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Warren school board meets with group calling for chief’s removal
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Warren Board of Education met Tuesday with about a dozen members of Citizens for Educational Reform, a group that is calling for Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg’s removal, more minority educators and more teachers.
The Rev. Robert Stringer told the five-member school board that committee members think the board is “giving a pass” to Hellweg during annual evaluations, despite the school’s remaining in academic watch for five consecutive years.
“It’s nothing personal. You say [Hellweg] needs more time. The ship is sinking,” the Rev. Mr. Stringer said.
“We cannot wait five more years,” said another member of the committee, Annette McCoy.
Patty Limperos, board president, said replacing the superintendent is not a “magic bullet” that will improve the school district’s performance on state report cards.
“If you think a superintendent is going to come in here and make us effective overnight, that isn’t going to happen,” board member Ed Bolino agreed.
In written materials presented to the board, the committee said it would like to see a “community focus group” formed by Jan. 31 to assist with the selection of a new superintendent and for the community to have some input on the final choice by June 1.
The group said it’s unacceptable for only 8 percent of the school district’s certified staff to be minorities when its minority enrollment is 53.5 percent.
McCoy said the current student-teacher ratio is 27:1, which should be reduced to 20:1 or lower.
Bolino said a 15:1 student-teacher ratio “would put the district in fiscal emergency.”
McCoy, who said she moved back to the Warren area in April after living in New Jersey for 35 years, was among three people whose names were on a lawsuit filed in July in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that sought to stop the demolition of the former Warren Western Reserve High School.
The suit eventually was dismissed, McCoy said, and the demolition was completed earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Rick Thompson, a 1968 Reserve graduate, was planning to ask the board of education at a later meeting Tuesday to build a memorial to “the education we received at the former WWR High School Campus.”
Thompson is proposing that the memorial be placed at the corner of Elm Road and Atlantic Street near the existing Warren Harding High School memorial.