YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT Board to study criteria for chief

Expect to pay the new leader at least $125,000, the consultant said.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city schools are seeking in their new superintendent a strong, courageous, knowledgeable and visionary leader who collaborates well with others and has experience in urban educational leadership.
These were some of the criteria presented to the board Tuesday by Marvin Edwards, a consultant with Hazard, Young, Attea & amp; Associates Ltd. of Glenview, Ill.
Although board members took no formal vote on the criteria, they told Edwards they were satisfied with what they saw on a summary sheet he presented.
Edwards is helping the board find a new superintendent to replace Benjamin McGee, who will retire next summer. Edwards told board members they should be prepared to pay the new superintendent at least $125,000 a year. The board will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the search.
The summary sheet says the new superintendent should set high performance standards for administrators, staff and students, establish student-centered priorities and improve educational quality even as funding declines, effectively manage new school construction and work well with labor unions.
The new superintendent must be a fair and honest person and an effective communicator with a good understanding of Ohio public school laws and finances, according to the summary, which will become the basis for advertisements for a new superintendent.
Edwards said he derived the profile presented in the summary from interviews with about 60 local people, including union leaders, faculty, administrators, parents and school board and community members.
Search schedule
Edwards also presented a tentative schedule for the superintendent search, which calls for advertising the job in October and receiving and analyzing applications in November and December.
In January, the consultants would interview 12 to 15 of the best applicants, of whom they would present six semifinalists for the board to interview. The board members would decide on three finalists in late January and interview them again in early February.
Then, they would pick a front-runner and possibly visit the community in which the front-runner is currently employed to learn more about their choice.
A contract would be offered and negotiations held with the front-runner in mid-February, with the board announcing the new superintendent in late February or early March, Edwards said. "It's a strong advantage to the district to know your new superintendent early," he said.
The board also heard from state Sen. C.J. Prentiss of Cleveland, D-21st, who announced that the district would receive $259,751 in state funds this school year to increase its high school graduation rate above last year's 52.4 percent. Last year, the average for similar urban districts was 61.5 percent and the state average was 83.9 percent, she said.
In the program, designed to help this year's freshmen, the city schools will receive $144,652 for continuing education for teachers and $115,099 for after-school, Saturday or in-school tutoring to help students pass the state's new graduation test.
Sen. Prentiss is the Ohio Senate minority whip, ranking member of the Senate Education Committee, and a member of the governor's commission on school finance, which will report later this year how much money needs to be spent to give each child an adequate education.
She urged the board to report to her by Oct. 30 on whether it has adequate funds to provide proper remediation to all students who are academically deficient.
"You either pay now or you pay later. Either pay now in terms of helping these schools make sure all kids succeed, or you pay when it comes to prisons,'' welfare, health care or teenage pregnancy, said the senator.
"Let's put money where our mouths are for those ninth- and 10th-graders who are going to be there at the cutting edge in 2007 to take this graduation test,'' she told the board.