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Youngstown board to consider levy next week
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
City school-board members expect to decide the future of a tax levy next week.
The 9.5-mill emergency levy passed by voters in 2008 expires in 2013, but if the school board wants a renewal or replacement on the ballot early next year, the information has to be presented to the Mahoning County Board of Elections in the first week of December.
Board members at a meeting Thursday set next Friday for a first reading of levy language with a second reading planned for Nov. 22.
Some members previously have said they favor a lower millage, but no amount has been determined.
Lock P. Beachum Sr., board president, said one consideration in determining millage is the cost of implementation of an updated academic recovery plan for the district.
Doug Hiscox, deputy superintendent for academic affairs, expects to have those numbers late next week. The full plan’s cost could be about $1 million, he said.
The updated plan, which must be approved by the state superintendent, lays out eight components that must be addressed to improve academics and student achievement.
“There’s nothing in there that we can’t do,” superintendent Connie Hathorn said of the updated plan. “But it’s just a plan. We have to work the plan.”
Though the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission is charged by the state with implementing the plan, the city schools must pay for it. The commission was established in 2010 after the school district failed to meet adequate yearly progress and was designated in academic emergency, the lowest rating, on the state report card.
The district improved one step, to academic watch, on the 2010-11 report cards.
In other business, the board welcomed three students to its ranks.
Leon Robinson Jr., a senior at Youngstown Early College; Patricia Sharp, a senior at East; and Janae Ward, a senior at Chaney, are the student board members for the 2011-12 school year.
Robinson is treasurer of the National Honor Society and was selected to help tutor other students in math. He is also in the Ohio State University Young Scholars Program.
Sharp is her class treasurer, a member of Student Council, National Honor Society, participates in Quiz Bowl and is involved with Upward Bound.
Ward, active in Sojourn to the Past, also is on the varsity volleyball team and a member of both the Key Club and Youth for Justice.