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Leader has made difference
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Edward Stark, who becomes superintendent of the Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities’ Fairhaven Program on March 1, wasn’t working for the board in 2001 when Dr. Douglas Burkhardt became superintendent.
By Ed Runyan
NILES
Edward Stark, who becomes superintendent of the Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities’ Fairhaven Program on March 1, wasn’t working for the board in 2001 when Dr. Douglas Burkhardt became superintendent.
But he knows enough about how troubled the program was under its former superintendent and assistant superintendent to appreciate what a positive difference Burkhart’s leadership has made.
“Twelve years ago, it was a really different program. It’s really a testament to his strong leadership ability,” Stark said of Burkhardt. “Our reputation is light years ahead of where it was,” Stark said.
Burkhart was named superintendent in January 2001 after the board reached a settlement with former superintendent Douglas Reynolds and his wife, Barbara J. Keso-Reynolds, former assistant superintendent.
The settlement resolved charges the board brought against the two over allegations tied to a state audit that contained findings for recovery of $400,000, allegations regarding improper payment of employees and other things.
An indication of how far the program has come since then is that the program’s most-recent accreditation was for five years, which is two years longer than most agencies receive, Stark said.
Burkhardt, 65, a Cleveland native who has worked in the developmental-disabilities field for 42 years, plans to retire to Strasburg, Ohio, and travel, he said.
He traveled some during his 12 years with the Niles-based program — about three hours each day in his car, round-trip, from Strasburg.
Burkhardt served as developmental-disabilities superintendent for 32 years in three other Ohio counties — Tuscarawas, Mahoning and Ashtabula. He worked 10 years at schools in the Cleveland area.
Stark, a Beaver Falls native, has worked in the developmental-disabilities field for 23 years, the last eight for the Trumbull program and the last six as director of adult services and assistant superintendent.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have had Dr. Burkhardt as a mentor and instill the knowledge I will need to lead this organization into the future,” Stark said.
While working in Trumbull County, Stark has also worked about 15 days per year as an evaluator for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, an accreditor of programs such as Fairhaven.
Stark says the work, which has helped him see innovative programs across the country, should help him innovate at the Fairhaven program.
Among his plans as superintendent are to expand a new program that allows adults in the Fairhaven program to move out into the community to work in the private sector.
So far, only a handful of the program’s 450 adults work outside of workshops in Niles and Champion.
“What we’re seeing is kids coming out of high school who don’t necessarily want to work in a workshop setting,” Stark said, adding that they can make more money in the private sector.
“They want to work in the community. It provides a meaningful work environment for them, a sense of career and integrates them into the community in a way they wouldn’t normally do in a workshop.”
Another goal, Stark says, is to enhance relationships with the county’s school districts and vocational schools to help prepare developmentally disabled students age 16 to 22 for work.
Warren G. Harding High School, for instance, has a program in which a Fairhaven teacher works one-on-one with students performing in-school jobs. Similar sites are Shepherd of the Valley in Howland and Niles and the Fairhaven School.
The Fairhaven program, which currently serves 1,000 students and adults, has 300 employees, down 50 from when Burkhardt arrived in 2000.
The program is experiencing millions in cuts over the next two years from the state. One result was a three-year employee wage freeze that began in August 2011. Fairhaven employees pay 20 percent of the cost of their health-care premiums.
Trumbull DD’s Fairhaven school and transportation facilities are on Lincoln Way in Niles. Board offices and the Tomaski Center workshop are on North Road in Niles. It has a workshop on Educational Highway in Champion and three programs operating out of the Village Center Plaza on Youngstown Road in Niles.