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Hopeful: Scores are No. 1 priority
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Campbell Superintendent Thomas Robey
By Denise Dick
Campbell educator sees Youngstown similarities
By DENISE DICK
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Thomas Robey says he wants to be the next city schools superintendent to improve test scores.
“My only mission in desiring this job is to make a difference for your children,” Robey, superintendent of Campbell schools, told the roughly 35 people gathered at a public forum Tuesday.
When he was hired in Campbell about five years ago, that district was in continuous improvement, said Robey, who has a master’s degree in educational administration.
“My sole goal was to improve academic performance,” Robey, of Hubbard, said. “Like all districts, parents want to be proud of their students. They want to be proud of their schools.”
The Campbell district has earned a designation of excellent on the state report cards the last two years, and its value-added score, which measures how much progress students have made since the prior year, has increased for the last three years.
“It’s a smaller district than Youngstown city, but it still faces many of the same problems,” Robey said.
On the latest report card released last week, Youngstown was designated in academic emergency, the lowest rating, for the second year.
Demographically the two school districts are similar too. About 75 percent of Campbell students are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program. That number is about 89 percent in Youngstown.
About 40 percent of Campbell students are black. In Youngstown, about 69 percent of students are black.
To improve the scores in Campbell, the district brought in literacy tutors and initiated early-education programs as part of the plan.
Those are some of the steps included in the city district’s academic-recovery plan.
“There’s also a need to increase and improve family and community engagement,” Robey said.
And trust must be established between the superintendent and the staff, he said.
When asked how he would handle discipline, Robey said it must be done with dignity and respect.
“Students cannot learn in an unstructured environment,” he said.
For some students, that may mean they need a nontraditional setting such as online classes or an alternative school.
“You have to have discipline before you have education,” Robey said. “For some children, education needs to take place in a different environment.”
Another audience member asked, through the forum facilitator, if he sees a need for more minority teachers and staff to relate to students.
“We need to make a concerted effort to hire minorities to better represent the community we’re serving,” Robey said. “That requires a concerted effort to recruit them and find them.”
Robey is the fourth of five finalists for the superintendent job to address and answer questions from the public in a community forum. The forum for the last finalist, Connie Hathorn, executive director of student support for the Akron City Schools, is set for 7:30 p.m. today at Choffin Career and Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St.