YSU camp prepares city school boys for 9th grade

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — A total of 45 city school boys headed into the ninth grade next fall are spending this week in a program focusing on academics and social issues.

It’s called a Summer Bridge program, and it’s a residential camp with the participants staying on the Youngstown State University campus. The program began Sunday and ends Saturday.

The young men are housed in the Cafaro House dormitory and are spending their mornings focusing on math, reading and language arts. Their afternoons center on socialization and emotional issues as well as team building, while their evenings are spent listening to various guest speakers offering observations on career possibilities.

It’s all part of Gov. Ted Strickland’s initiative to address the achievement gap of all ninth-grade males in general, and black males in particular, said Dawud Abdullah, Youngstown’s manager of Safe and Drug Free Schools. He outlined the program Tuesday for the school board’s finance committee.

The goal is to improve academic performance, increase the graduation rate of the target group, decrease school suspensions and improve school/community relations.

The program has a price tag of $72,890, with $21,890 of that amount going to YSU for room, board and related services. The rest is going to ON TASC Inc., a local nonprofit drug and alcohol abuse prevention agency, which is running the event.

The district isn’t using local tax dollars to pay for it but is tapping a state Beating Our Achievement Gap Together (BOAT) grant of $545,632 to cover the cost.

The BOAT program targets about 270 ninth-grade boys, encouraging them to stay in school.

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

Abdullah said a primary focus of Summer Bridge is to help the pupils focus on the academic requirements of ninth grade. At that grade level, they are required to earn 51‚Ñ4 academic credits toward graduation, he said.

Participation isn’t mandatory and pupils were recruited, he said, noting that boys across the board were invited but that extra emphasis was placed on encouraging those with disciplinary and/or academic problems to sign up.

A total of 45 accepted the offer, he said, and the plan is to run the program again next year.

This Summer Bridge is separate from the city high school summer bridge programs in August open to all pupils moving into ninth grade, Abdullah said.

Those attending the program at YSU are being encouraged to attend either the East or Chaney high school bridge programs as well, he added.

gwin@vindy.com