New buildings, contracts, programs await city pupils

By Harold Gwin

Most of the changes are designed to help improve academic performance.

YOUNGSTOWN — Different buildings, new academic enrichment programs and a behavior contract pupils and parents are expected to sign are just some of the changes city schoolchildren face when they return to class Sept. 3.

Schools Superintendent Wendy Webb said district parents and guardians can expect to see a behavior contract arrive for their signatures shortly, something the district has said would come this fall.

Pupils will be required to sign it as well, she said.

It spells out a requirement for pupils to be on their best behavior at after-school and extracurricular events — and the penalties to be imposed on those who misbehave, said Webb. Those penalties could range from two weeks of suspension to a ban on any extracurricular or after-school participation for six months to a year.

Those activities are privileges, not rights, and misbehavior won’t be tolerated, Webb said.

Webb began publicly suggesting a behavior contract in January after an altercation between two students attending a basketball game that resulted in officials’ halting the game.

Youngstown will open two new elementaries this fall as part of a 14-school, $190 million rebuilding program.

Paul C. Bunn Elementary

Paul C. Bunn Elementary, which has been located in the old Jackson building, will be ready for its 350 to 400 pupils at Sheridan Avenue and Sequoya Drive in Boardman Township.

Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, which was called North Elementary in the old Haddow building, will open to about the same number at its new facility on Mariner Avenue.

Some schools will be relocated in older buildings, said Webb, as the district continues the rebuilding program and closes old structures.

Athena: School of Excellence for Girls will move out of its building on Myrtle Avenue and into the second floor of Alpha: School of Excellence for Boys on Hillman Street, a cost-cutting move, Webb said.

The two schools, each with about 175 seventh- and eighth-graders, will retain their gender distinction and essentially operate as two separate units, she said.

Odyssey: School of Possibilities will move out of its building on Commonwealth Avenue and into the second floor of P. Ross Berry Middle School on Bryn Mawr Avenue, another cost-cutting move. Odyssey, which serves children in grades three through 12 who have difficulty performing in a traditional classroom setting, will continue to operate as a separate entity.

In another consolidation move, all sixth-graders will be in the elementary schools, not middle schools, this year.

In an effort to help ninth-graders make the transition from middle school to high school, both East and Chaney high schools will house ninth-grade “preparatory schools” this fall, Webb said.

They will be a “school within a school,” with the freshmen separated from upperclassmen in their own sections of those two buildings.

The focus will be on core academic courses, behavior and dress.

Ninth grade has been shown to be the point where schools begin to lose pupils who eventually drop out, Webb said, explaining the goal will be to help Youngstown’s ninth-graders achieve academic and social success at the high school level.

Children in grades eight through 12 who misbehave and are facing extended periods of suspension or expulsion will be assigned to a new “opt out” program that is expected to be located at Choffin Career & Technical Center.

The program will focus on academics, anger management and counseling, and those assigned to the program will see a more tightly structured educational environment, Webb said.

Pupils placed in “opt out” will have to stay there for a minimum six-week grading period and could stay there permanently.

Youngstown will also launch a series of limited-access, after-school enrichment programs for elementary and middle school pupils, using federal and other grant sources, not general fund money, for revenue. Each school will have its own program, and each program will have about 40 slots.

A pre-K-2 program will focus on storytelling, reading, making books and acting out skits based on books the children read.

Pupils in grades three through six will see enrichment offerings in math, science, music and foreign language.

Seventh- and eighth-graders will see after-school reading and writing using laptop computers and other new technology.

The enrichment programs will run four days a week from October through February.

Webb said all of the academic projects are part of a “Covenant with the Community” signed last spring by city, school district, school district union and Youngstown State University representatives pledging to do their part to help improve Youngstown schools.

The covenant calls for collaboration in continuing to raise academic standards, maintaining well-disciplined and drug-free schools, creating alternative solutions for children demonstrating unacceptable and detrimental behavior, and seeking out and implementing “best practices” in education.

It also establishes the contracts with parents spelling out their responsibilities and contains provisions for ongoing evaluation of the educational system, reducing costs and using an independent committee of local leaders and experts to monitor district funds.

gwin@vindy.com