Schools get state grant to launch BOAT program

The district is targeting about 270 ninth-graders with the program.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — IPods, laptop computers and trips to camp are part of a program designed to help the city schools’ ninth-grade boys achieve academically and graduate from high school.

Youngstown has secured a competitive $545,632 state grant to launch a program it refers to as BOAT, called Beating Our Achievement Gap Together.

The city school board this week approved a number of expenditures from that grant, including the purchase of 250 iPods (portable media players) and 100 laptop computers.

In addition, it hired a Campbell agency to run special camps for the students and contracted with Mahoning County Job and Family Services to provide counseling and related services.

The board also hired a community “linkage coordinator” to work primarily at Chaney High School.

A coordinator who will work at East High School was hired earlier. Both will also work at Youngstown Early College on the Youngstown State University campus.

The grant is part of Gov. Ted Strickland’s initiative to deal with the graduation and academic achievement of all first-time ninth-grade boys in general, and black male teens in particular.

That’s the group most at risk for dropping out of schools, according to Dawud W. Abdullah, safe and drug-free schools manager for the city schools.

State statistics show that only 60 percent of ninth-grade black males in Ohio’s nine largest urban schools go on to graduate, compared with 73 percent of white males and 71 percent of Hispanic males.

Youngstown has about 270 first-time ninth-grade boys at East, Chaney and YEC. Although that is the target group, the district intends to expand some of the program in an effort to reach all 360 males in its ninth grade, according to Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent.

The grant money can be spent only for this program, and much of the spending is being directed by the state, Webb said.

The iPods and laptop computers, with a cost of just under $75,000, will be used to create academic lessons.

Those boys making a commitment to work consistently in the BOAT program will earn the right to have an iPod assigned to them that will be used to develop audio and video lessons related to the Ohio Graduation Test content standards.

The students will also use them to develop motivational raps and jingles that will be shared with others in the target group.

The students, along with their parents, will sign out an iPod much as a band student would sign out a district-owned instrument. If an iPod is lost or damaged, the student to whom it was assigned is responsible to pay for it.

The laptops will include music and video editing software that students and teachers can use, and the grant will fund the hiring of some teachers through supplemental contracts for that project.

The board also agreed to pay $31,200 to More to Life Inc. and William Burney, its executive director, to conduct a series of seven or eight off-campus camps of 50 boys each during the last half of this school year. The camps, designed to build trust, self-esteem and teamwork, will run for 2 1/2 days each.

In addition to the camps, Burney and his staff will train upperclassmen team leaders to conduct focus groups with the ninth-graders to provide guidance and give the younger people opportunities to voice concerns and ask questions on a variety of issues.

Mahoning County JFS will be paid $293,000 to provide counseling and other services to students who experience academic and social difficulties, including poor attendance. The goal is to provide intervention as early as possible to encourage those students to stay in school and complete their education.

The board hired Kevin E. Douglas at $33,000 a year to serve as the program linkage coordinator assigned to Chaney. He joins Ty-Juan Young, who was hired earlier to fill that position at East.

gwin@vindy.com