Speakers express their support for Webb in face of poor ratings

By Harold Gwin

School board members defended their evaluations of the superintendent.

YOUNGSTOWN — Some members of the Youngstown city school community are less than pleased with the school board’s recent evaluation of the job performance of Superintendent Wendy Webb.

The board, meeting at Taft Elementary School on Tuesday, was taken to task by critics of the rating process — many of whom focused on what they said were board member suggestions that the superintendent lacks community support.

Webb received a satisfactory rating overall, but three board members — Anthony Catale, Michael Murphy and Dominic Modarelli — rated her performance as unsatisfactory.

Talk to the community and see where they stand, the Rev. Lewis Macklin, a former board member and president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, told the board.

There is concern about an erroneous perception that the community doesn’t support the superintendent, he said, pointing out that Webb has openly invited public participation in the education process.

“I support Dr. Wendy Webb,” he said, advising the board to let her do the job she was hired to do.

The Rev. Kenneth Simon, representing the Community Mobilization Committee, said Webb has a vast amount of community support, but not all of the school board members support her.

The board is attempting to hold her to targets that can’t be enforced, he said, suggesting that Webb is being set up for failure.

The community is watching and demands she be treated with respect, he told the board.

Tracey Winbush, of Greeley Lane, a former board member, said the district should be talking about curriculum but instead is talking about polarization.

It’s not board members’ jobs to micromanage district operations, she said.

“Let Dr. Webb do her job,” she told the board.

A group known as the Community Empowerment Task Force presented the school board with its evaluation of board members’ performances, giving Catale, Murphy and Lock P. Beachum Sr. all a grade of “D,” Modarelli an “F,” and Richard Atkinson, Jacqueline Taylor and Shelley Murray all a “B” over a total of 28 categories ranging from maintaining high standards, ethics, honesty and integrity in all personal and professional matters to engagement and participation in community/family-sponsored academic events.

Beachum and Murray had rated Webb as satisfactory, and Atkinson and Taylor gave her a commendable rating.

Webb declined to comment on the outpouring of public support.

Catale, Modarelli and Murphy all said they stand behind their evaluations of the superintendent.

Murphy said he based his largely on the fact that Youngstown met only one of the 30 state academic standards on the state local report card.

The evaluation worked, he said, explaining that communications between the superintendent’s office and board members has improved.

Modarelli agreed that the board and superintendent are working better together now.

“We’re trying to make this district better,” he said.

The public isn’t on the board. People don’t know everything that goes on, he added.

The public is entitled to voice its opposition or dissent to anything the board does, Catale said, adding, “I stand behind my evaluation.”

gwin@vindy.com