Youngstown board to fire AWOL teacher

By Harold Gwin

Efforts to reach the teacher have been unsuccessful, school officials said Tuesday.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board intends to fire a teacher who has failed to show up for work this school year.

The board voted Tuesday to suspend Ahmad A. Amawi without pay effective Wednesday and said it will vote to fire him at its Dec. 8 meeting.

The action was taken on the recommendation of Superintendent Wendy Webb, who said Amawi failed to show up for work at the start of the school year, and the district has been unable to reach him.

He is believed to be living in the Akron area, but efforts to contact him by mail and by telephone have been unsuccessful, according to school officials.

William Bagnola, president of the Youngstown Education Association, the teachers union, said he also has tried to contact Amawi without success. Bagnola said he heard that Amawi might be teaching in the Akron area but has been unable to confirm that.

Karen Green, Youngstown’s assistant superintendent for human resources, said Amawi, a high school science teacher, has been employed in the district for about two years. He was not a tenured teacher but worked on a yearly or “limited teaching contract.”

The board resolution passed Tuesday said his conduct constitutes grounds for termination and that the character of the charges against him warrants suspension pending that termination.

He was given the opportunity to meet with the superintendent to receive an explanation of the grounds on which she is recommending termination and to present any arguments he has as to why he shouldn’t be suspended or terminated, but failed to do so, according to the board resolution.

Further, it said that a notice of the board action will be sent to Amawi by certified mail and that the board will proceed with plans to fire him at its Dec. 8 meeting unless he files a written demand for a hearing on the matter.

His position has been filled with a long-term substitute teacher.

gwin@vindy.com