Wednesday, April 28, 2010
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The president of the Youngstown Board of Education said he didn’t know that the state Academic Distress Commission didn’t have a copy of the district’s new five-year Strategic Plan.
The commission, appointed to help the city schools improve academically, voted Monday to direct the school district to turn over its plan by today. It hopes to review that document before meeting with a potential consultant who will assist in drafting an academic-recovery plan for Youngstown. That plan must be presented to the state superintendent of public instruction by June 29.
Commission member James Hall noted that Anthony Catale, president of the Youngstown board, had asked the commission two weeks ago to examine Youngstown’s plan before a consultant is hired. However, the district hasn’t delivered a copy of its Strategic Plan, he said.
Catale, speaking at Tuesday’s school board meeting, said he was unaware that a copy hadn’t been delivered, suggesting there was some “miscommunication” over the issue. The school board had approved the plan April 13, and Catale said he thought the plan had been forwarded to the commission.
Superintendent Wendy Webb was at Monday’s commission meeting and told its members that the school board wanted to do a final review of some parts of the plan before it was released to the public. She said she would get it to the commission as soon as the board released it.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Webb repeated that it was her understanding that the plan wasn’t to be presented until after a final review, which occurred Monday night. She said a copy will be delivered to the commission today.
The commission was appointed because Youngstown was rated in academic emergency on its 2009 state local report card.
The public got its first look at the final version of the plan during the school board meeting as administrators and a consultant gave a quick overview of the 75-page document. Only a handful of residents were in the audience.
The plan, designated “Framing the Future Thinking and Learning Our Way to the Top,” spells out four goals for improving student proficiency in reading, improving student proficiency in math, increasing attendance while decreasing disciplinary referrals and improving public perception of the district.
It offers a number of specific strategies for reaching those goals as well as detailed action steps to implement those strategies.
“This is an on-going document,” Webb said, explaining that it is subject to change and modification as needs dictate.