Youngstown schools receive intriguing offer of assistance

Over the years, many individuals have walked through the doors of The Vindicator with cures for the academically and fiscally ailing Youngstown City School District. To be sure, they have been well intentioned and sincere about wanting to help, but their proposals have lacked the one ingredient that could ensure success: money. Until now.

On Feb. 22, top officials of Cincinnati-based KnowledgeWorks, an education-reform organization, met with Vindicator writers to discuss a plan they have developed for Youngstown schools.

The officials, including Youngstown native Nathaniel Jones, retired federal judge, used the word “bold” several times to not only describe their academic recovery blueprint, but to define the role Superintendent Connie Hathorn, the school board and the state academic distress commission would have to play in implementing it.

“We know from significant on-the-ground experience in Youngstown and other districts like it, that it’s not enough to improve the existing system,” a document that’s part of the Youngstown plan states. “The existing low-performance system has a life, an inertia, all its own. Turning the system around takes a remedy with an equally strong pull.”

But what sets KnowledgeWorks apart from the numerous education consultants and entities that have studied the district is that the organization is willing to secure some of the funding needed to implement the recommendations — if the district formally commits to moving forward boldly with the plan.

The aim: To reopen Youngstown city schools in the fall of 2013 in an entirely new system with the goal of ensuring that every student will be successful in school and graduate with the academic skills to pursue higher education or career training — without requiring remediation in basic course work.

It is worth noting that KnowledgeWorks was invited to focus on the Youngstown district by the current state superintendent of public instruction, Stan Heffner, and his predecessor, Deborah Delisle. Also, the organization has already invested over $4 million in the city school district — for the creation of Youngstown Early College, in conjunction with Youngstown State University and the city schools, and for the transformation of the high schools into smaller, specialized entities within the schools.

The Youngstown Early College has been a success, evidenced by the fact that it is the only school in the district to be designated excellent in the last few state report cards. The transformation of the high schools, however, was not as successful for a multitude of reasons.

Thus, KnowledgeWorks has come up with a strategy that decentralizes education in Youngstown, with an emphasis on autonomy at the school level, in concert with formal district-wide and school-based councils.

Intriguing idea

One of the ideas that we find most intriguing is the establishment of community learning centers within each city school campus. They would serve as a hub for community services, provide access for students and families to health, safety and social services, as well as recreational, educational and cultural opportunities.

KnowledgeWorks’ officials met with members of the state academic distress commission, which was created after the Youngstown district was placed in academic emergency. The commission and the board of education, along with Superintendent Hathorn, have been working on an academic recovery plan. The state superintendent of instruction, Heffner, will have the final say.

KnowledgeWorks has developed a vision for the Youngstown City School District that involves rebuilding it from the ground up, in a manner of speaking. All segments of the community, especially the students and their parents, the teachers and administrators, and the business sector, must participate in the discussions.

Youngstown is running out of time. Heffner has made it clear that he expects the district to be at continuous improvement by the next state testing period, or the Ohio Department of Education will come in and make changes.

The KnowledgeWorks plan could represent Youngstown’s last chance to maintain a degree of local control in rebuilding the system.