2 city school board members change minds, sign letter

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Two city school board members who initially declined to sign a letter to state legislators seeking support for a district plea for forgiveness of its state solvency loans changed their minds.

Jacqueline Taylor said she signed the letter Wednesday morning and Richard Atkinson said he intended to sign it before the end of the day Wednesday.

Taylor said she is still unhappy with the way the letter-writing campaign was conducted.

Four members of the board — Anthony Catale, Dominic Modarelli, Lock P. Beachum Sr. and Michael Murphy — sent a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday asking that the state write off the nearly $18 million Youngstown still owes on the $25 million it has borrowed to fight a budget deficit.

Such a move would wipe out the district’s deficit, they said.

Taylor, Atkinson and Shelley Murray, board president, were irritated that the letter writers wrote to the governor without including them in the process to make it a unanimous board request.

Catale on Tuesday presented the full board with copies of the letter to Strickland and copies of a second letter to be sent to all of the local state legislators asking them to support the district’s request.

He asked all board members to sign the second letter.

Murray said she didn’t like some members of the board being excluded but did sign the legislative letter Tuesday.

She, Taylor and Atkinson all said they thought it was a good idea to ask the state to forgive the debt.