Wednesday, October 28, 2009
By Harold Gwin
The board recognized four people who aided a fourth-grader attacked by a dog.
YOUNGSTOWN — There’s a new organization in town with a focus on providing educational assistance to city school students and services to city school alumni.
The Youngstown City Schools Foundation & Alumni Association should be functional in January, James Hall, coordinator of the group, told the school board Tuesday.
The foundation will serve the district’s 6,500 students and 70,000 alumni, he said.
It is seeking start-up funding from the Wean Foundation and has already been approved as an official foundation by the Ohio secretary of state. It also is seeking Internal Revenue Service certification as a nonprofit agency.
Every child has a right to a world-class education, and the students in Youngstown can benefit from ancillary services a foundation can provide, Hall said.
The alumni have a right to share the experiences of their youth and to get to know one another through events such as football tailgates and alumni tours the foundation can organize, he said.
The organization will be independent of the school district, but is asking the school board to provide office space, a computer and a telephone.
Hall said the nine-member board of directors will hire an executive director who will use that office to write grants for educational programs, develop an alumni directory and organize alumni chapters.
“We’re extremely appreciative of what you will provide,” said Anthony Catale, school board president, adding that the district will provide the office space the foundation needs.
The school board took the time to formally recognize a group of people who came to the aid of a city fourth-grader who was attacked and bitten by a dog while waiting for his school bus Sept. 11.
The student, Toris Gonner, suffered leg injuries in the attack.
In a resolution adopted by the board, Firefighters Chris Brown and Bill Palma of Fire Station 9 were credited with running to his rescue and providing emergency medical treatment while Fire Chief Terry Harrison called for additional assistance by radio.
Mary Campbell, a neighbor and parent who was at the scene, provided safe harbor in her vehicle for other children and helped authorities identify the dog and bring the party responsible to justice, the resolution said.
Principal Maria Pappas of Paul C. Bunn Elementary School, the school Toris was attending at the time, then presented the four with certificates and pins designating them as “Bunn Giraffes,” an honor given to those “who stick their necks out to help others.”
In other matters, Catale said the district needs to trim an additional $2 million in spending to ensure it remains financially solvent over the next five years.
Youngstown already has cut $32 million in spending and eliminated about 500 jobs since it was placed in fiscal emergency by the state in November 2006.
Treasurer William Johnson warned that real-estate tax collections are lagging, and the district has $9 million in real estate tax delinquencies that are causing budgetary problems.
The district can’t ask taxpayers to renew a four-year, 9.5-mill emergency tax levy that will expire in 2013 but instead must cut spending, hopefully without affecting academic programs, Catale said. He stopped short of saying that taxpayers won’t be asked to approve a levy of a smaller amount down the road.