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31 seek top post in city schools
By Denise Dick
By DENISE DICK
youngstowN
Three Mahoning Valley educators and 17 people with doctorates in education are among 31 candidates for city schools superintendent.
Now it’s up to a 25-member search committee to cull the list to those who will be interviewed by telephone. In- person interviews will be done by the school board with a handful of applicants.
The board also plans community forums where the public will be able to meet the finalists. The academic distress commission will also interview finalists and must approve the selection.
“They’re from all over the United States and with some very extensive educational backgrounds,” said Anthony Catale, school board president.
The Mahoning Valley applicants are Thomas D. Robey, superintendent of Campbell City Schools; Joseph Gotchall, principal in the Beaver Local Schools in Columbiana County; and Joseph S. Meranto, director at Choffin Career and Technical Center in Youngstown.
Robey is starting his sixth year at the helm of Campbell schools.
“I think that Campbell is very similar to Youngstown,” he said. “The big difference is, obviously, we’re smaller.”
The Campbell district has worked hard to improve its academic rating, and some of those efforts also could be used in helping Youngstown, Robey said.
Efforts undertaken in Campbell include literacy programs and early intervention for preschool students, he said. Those measures are among the items outlined for Youngstown schools as part of its academic recovery plan.
Catale, along with fellow school board members June Drennen and Rachel Hanni, also sits on the search committee.
“I think 31 applicants definitely exceeded our expectations,” Hanni said.
Drennen also said she’s satisfied with the number, but the work has really just started.
Reference and background checks haven’t yet been done for the applicants.
Search committee members plan to begin more research on the individuals in meetings this week.
The board also wants a superintendent with experience in an urban district and Catale said that many of the applicants have that.
“We have a tough road ahead in making the decision,” Catale said.
The new superintendent may have a tough road too.
The district has two state-appointed commissions overseeing its activities. A fiscal oversight commission, established in 2006, has control over district finances because the district is in fiscal emergency.
The Academic Distress Commission has developed a plan to move the district out of academic emergency and into continuous improvement by 2015.
The academic commission was established after the school district failed to show adequate yearly progress on the state report cards for four or more consecutive years.
The district has set a goal of picking its new leader by month’s end. The plan is to allow that individual to work with Wendy Webb before her Dec. 31 retirement.
The salary for the new superintendent is yet to be worked out. Webb, superintendent since 2004 and with the district for 35 years, will earn $122,500 this year.