YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOLS District must succeed, Webb tells educators

The city school system is under pressure to improve its academic test scores.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN --The superintendent of the Youngstown City Schools couldn't make it any clearer.
"This is a make-it or break-it year for the district," Dr. Wendy Webb told the district's 800 teachers gathered Thursday for an in-service training day as Youngstown gets ready to start classes Tuesday.
The district is working diligently to form a new learning infrastructure that focuses not on where it is now academically, but on where it needs to be and how to get there, Webb said during her State of the District speech.
Based on various student testing, Youngstown recently slipped back into the academic emergency rating in Ohio's school Report Card System, and the district is under pressure to improve that standing, she said.
She stressed the importance of student achievement improvements this school year.
The district needs to rethink how it does business in the classroom, focusing on creating a strong and safe learning environment, Webb said.
That will require a willingness to change the way things are done, make more and better use of teaching tools and keep focused on the goal that children can and will achieve, she said.
"I am encouraged, and with great conviction, that you all want to be on a winning team," Webb told the teachers.
If the effort fails, Youngstown could lose educational funding, fall into a fiscal emergency category and again face a state fiscal commission takeover, she said, warning, "If we fail, we will become extinct."
What Webb expects
Youngstown's school district culture is still in reactive status and it needs to be proactive, Webb said, asking teaches and administrators for "relentless dedication" to improve education and save the district.
Youngstown is implementing a new curriculum process this year and providing leadership training for staff to help improve the educational environment, she said.
Teachers must be committed to managing changes in the district on a personal level, Webb said, promising, on her part, to improve communications, reduce the bureaucracy to expedite learning experiences for students and do whatever else is necessary to achieve that goal.
Some of the district's schools are getting a clean slate to start the year, she said, referring to the opening of the Alpha and Athena gender schools and the Odyssey School of Possibilities.
Other schools have performance scores on Ohio's Report Card System that they must improve upon, she said.
Youngstown did make some improvements last year, Webb said, referring to a 2.8 percent increase in the graduation rate, positive increases in seven standardized testing areas and an 84.2-percent performance on the reading portion of the Ohio Graduation Test, a mark well above the 75 percent state standard.
"We have so much more to do," she said, asking the educators to focus on building a learning community that someday will be the envy of other schools.
"I want you to go and make sure children learn," she told the group.
gwin@vindy.com