MAHONING VALLEY Honored schools urge support for others

One educator griped about tax dollars going to substandard charter schools.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Superintendents from the Mahoning Valley's highest-ranked school districts urged cooperation among business, community and education leaders to boost the learning achievements of all area schools.
But some of them also had harsh words for the state's educational system.
The remarks were made Wednesday at the From Steel to Scholars awards luncheon held in Liberty Township by the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber.
From Steel to Scholars is trying to improve the quality of education provided in the 45 school districts in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Honoring the eight area school districts that achieved "excellent" ratings on 2004 state report cards issued in August was the theme of Wednesday's event.
Recognized were the Canfield, Champion, Poland, Lowellville, South Range, Boardman, Western Reserve and Columbiana school districts.
Districts earn an "excellent" rating -- the best bestowed by the state -- when their students perform well on proficiency tests and when attendance and graduation standards are met.
Excellent rating
Boardman has scored an "excellent" rating for four consecutive years.
But each year, the designation becomes harder to achieve as the result of continually changing criteria by the state, Frank Lazzeri, Boardman schools superintendent, told the crowd of nearly 300.
Lazzeri likened the effort to trying to hit a moving target.
Some of the superintendents protested the state's school funding system, which has been faulted as unfair for years.
Poor children's educational opportunities are being crippled as programs that benefit them are slashed, said South Range schools Superintendent Jim Hall.
Hall added that funding for day-to-day public school operations is inadequate, yet more and more tax dollars are being diverted to charter schools that are doing a poor job of educating.
He urged business and community leaders to lobby legislators for changes in the system.
"They certainly don't listen to us," Hall complained.
Getting aid
Canfield schools Superintendent Dante Zambrini said that, despite his district's continued good performance on school report cards, it struggles to get aid because the state says the district is too wealthy.
The state is floundering in its bid to craft a solution for school funding, Zambrini said.
While calling the state's report system a sound measure of performance, Lowellville schools Superintendent Rocco Nero said it fails to account for good things that that can't be classified with numbers.
Nero referred to caring educators who take time to counsel students, to give a youngster a ride home or to even fish into their pockets for lunch money for a pupil who might otherwise do without.
"Many of the schools who are not here today do excellent things that don't show up on a report card," Nero said.