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Akron’s model spurs new hope for Youngstown schools
YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOLS REORGANIZATION
The Akron schools were one of the districts considered when the Youngstown school district developed its reorganization plan that includes converting Chaney High School to a visual and performing arts and Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math school for sixth through 12th grades. Akron has both a STEM and visual-performing arts school. Some details:
District enrollment
Youngstown: 6,405
Akron: 23,000
High schools
Youngstown, two
regular, one early college, one career technical and one alternative; Akron, 10 including an early college and a digital academy.
Middle schools
Youngstown, four
including Rayen Early
College; Akron, 11 including digital academy.
Elementary schools: Youngstown, seven ; Akron, 35 including digital academy.
Akron’s Miller South Middle School, visual and performing arts, started
in 1993. It enrolls 496 students.
Akron’s STEM middle
school started in the 2008-09 school year as a partnership between the schools, the National
Inventors Hall of Fame, Greater Akron Chamber, the city of Akron and the University of Akron. It
enrolls 288 students in fifth through seventh grades with eighth grade to be added next year.
Source: Akron schools and Youngstown schools website
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
A school district upon which Youngstown modeled its school reorganization rates continuous improvement on the latest school report card, but its visual-performing arts and STEM schools rank excellent.
Last month, Superintendent Connie Hathorn announced a plan to reor-ganize the city schools beginning next school year. Within that plan, Chaney High School will become a visual and performing arts and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math school for students in sixth through 12th grades.
Students at East High School will focus on electives in business, education and law.
Akron Public Schools, where Hathorn worked for nearly 20 years, opened Miller South Visual and Performing Arts Middle School in 1993. Its STEM middle school started in the 2008-09 school year.
“At Miller South, generally students move on to Firestone High School,” said Leah Nemeth, Akron schools’ communications manager. “The STEM school is for grades fifth through seventh, and we’re adding eighth next school year. Following completion [at that school], those students will move on to STEM high schools which are under development.”
Firestone offers a visual and performing arts program within its curriculum.
The Youngstown city schools have been designated in academic emergency, the lowest rating, on the state’s latest report card. Akron, at continuous improvement, is two rungs up.
But both Firestone and the STEM school were designated excellent, with Miller South earning excellent with distinction, the highest rating.
“That gives you hope,” said Lock P. Beachum Sr., city school board president. “I think in those particular schools, kids are in an atmosphere or an environment, and they’ve chosen the subjects where they want to be. They’ve signed somewhat of a contract where they will perform.”
Students who attend Youngstown Early College also sign a contract pledging to commit to their work. If they don’t perform, they face returning to regular high school.
“That lets students know they have some great possibilities here,” Beachum said. “They can go on to college and other success. They can stay here and learn, and we’ll put you in a safe environment. The only thing you have to think about is academic performance, and that should be the main goal of ours.”
Nemeth said that both the STEM and visual-performing arts schools attract students from other districts through open enrollment.
Hathorn has said that one of his aims with the reorganization is to not just retain the students who attend city schools but to get some of those who have left to return and to potentially draw in students from other districts.
Nemeth said Miller South and the STEM school are among that district’s top schools that draw students through open enrollment.
Visual-performing arts students are selected through an audition. The STEM school has a lottery to fill spots for incoming fifth-graders with a small number of slots available for outside students.
“This past year, we had 190 applications and took 110 students in fifth grade,” Nemeth said. “About 10 students were from outside districts.”
Beachum said that overall, the feedback he’s received from the community about the school reorganization has been positive.
A community meeting is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the East auditorium, 474 Bennington Ave., to discuss the plan.
“People realize we had to do something different,” Beachum said. “The status quo was not working anymore, and we had to make some changes.”