year contract approved Thursday calls for the district to compensate the league at $27 per hour for the work of league-appointed construction site monitors up to a maximum of $46,904. The monitors are to visit construction sites daily and make observations concerning the participation of minorities, women and school district residents on the job.
The agreement between the board and the league calls for 20 percent minority, 20 percent female and 50 percent district resident participation in total hours worked on the job.
Discrimination concern
The board's vote was 6-1 in favor of the contract with Terri O'Connor-Brown dissenting. "I think it is discrimination. You're discriminating against the white construction people," said O'Connor-Brown, adding that she was concerned about the legality and enforceability of the agreement. "This creates a lot of racial barriers and bad feeling," she said.
"Our attorney approved everything as far as the monitoring contract and our goals," said Board President Lock P. Beachum Sr., referring to Atty. Mike Sharb of the Cleveland law firm of Squire, Sanders and Dempsey. However, Beachum said he can't rule out a legal challenge to the agreement.
Local leaders of the Urban League and NAACP had come before the school board in April 2001 asking the board to keep its promise to make 20 percent minority and 20 percent female hiring its goals.
The project has now begun in earnest; the board learned Thursday that earth moving began last week for the new Harding Elementary School and will begin next week for the new Taft Elementary School. The former Harding and Taft schools were demolished last year on the same sites.
Breaking ground in September
Steven Ludwinski, project manager with Heery International of Youngstown, announced that four groundbreakings will occur in September for the new East High, East Middle, and West Elementary schools and for the expansion at Chaney High School.
The board heard a presentation by Rebecca A. Tennant, interior designer for Hanahan Strollo & amp; Associates architects of Youngstown, concerning the new West Elementary School to be built at Schenley Park. She said the dominant colors in the corridors will be light yellow and peach. Musical notes will be incorporated into the music room carpet and paint brushes into the art room's vinyl tile floor, she said. The cafeteria will also have a vinyl tile floor.
In other action, the board approved an agreement to rent Youngstown State University's Stambaugh Stadium for seven high school football games this fall at $2,500 per game.