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Youngstown Schools Official: Unique chance for a change
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Youngstown schools have a unique opportunity for change, according to the president of a Cincinnati-based education foundation.
“The whole landscape is in the process of being reset,” said Brian Ross, president and CEO of KnowledgeWorks.
By someone pushing the restart button, you have the permission to make changes that are more bold or aggressive than what you normally would be able to do, he said.
At the Youngstown City Schools Academic Distress Commission meeting last week, Stan Heffner, the state superintendent of public instruction, said that the Raymond John Wean Foundation, based in Warren, along with KnowledgeWorks, had offered resources to involve community outreach in the effort to improve the city schools.
“This is one of those critical moments in the community,” said Jeff Glebocki, president of the Raymond John Wean Foundation. “We think that [Superintendent] Connie [Hathorn] has got his hands full, making some tough decisions in moving the district forward. Early indications are they may be paying off.”
As the district wrestles with the next set of challenges, Glebocki said, it makes sense for the organization to become involved to ensure that the next academic recovery plan for the city schools “works for the district, works for the community and works for the state department.”
KnowledgeWorks was instrumental in bringing an early college program to the city schools in 2004. Youngstown Early College is a collaboration between Youngstown schools and Youngstown State University. It’s the only city school that earned an excellent designation on the last few report cards.
At that same meeting, the first commission gathering since Heffner replaced three original members with his own appointees, the state’s top educator said a revised plan to move the district out of academic distress needed more work.
An updated plan is expected by February.
The academic distress commission was appointed last year after the city district was designated in academic emergency and failed to meet adequate yearly progress on state report cards. It is the first and only such commission in Ohio.
Commission members serve without pay.
“We have a number of methodologies that we’ve implemented that either help failing schools get a lot better or help good schools become very good schools, and also methodologies that help build community support around an educational agenda,” Ross said. Among the efforts of KnowledgeWorks and its subsidiaries is the use of technology to better prepare students for college and the working world. Those methods combine high expectations for students with project-based learning, the CEO said.
Glebocki said exactly what resources the Wean Foundation will offer will depend on what’s needed.
“We’ve opened the door for conversation,” he said. “We didn’t think [the assistance] should be prescriptive at this point.”
The Wean Foundation, though, did make it clear that the community should be involved in what happens next with the commission, he said.
The community must be engaged in the decision making, Glebocki said.
“It has to be more than a singular public meeting where the public is told, ‘Here’s the plan, what do you think of it?’” he said. “The community should be engaged in the ideas for what the future might look like.”