Monday, October 31, 2005
Before the endorsement interviews began in the race for the Youngstown Board of Education, it was a given that incumbent candidates were going to have a difficult time winning endorsement. That shouldn't be surprising, since this newspaper was on record as favoring a national search for a new superintendent and strenuously on record as opposed to the board's largesse in recent employee negotiations. Add to that the district's woeful record on the state's report card and you have a situation crying out for change. But today we find ourselves endorsing two incumbents for re-election and one challenger for the seat vacated by the retirement of John Maluso. The reason is twofold: With one exception, the challengers were weak; the two incumbents made specific pledges that they will demand dramatic improvement in city schools and established a verifiable standard for measuring that improvement. Based on that, we are endorsing the re-election of Lock Beachum, a retired Youngstown schools principal seeking his third term on the board, and Jacqueline Taylor, who is seeking her second term. The third candidate receiving an endorsement is Patti Billett, who is making her first attempt at elective office. Others running There are three other candidates in the race: Dominic Modarelli, Arthur W. McGuinness and Joyce Lomax. Modarelli attended the endorsement interview and impressed us as an obviously concerned father of a student who has attended Youngstown public schools and has now transferred to parochial school. He said he would like to see city schools improve so that his daughter could return to the public classroom, but did not articulate a plan for that improvement. Lomax and McGuinness did not attend endorsement interviews, but did complete candidate questionnaires. Their answers gave no insight into how they would address the critical problems facing the school district if they were elected to the board. Our willingness to endorse the two incumbents can be traced to their reaction to the district's recent decline from the fourth level on the state report card, academic watch, to the bottom level, academic emergency. Both said they will hold Superintendent Wendy Webb accountable for overseeing an improvement in the status of the school district and that they would tie that improvement to their willingness to extend the superintendent's contract. Dr. Webb is entering the second year of a three- year contract. Both Beachum and Taylor said they would not extend that contract unless the school district improves to continuous improvement status, the third rung on the state's five-level report card. That's a serious demand for improvement. Domino effect We have long held that failing school districts can only improve if school boards hold superintendents accountable for the performance of the administrators and principals who report to them. Those administrators, in turn, hold teachers and other employees to account for their performance. Every employee in the district has been put on notice, at least by these two incumbents, as to what will be expected in the next two years. Billet also said she wants to see the district reach continuous improvement status. In addition to improving the district's state report card, the school board is going to have to wrestle with an impending fiscal crisis, upcoming contracts with employee unions, completing the district's $200 million construction program and making optimum use of the new buildings and stemming the loss of Youngstown City School District students to charter schools and neighboring open enrollment districts. Those are daunting challenges. We do not envy Taylor, Beachum and Billet the task lying ahead of them if they are elected, but we endorse them as the best candidates available to tackle the job.