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Youngstown schools hires one principal, one assistant
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The city school board hired one high-school principal and an assistant, each on a two-year contract.
Joseph J. Krumpak Jr. will earn $83,446 annually as a high-school principal, while Stanley M. Koterba III will get $73,456 annually as an assistant principal.
Krumpak, who was working in the district this past school year as a curriculum supervisor from the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, was hired for the last few weeks of the 2013-14 year as an assistant principal at Chaney when the former principal was placed on leave and the assistant principal became the acting principal.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn said after Tuesday’s board meeting that Koterba, a Mahoning Valley native, has been working at a school in Georgia.
The two men haven’t been assigned to specific buildings, but Hathorn said he hopes to hire another high-school principal, two high-school assistant principals and an elementary-school principal before the start of school in the fall because of nonrenewals, retirements and personnel reassignments.
“People are under the misconception that summertime is an easy time for the central office,” Hathorn said. “It’s our busiest time when we have to get things done.”
The hiring follows a disagreement between the board and the Youngstown City Schools Academic Distress Commission regarding high-school principal salaries.
Krumpak’s salary is within the $81,333-to-$95,436 annual range that’s been in place in the district.
The commission passed a resolution last month recommending the high-school principal salary range be raised to $95,000 to $105,000 annually, based on Hathorn’s statements that it was difficult to attract high-quality applicants because of the salary.
The board opted not to implement that recommendation.
Lock P. Beachum Sr., a former longtime school board member and a retired city school principal, cautioned board members not to lose sight of their role.
“The board has a right to set the [principal] salary,” he said. “It’s the superintendent’s job to hire the principals.”
Beachum described an effective principal as one who has concern for students, communicates with students, parents and staff, reviews teachers’ tests and students’ report cards, attends school events and is visible in both the school and the community.
In other business, board member Jacqueline Adair, in response to a Vindicator editorial criticizing the board for its number of meetings and the cost to the district, asked Treasurer James Reinhard to add up the number of meetings the board has had and the costs for each of the last five years.
She said the board isn’t meeting as a “money grab.”
“I’m perfectly willing to meet without benefit of pay,” Adair said.
Board members are doing what they believe is necessary to “get this district turned around and to meet the mission of the [academic distress] commission: to get them out of here,” she said.