New direction for city schools being forged by commissions

The times they are a-changing in the Youngstown City School District. A new superintendent will be on board January 2011, the district’s academic recovery blueprint will be unveiled Monday, and revised economic projections that reflect reality will be forthcoming.

Superintendent Wendy Webb’s announcement last month that she will retire Jan. 1 has resulted in the board of education launching a national search for her successor. The timing is propitious because it coincides with the two other major changes taking place in the urban school district.

First, in the area of academics, the recovery plan, developed by the state-mandate Academic Distress Commission, will be submitted to Ohio’s superintendent for public instruction. The commission was empaneled by Superintendent Deborah S. Delisle after the Youngstown district earned the distinction of being the worst in the state.

Delisle has final say on whether the commission’s blueprint is adopted by the district. The goal is to improve the F grade.

Second, the system’s fiscal health is being re-diagnosed after another state commission that has controlled the purse strings since 2006 disagreed with the assumptions contained in a revised five-year forecast prepared by Treasurer William Johnson.

Roger Nehls, commission chairman, characterized what Johnson submitted as “probably the most optimistic five-year forecast” of any district he has reviewed.

Nehls has made it clear that the board of education has no choice but to seek a renewal of the 9.5-mill emergency levy approved by voters in 2009. The tax expires in 2013. Some board members have said that it is unfair to ask financially hard-pressed residents to continue paying the millage for another several years.

But the fiscal commission warned Johnson and other district officials that state support for public education will, in all probability, be cut because of revenue shortfalls. Gov. Ted Strickland and legislators are bracing for the loss of billions in federal stimulus dollars that were used to fill holes in the current biennial budget.

Thus, the surpluses in Johnson’s five-year forecast are unlikely to materialize, if the state oversight panel’s assumptions are correct.

Changes inevitable

With the hiring of a new superintendent, the adoption of an academic recovery plan and a revised five-year economic forecast, changes are inevitable in the school district. State law gives Superintendent Delisle and the fiscal oversight commission so much power that opposition to programs deemed necessary to pull the district out of the academic and fiscal doldrums is foolhardy.

For instance, the academic commission has suggested the elimination of seniority rights for teachers on classroom assignments. The teachers’ union can be expected to fight the provision, but the goal is to get the best qualified teachers in the classroom — not the longest serving ones.

The Youngstown City School District is in trouble because major changes that have long been necessary have been impossible to implement.

Without a new direction academically and fiscally, the system will not survive.