New Ohio schools chief takes charge Monday

November 28, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Deborah Delisle, who will earn $194,500 per year, will meet with Youngstown educators next week.

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS (AP) — Ohio’s new schools chief gets good grades from colleagues and parents for a high-energy, innovative approach to her work, which includes extensive experience dealing with underperforming youngsters from poor families.

Deborah S. Delisle, 55, superintendent of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights district, takes office Monday as Ohio’s superintendent of public instruction. She will be paid $194,500 a year as successor to Susan Tave Zelman, who left on Oct. 31 after nine years in the job.

Zelman announced in May that she would resign amid a plan by Gov. Ted Strickland to replace her with an education chief accountable to him instead of the state board.

Delisle, pronounced deh-LEYE’-el, will spend her first week on the job meeting state education officials, representatives from the governor’s office, legislators and educators in Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, the agency said.

Delisle turned down interview requests last week to discuss her views on school financing, vouchers and teacher unions.

Her credentials include work in fast-growing rural Geauga County east of Cleveland and the upscale Orange and Shaker Heights districts.

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights district has 6,500 pupils, 54 percent of whom come from poor families. The district’s graduation rate rose from 89 percent to 96 percent in the past year, but its state rating is one step below effective.

“It’s a tough district, it’s a very demanding district,” said Tom Schmida, president of the local teachers union.

Schmida credited Delisle with helping reach a teacher contract agreement in mid-November by getting personally involved in the talks. He also credits her with an innovative approach to teacher collaboration to deal with failing students.

He said he thinks Delisle’s experience in local schools will assist her in Columbus.

“Coming from a superintendency, as opposed to another bureaucracy, a state bureaucracy, is valuable experience,” Schmida said.

Dallas Schubert, a school parent and PTA leader, said Delisle has a reputation for getting to know pupils by name.

“She’s genuinely moved by their accomplishments,” she said.

Not everybody sang Delisle’s praises, however.

Robert Jackson, 49, who has nieces ages 9 and 12 enrolled in the district, said that he was concerned about school safety and that fighting at the high school has been a problem. He blamed the problem in part on an ongoing rivalry with Shaw High School in nearby East Cleveland.

“They have a lot of chaos here,” he said.