Board chief applies for post

The Rev. Michael Write doesn’t believe applying
is a conflict of interest.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The outgoing president of the city school board has applied for a full-time school district job in a new program aimed at improving the high school graduation rate among young men.

The Rev. Michael Write said he submitted an application for one of two community “linkage coordinators” in the program the day after he lost his re-election bid for a second board term Nov. 6.

The Beating Our Achievement Gap Together program, or BOAT as the district calls it, is being funded by a $545,632 state grant. It’s part of Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to address the graduation and achievement of all first-time ninth-grade males in general, and black males in particular.

State statistics show that only 60 percent of black males in Ohio’s nine largest urban school districts graduate, compared with 73 percent of white males and 71 percent of Hispanic males.

The school board hired Ty-Juan Young as a linkage coordinator for East High School in early November at $33,000 a year, and Write said he is a candidate for the same position at Chaney High School.

Both coordinators will also spend time at Youngstown Early College.

Write said he doesn’t know how many people applied for the job.

District officials were unavailable for comment on this story.

If hired, Write said he wouldn’t start until after his board term expires with the end of this month.

He said he doesn’t see his applying for the job as a conflict of interest but pointed out that’s not his call to make. The issue will be presented to the Ohio Ethics Commission if he is offered the job, he said. If that agency sees a conflict, he won’t take the position, Write said.

He said he has the background to do the work, having spent most of his professional career as an intervention and prevention specialist and counselor. He is certified as a prevention specialist by the state of Ohio, he said.

“That’s what I do,” he said, adding that he believes he can make a positive impact as a BOAT program coordinator.

He worked as a prevention specialist coordinator in the city schools about six years ago, though not as a school district employee but as an employee of MCCDP Inc., the forerunner to Meridian Services, which had a service contract with the district at the time.

His job involved group facilitation with pupils of all grade levels on a weekly basis and implementation of curriculum to promote drug prevention techniques.

He is an ordained Baptist minister and associate pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church. He is also assistant director of Needles Eye Christian Counseling Services in Youngstown.