YOUNGSTOWN Webb to lead school district

Wendy Webb will be the district's first black female superintendent.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A standing-room-only crowd broke into cheers and applause Thursday when the board of education voted 5-2 to appoint Wendy Webb superintendent.
The choice had been uncertain because board members were considering a national search.
Webb had emerged as the only internal candidate to meet a list of criteria created by a search consultant.
She will replace Benjamin L. McGee, who will leave at the close of this academic year.
The vote came after several people in the audience asked the board to appoint Webb and forgo the national search and its costs.
Webb said she was humbled by the show of support. Among the group were several administrators and principals, some wearing buttons reading "Wendy Webb for Superintendent."
They hugged after the board's decision.
Webb said her goals are to improve academics at a faster pace and to build relationships among staff, students and the community.
"The very nature of the times we're in, the society we live in today, people are under a lot of stress. We've got to learn to get along," she said. "This is about the children, and anybody who knows me will tell you that's what I'm about."
Newly elected members
The four newly elected board members attended the meeting. They do not take their seats until January; however, they would be involved in ironing out Webb's contract, board president Lock P. Beachum Sr. said.
Votes for Webb came from Beachum, Clarence Boles, John Maluso, Jacqueline Taylor and Tracey Winbush.
Taylor called Webb community-oriented and student-focused.
"This community trusts her," she said. "The community doesn't always trust outsiders."
Winbush said she's comfortable with the decision. She will leave the board in January and said a new board and a superintendent who is new to the district would have been a difficult blend.
National search
Board Vice President Gerri Sullivan and Terri O'Connor-Brown voted against Webb's appointment. Each had said they wanted a national search. Both lost re-election bids earlier this month.
Beachum, who had strongly supported a national search, said he was swayed toward Webb after interviewing her and hearing her willingness to have a curriculum audit. He also said he is impressed with her work with the Urban Congress, contract negotiations, the district's Continuous Improvement Plan and the implementation of a management team that increases executive accountability.
Maluso said his vote came after he was assured that the four newly elected board members would be involved in negotiating Webb's contract.
Webb will be the first black woman to serve in the district's top spot. Irene L. Ward, a white woman, was interim superintendent in the 1970s but was never a full superintendent, according to former board member McCullogh Williams Jr.