KnowledgeWorks board member not giving up on Youngstown schools

KnowledgeWorks board member not giving up on Youngstown schools

Youngstown

A retired federal judge and city native says he’s not giving up on the city schools.

“I’m going to continue to urge my colleagues in KnowledgeWorks to maintain their interest in the hopes there may be rethinking in Youngstown that may lead to a much more positive reaction,” said Judge Nathaniel Jones, a member of the board of directors of KnowledgeWorks.

KnowledgeWorks is a Cincinnati-based education reform organization that provided the impetus for Youngstown Early College, the only school in the city district to be designated excellent on the state report card.

The organization visited the city earlier this year, saying it would secure financial backing if the school district agreed to a full-scale restart.

Neither the Academic Distress Commission nor the city school board acted on the request, and Superintendent Connie Hathorn said he wasn’t interested.

Hathorn said the district needed to be consistent and to stick to one plan.

KnowledgeWorks then said last week that its work in the city has been concluded, citing Hathorn’s disinterest.

“I was very disappointed at the direction that things took,” said Judge Jones, retired from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Cincinnati. “I think it’s worth pressing the case.”

He said that while people, including the academic commission, Hathorn and community leaders seemed receptive to KnowledgeWorks’ proposal, he was surprised that it wasn’t embraced.

“I would have thought that the response from local educators would have been much more positive,” the judge said. “In other communities, it would have been.”