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Specialty enrollees in Youngstown district top 300
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The new visual and performing arts, and science, technology, engineering and math schools in the city will house about 330 students next year.
Both specialty schools, along with Rayen Early College Middle School, will be housed in the Chaney High School building next fall as part of a reorganization plan for the city school district.
Beverly Schumann, curriculum director, told school-board members this week that the district is in the process of notifying parents and students about whether or not they were accepted into one of the programs. The schools will offer the programs to sixth- through 12th-graders.
“There were 12 students who were accepted in [both] VPA and STEM,” she said.
Those students have the option of selecting the program in which they’ll participate. Two of those students are Felipe Diaz, an eighth-grader at Volney Rogers Middle School, and Mark Leventry, an eighth-grader at Wilson Middle School. Felipe chose VPA, and Mark picked STEM.
“I like computers, and I like to draw,” said Mark, 14.
He’s excited about starting at the new school. Initially, he wanted to attend the new Chaney because that’s where most of his friends were going to try to go, Mark said, but he also liked what will be offered.
“It seemed like a better school than the one most of the kids in Youngstown would be going to,” he said.
Raquel Diaz, Felipe’s mother, said her son is “very excited” about the new school.
“He’s ready to see what it’s going to be,” she said.
Felipe enjoys painting and drawing and hopes to hone those skills at the VPA, Raquel Diaz said.
“I think it’s time,” she said. “The schools have done a lot of other things, but this area really needed a change. It’s something to come into this area that it doesn’t really have. When I heard about it, I thought it was great. Other places like New York and other places have arts schools and things that somehow act as motivators for the kids. It’s time to think outside the box.”
The VPA school will include 165 students, and STEM will have 170.
One additional step before acceptance is official is a parent meeting next week. Parents will be required to attend with their child to secure the student’s admission.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn said he expected more students to apply to the schools but attributed the lower number to the newness of the programs. “People want to see what’s going to happen,” he said.
He has noted that among the applicants for the STEM and VPA schools were 50 students from outside the district.
All the students who applied for the schools completed an audition or interview process.
East High School, for 10th- through 12th-graders, will focus electives on business, education and law. Both schools will maintain core curriculum classes.
The district also will have an eighth-and-ninth-grade and two sixth-and-seventh-grade academies and combine its three alternative-school programs into one to be housed at the former Mary Haddow School building on Oak Street Extension.
The district is interviewing teachers to fill the slots at the new Chaney, the eighth-and-inth-grade academy and the alternative school.