TRUMBULL COUNTY Petition calls for ouster of city school board

Other petitions are critical of staff reductions the board approved.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NEWTON FALLS -- Petitions are being circulated that call for the ouster of the board of education and criticize several board decisions.
Vickie Shaw, a parent with one child in the system, said Wednesday that she typed the petition to remove the board that will be filed eventually, if there are enough signatures, with Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Shaw said she and other parents are concerned because board-approved cuts planned for next year call for reducing the nursing staff and kindergarten teachers.
The concern is that cuts could affect educational standards.
A second petition calls on the board to reconsider reducing the number of nurses who work for the schools from three to one.
Another petition asks the board not to reduce the number of kindergarten teachers from five to three.
Schools Superintendent Dave Wilson said Wednesday the staff cut will mean half-days of kindergarten -- half the pupils in the morning, the balance in the afternoon.
The petitions concerning staffing were not presented to the board at its Wednesday meeting.
Officials' reactions
Wilson said he was unaware of the petition being circulated to remove the board.
Veteran board member Catherine Namesnik said she, too, was caught off guard.
"I'm sorry to hear that," said Namesnik, a retired teacher and school administrator. "It takes me by surprise.
"I want to serve my school to the best of my ability."
Wilson said the reduction in nurses "was a very tough decision. I'm very sympathetic to that."
"I can understand the frustration," the superintendent asserted, noting that the state funds only a half-day of kindergarten.
Wilson said the board had to make the cuts to stay out of red ink next year.
He pointed out that voters turned down a 5.9-mill levy that was on the March primary ballot by a wide majority.
The levy, Wilson added, would have maintained service. A similar levy will probably be placed on the November general-election ballot.
The money is needed so the state doesn't take over the system and the community lose local control of the schools, Wilson added.
The last attempt to remove school board members in Trumbull County was in 2002.
Members of the Girard Concerned Citizens had collected 1,600 signatures to remove three board members by alleging they mishandled health issues at the Girard Intermediate School.
Visiting Judge Mitchell Shaker ruled that the board members were innocent of neglect of duty.
yovich@vindy.com