Youngstown school board should give up the fight

Just a couple of days after the State Superin-tendent of Public Instruction Deborah Delisle painted a bleak picture of the Youngstown City School District, school board members demonstrated that they have the attention span of 1st graders. Rather than talk about what their role will be in saving the district from academic destruction, they embarked on a fool’s errand by challenging the authority of the state fiscal oversight commission, which has statutory control of the system’s finances.

As we’ve noted several times, the commission’s presence is the result of the city school district not being able to stop the flow of red ink in its operating budget. This resulted in the state auditor in 2006 declaring the system to be in fiscal emergency; that triggered the appointment of the commission.

Left to their own devices, the administration, led by Superintendent Wendy Webb, and the board of education would have guided the district into a financial black hole. Today, however, there is hope for a stable future.

Why, then, would the board of education, presided over by Anthony Catale, keep battling the commission over a transportation-support services contract? We aren’t sure. If this has something to do with the panel usurping the powers of the board, we have a simple message for Catale and his colleagues: You have none.

The state has come in and is taking over the city school district’s finances and academics because the law requires it to do so when a system has failed.

Statutory authority

The commission, ably led by Roger Nehls, believes it is acting within the scope of its statutory authority in seeking to approve all district purchase orders and all contracts for legal services before implementation. The panel amended the district’s fiscal recovery plan to reflect the added responsibility because the school board had voted to hire a Cleveland law firm to challenge the commission’s involvement in the transportation-support services contract.

This is a battle that will be costly and will distract from the real problems confronting the Youngstown City School District. State Superintendent Delisle did not mince words when she met with school officials and board members to explain what lies ahead.

Pulling the system out of academic emergency will not be easy. Members of the board of education who are elected by the people have a responsibility to ensure that they are at the table when the tough decisions about schools, principals, teachers and the administrative staff are made.

An academic recovery plan isn’t just about what should be taught in the classrooms to ensure that the city’s school children are able to pass the state’s proficiency tests. It’s about whether the system has the teaching and administrative capability to ensure that learning takes place.

Getting into a battle with the fiscal commission that prevented a complete financial meltdown of the district is ill-advised and myopic. There are many more important challenges for the school board to address than the transportation contract.

“To me, this is not a dead issue,” said Catale, after the commission amended the recovery plan to expand its authority. The board president said he and his colleagues will research the case law cited by a commission member as legal precedent for the actions.

Given what lies ahead for the worst academic district in the state of Ohio, we would advise the board to end this futile and counterproductive battle.