Ohio Department of Education rejects Coitsville district move

By Harold Gwin

The recommendation must now go before the State Board of Education.

YOUNGSTOWN — An Ohio Department of Education hearing referee has recommended that Coitsville Township remain a part of the Youngstown City School District.

Gary J. Pandora issued his ruling this week, recommending that the two petitions that would have transferred part of Coitsville to the Hubbard school district and part of it to the Lowellville school district be disapproved.

The issue now goes before the full State Board of Education, which could vote on the matter in January.

“We’re pleased that [the district] is going to remain intact,” said Shelley Murray, Youngstown school board president.

The rest of Youngstown would have had to face a substantial additional financial burden to cover district costs had Coitsville been permitted to leave, she said, adding that the burden of proof was on the petitioners to show that something substantial had changed since the state ruled against a similar petition in 2001.

The district is “cautiously optimistic” that the state board will support the referee’s ruling, said Superintendent Wendy Webb.

Attorneys representing Concerned Citizens for Quality Education, the group that filed the petitions, had no comment on the referee’s recommendation, and a message received from Edmond Raines Sr., chairman of the group, indicated that he wouldn’t comment either.

The petitions were filed in March, and Pandora conducted a hearing in Columbus in October during which members of the Concerned Citizens group and city school officials testified.

Pandora, in his report, said that parents from the township testified that their paramount concern was that their children receive the best available public education that can be provided to them and that the proposed transfer would clearly be in the best interest of their children.

They pointed out that, though the Hubbard and Lowellville schools have achieved “excellent” academic ratings on their state report cards, Youngstown is in the much lower category of “academic watch.”

However, he said he was compelled to come to the conclusion that the transfer shouldn’t be allowed.

A transfer would further create financial harm to the Youngstown district which is trying to recover from state fiscal emergency, he said.

The remaining taxpayers in the district would have to cover about $600,000 in annual real estate taxes that would be lost and Youngstown would lose another $145,000 a year in direct state subsidy funds, he said.

The parents of school children in Coitsville do have educational alternatives and most are making use of them already, he said, referring to open-enrollment programs in other area school districts.

Testimony showed that 55 of the 63 public school children living in the township are already enrolled in the Hubbard, Lowellville and Struthers schools through open enrollment, Pandora said.

The state did approve the transfer of 291 acres in the northern part of the township to the Hubbard district and 850 acres in the southeastern part of the township to Lowellville in 1962, according to his report.

Subsequent petitions for other transfers in 1974, 1989 and 2001 were all rejected, he said.

In the latest case, Youngstown would have lost nearly one-fourth of its geographic territory, he said.

The 2001 ruling found that removal of Coitsville from the district would push Youngstown into a budget deficit, require remaining Youngstown taxpayers to pay increased millage to cover operating costs and add racial isolation to the Youngstown schools.

Those issues remain, Pandora said.

gwin@vindy.com