Survey stimulates effort to improve city schools

By Harold Gwin

The FAMILY nonprofit group wants the board to accept parents as partners.

YOUNGSTOWN — A local nonprofit group is using a public opinion survey it conducted to challenge the city school board to develop a plan to move the district’s academic rating from academic watch to excellent by 2013.

“This is our first engagement with the board,” said Jimma McWilson, president and chief executive officer of FAMILY Empowerment Student Achievement Institute, after presenting the organization’s findings to the school board earlier this month.

The organization formed a community task force to interview city residents at random to seek out suggestions for best social and academic practices and come up with an analysis and recommendations to present to the school board.

FAMILY Empowerment is only about two years old but it’s made an impact on the city education scene, holding programs honoring top pupils, best practice teachers and best practice parents. It’s secured the support of eight churches and 11 community organizations and the participation of more than 3,000 parents and family members in workshops, forums and educational events.

The task force conducted interviews with 474 individuals to come up with a list of concerns and recommendations, and McWilson said the group wants a written response from the board by Oct. 9.

The question the board must answer is whether Youngstown is a district at risk or a district with an opportunity to achieve best social and academic excellence, he said.

The task force asked that the board write a strategic plan that declares the city schools will achieve a state rating of academic excellence by 2013.

Shelley Murray, school board resident, pointed out that the state requires Youngstown to prepare and annually update a strategic plan for academic improvement. However, that plan is done in a state format and really isn’t “user-friendly” to the general population, an issue the board intends to correct, she said.

This isn’t an attack against the district, the school board or the superintendent, McWilson said, explaining that the plan is to teach parents to be equal partners in working with the school board to improve education in the city schools.

“We believe that only a true positive and proactive partnership between the students’ families, district and community will correct — not merely improve — the problem,” he told the board. The effort will require a year-round campaign, he said.

However, if the board is unwilling to accept that partnership, those same parents can act as the board’s boss and “fire” then at the ballot box, he said.

“Our intent is to work with the board,” he said, cautioning that failure to reply in writing to the challenge would result in people’s working against the upcoming Nov. 4 tax levy issue the board has said is necessary to overcome a budget deficit.

Murray didn’t know the group was going to make a presentation to the board before it appeared at a regular meeting, but she didn’t take it as a negative approach, she said, after reviewing the information provided by McWilson.

“We will provide them with a written response,” she said.

The presentation included a list of findings on what some community members perceive and a second list of recommendations the task force would like to see implemented based on those perceptions.

Murray said she believes the group is trying to help the district by bridging the communications gap between the school board and the community.

“We are trying to get better at that,” she said, adding, “They are telling us how people they’ve talked to feel.”

Perception is some people’s reality, she said.

gwin@vindy.com

SEE ALSO: Recommendations and Perceptions.