Officials give superintendent her first evaluation, feedback

Community relationships and personal qualities are the leader's strongest areas.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- On a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 being the highest score, the Youngstown Board of Education thinks its superintendent is a 6.9.
That's the bottom line in the board's first evaluation of Dr. Wendy Webb's performance.
Webb took the position in August 2004 under a three-year contract that calls for an annual evaluation.
The school board normally does its evaluations in October, but Webb wasn't given one last year because she'd been on the job for only two months, said Jacqueline Taylor, board president.
The board adopted a 56-question evaluation form for the job Oct. 8 that focused on six areas: relationships with the board, community relationships, staff and personnel relationships, educational leadership, personal qualities and business and finance.
Each board member completed the evaluation form, and their ratings numbers were combined into their individual composite scores in each category. Those scores were then combined into joint composite rankings for each of the six categories and into a final overall composite score.
Webb's overall rating was 6.9.
Breaking down ranking
None of the seven board members gave Webb a composite unsatisfactory mark in any of the categories. Twenty-one of the 42 individual composite board ratings fell within the "commendable" range of 7 to 9 on the 9-point scale.
Individually, school board members rated Webb's overall performance from a low individual composite score of 5.6, which is at the higher end of the "satisfactory" range, to a high of 7.8, which is in the middle of the "commendable" range.
She scored highest with a joint composite ranking of 7.7 in both the community relationships and personal qualities categories.
"Dr. Webb has developed a rapport with the community that is superior and has moved the district forward [which] bridges the gap of county and board relationship," one school board member wrote under anonymous comments.
"Dr. Webb has displayed a great [deal] of integrity in the midst of adversity," wrote another.
Her lowest joint composite score, a 5.9, was in the business and finance category.
"Dr. Webb is adopting and implementing curriculum audit systemic fiscal management that require[s] monitoring, budgeting and evaluation of programs. Business and finance is a work in progress," one board member wrote.
"The fiscal operation must be scrutinized carefully to avoid fiscal emergency. Programs must be evaluated carefully. Determine effective programs from those that are not achieving desired results," wrote another.
Her joint composite score for relationships with the board was 6.7, while she was given a 6.6 in the staff and personnel relations category and 6.5 in the educational leadership category.
Webb, who has implemented a number of major changes in the district's academic structure this year, had said she was anxious for feedback from the school board.
She wasn't immediately available to comment on the evaluation.
gwin@vindy.com