After the votes are counted, the real work begins

After the votes are counted, the real work begins

When Vindicator editors interviewed candidates for the Youngstown Board of Education, both incumbents and challengers were bubbling with ideas, plans and good intentions. Well, you know what they say about good intentions.

There are two new board members-elect and one veteran returned for another term. Two of the three incumbents running were dumped, and if there had been a sixth candidate in the race for the three seats, all of the incumbents may well have lost. The two challengers, Andrea Mahone and Rachel Hanni, were the top vote-getters, with 6,058 and 6,012 respectively. Incumbent Lock P.. Beachum Sr. ran third with 5,765. The losing incumbents were Dominic Modarelli and Jackie Taylor, with 5,607 and 5,116 respectively.

The winners were black, white, East Side, West Side, male and female, young and old. The one thing they have in common is being elected by voters who are obviously looking for change.

Of course, every Youngstown Board of Education member knows that it isn’t only the voters who want change, the state of Ohio is demanding change. In August, Youngstown was ranked the worst performing school district in the state. An Academic Distress Commission, the first of its kind in Ohio, will work with the local board to improve the school system’s academic performance.

In for the long run

It’s quite likely that the commission will be in place throughout the four-year-terms of the board’s newest members. That’s because the commission is supposed to remain in operation until the district reaches the academic rating of continuous improvement or better for two of three consecutive years.

Since Youngstown has never achieved a continuous improvement rating — which is the middle of five ratings — it’s safe to say that the commission will be overseeing things here for years.

The new board members would be wise to demand that the commission take an aggressive approach toward repairing an obviously damaged district. Deborah Delisle, Ohio superintendent of public instruction, should also set the bar high for the commission and the school district. She should accept no excuses for continuing poor performance.

There are school districts that are wracked with poverty, hampered by disinterested parents and working with limited financial resources that still manage to educate their students. Youngstown hasn’t been among them, but that must change.