Ohio education chief Delisle takes reins of Y’town schools

There’s bad and good in the Youngstown City School District’s being rated the worst in academic performance in the state of Ohio.

The bad, of course, is that the state designation of academic emergency exacerbates the district’s problems created by its financial collapse. In 2006, the Ohio auditor’s office deemed the Youngstown system to be in a fiscal emergency and since then, a state oversight commission has controlled the purse strings.

The good in the academic-emergency status can be found in the role State Superintendent of Public Instruction Deborah Delisle will now play in guiding the Youngstown City School District out of last place.

Delisle met with school board members, Superintendent Wendy Webb and other officials on Tuesday and made it clear that failure to resurrect the system academically is not an option. Her comments about the emergency designation and the challenges confronting the state department of education, the school board, the administration, principals, teachers and others were direct and necessary.

“This is a sobering time for the Youngstown school district,” she said.

A five-member Academic Distress Commission — three appointed by the state superintendent and two by the school board — will be in place in 30 days. Its assignment: to come up with an acceptable academic recovery plan within 120 days of its first meeting.

In other words, the state’s involvement in the school district will continue to be as direct and intense as it has been through the fiscal oversight commission.

Because the two panels are a creation of state law, they have the authority to act without the support of the board of education or Superintendent Webb. But that’s what the school district needs: individuals who have no axes to grind and whose only concern is the students.

Stormy financial weather

The fiscal oversight commission has performed exceptionally well and has guided the district through stormy economic weather. There is now light at the end of the budgetary tunnel.

The Academic Distress Commission should seek the input of a broad cross-section of the school system and the community. Time is of the essence. Failure to develop a viable academic recovery plan is not only unacceptable to the stakeholders, but could result in much tougher sanctions from the state.

“You are facing a difficult future as a board,” state Superintendent Delisle told the members.

Her comments last week and her no-nonsense approach to what must be done with the worst school district in the state are reassuring. A couple of months ago, we worried that state officials appeared to solicitous of local officials.

It has been clear for some time that the Youngs–town City School District has failed because those in charge lack the experience, knowledge or skills necessary to operate an urban school system with a large number of students who have special needs — financially and academically.

One of the issues the Academic Distress Commission must address is whether the administrative staff, led by Superintendent Webb, and the teaching staff are up to the challenge of turning the system around.

As the fiscal oversight commission has shown, having fresh sets of eyes prying into the school district is essential to breaking the cycle of failure.