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School district agrees to pay for consultant
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown City School District will pick up the tab for the services of a consultant to help a state Academic Distress Commission develop an academic recovery plan for the city schools.
The cost for the contract with the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio in Dublin, Ohio, will be $24,984.75.
The school board approved the expenditure Tuesday.
The Academic Distress Commission is charged with preparing an academic recovery plan that will help the city school district improve from a state rating of academic emergency to a rating of continuous improvement. That plan must be presented to the state secretary of public instruction by June 30.
The five-member commission has been meeting weekly to gather information in anticipation of drafting a recovery plan but determined it needs the services of an outside consultant to help coordinate the effort.
The Ohio Department of Education put out a request for proposals seeking a consultant for that task and got only a single response — that of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio.
The city school district is required to pay for the service.
June Drennen, a city school-board member who has been attending the commission meetings, said the commission has indicated it will use Youngstown’s new five-year strategic plan for academic improvement as its starting point for developing the state-mandated plan.
Anthony Catale, Youngstown school-board president, said it is his understanding that the commission will focus on completing a needs assessment for the district and then develop a short-term academic turn-around plan to present to the state.
The school district has set aside $1.2 million in federal stimulus money to pay for any changes the distress commission opts to implement in the city schools.