Youngstown schools' strategic plan to be revealed in April

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

In a few weeks, the final version of the city school district’s strategic plan to improve academics while maintaining a balanced budget should be unveiled.

Superintendent Wendy Webb said at Tuesday’s board of education meeting that the plan will be presented next month to the state Academic Distress Commission, created to help the district out of academic emergency, the lowest of five rankings on the annual state report card.

Webb said the plan is designed to look at operating strategies and improve overall academic performance. Its main goal is to assist the commission in developing a district recovery plan, she noted.

Among other things, the strategic plan seeks to provide more help for students with special needs; break certain students into target groups so they receive the best instructional assistance; ensure the curriculum is more aligned with state standards; give teachers more opportunities to collaborate with one another; and make transitions for students easier, she said.

Much community input is in the plan, Webb said, adding that she hopes it also will give the commission “a sense of what the district has been through and where it hopes to go.”

“We hope the strong, rigorous plan addresses students academically, socially and emotionally to move the students forward,” the superintendent added.

The board intends to adopt it as the official strategic plan, noted Anthony Catale, board president.

Also at the session, Treasurer William Johnson expressed optimism that the district is on track to wrap up this fiscal year with a fund balance of nearly $4 million, up from a projected $3.4 million estimate he made last October.

That would mean that for the first time since the 2006-07 school year, money taken in has exceeded what has been spent.

In November 2006, the state placed Youngstown in fiscal emergency after the district’s general fund started operating with a deficit. Since then, it has borrowed more than $28 million from the state to balance the last three budgets, with the last $3 million coming in June 2009. That last loan helped to create the projected $4 million fiscal year-end balance this June 30, Johnson said.

In an effort to see fiscal solvency again, the district has cut about $32 million in spending over those three years and eliminated more than 500 positions.