Wednesday, June 20, 2012
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Hathorn
By Denise Dick
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.”
When KnowledgeWorks visits communities and offers its resources, it’s generally welcomed by people within that community, he said.
Lock P. Beachum Sr., school board president, said the district is open to any help the judge wants to offer.
He’s concerned about costs, however, as the schools face a tenuous financial situation. A levy passed in 2008 is expected to appear on the November ballot although it hasn’t been determined if it will be a renewal or a replacement.
“From a financial point of view we have to be really cautious,” Beachum said. “It’s something that would have to be under study to see if we could afford it. The board has to review it and the academic commission.”
KnowledgeWorks’ visits to the city and its presentation to the commission came a couple of weeks before the commission was set to approve an updated plan mapping out steps to move the district out of academic distress.
KnowledgeWorks approached city school officials, offering assistance at the suggestion of Stan Heffner, state superintendent of public instruction.
Judge Jones said there wasn’t much time between when Heffner asked the organization to get involved and when KnowledgeWorks came to town.
“It all came to a head rather quickly,” he said. “There was not an extended period between when the request was made and when we came to the city.”
He’s going to urge KnowledgeWorks to keep trying to help in the city.
“It’s not as though we are a business with a balance-loss sheet,” Judge Jones said. “We’re dealing with human beings and lives and the future of children. That’s our calling, and we just can’t throw people under the bus. I owe so much to that community.”
His entire formal education occurred in the city and he feels indebted to it, he said. One of the federal courthouses in downtown Youngstown bears the judge’s name.
“It seems to me the least I can do is keep pressing the issue,” the judge said. “There are such good people there and people who really care. You can’t let one bump in the road or one seeming rejection from someone keep you from something that is so important.”