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Youngstown school recovery update strips school board’s authority
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown School District Academic Commission has high goals for city schools’ improvement and is stripping the local board of some of its authority on the way to getting there.
The commission adopted a draft of the updated Academic Recovery Plan at its meeting Thursday, sending it to Richard Ross, state superintendent of public instruction, for approval.
The draft plan, if approved, also takes away some of the authority of the school board.
All administrative appointments will be recommended to and approved by the commission, not the city school board. That includes principals, leadership or special assistance positions.
In recent months, the commission had appointed a handful of principals who had been recommended by Superintendent Connie Hathorn but rejected by the school board.
President Richard Atkinson and Michael Murphy were the only school board members who attended Thursday’s commission meeting.
Atkinson said the commission’s taking over administrative appointments won’t make much difference.
“They do it anyway,” he said.
“I don’t think there have been too many principals that we’ve had a problem with,” Murphy added. “We need to get along with the commission rather than fight with them.”
One of the plan’s priorities is leadership and governance. It recommends training for school board members, between next month and January, “to clarify roles of the board and the professional staff and to eliminate micromanaging actions by the board because micromanaging can slow down or even upend critical decisions and actions that affect student achievement,” the draft plan says.
A review released in August by a panel of reviewers hired by the Ohio Department of Education noted a lack of understanding of board members’ roles and responsibilities.
Joffrey Jones, commission chairman, used that report, as well as last year’s academic recovery plan to develop the update. He used the recovery plan for Lorain City Schools, the only other district in the state that has an academic commission, for formatting purposes, he said.
Long-term goals, by the end of the 2016-17 school year, included in the plan are the district’s achieving a Performance Index score — the measure of student performance — of 85 for two consecutive years; a value-added score of a “C” for two years; meeting proficient standards in 14 of 22 academic performance indicators; and achieving an 80 percent four-year graduation rate.
The draft plan gives the commission more authority regarding matters over which the school board had some say.
“Recommendations about curriculum, instruction and assessment as well as matters regarding support services for students will be presented by the superintendent to the YADC for their approval,” the draft document says.
The number of paid school board meetings will be limited to two per month except under certain circumstances, such as hiring a superintendent or treasurer or for board meetings called for training purposes.
Board members are paid $125 per member per meeting. There had been no limit to the number of paid meetings — unlike the practice in some other districts. There were nine meetings in July.
“I don’t think Dickie [Atkinson] and I will mind having only two meetings per month,” Murphy said.
Atkinson said there may be workshops scheduled if needed.
The plan also directs that at least one of the two monthly board meetings be dedicated to school presentations and celebrations of student success.
It also would require development of a communication plan where Hathorn provides weekly written updates to school board and commission members regarding key district goals and initiatives, new challenges and progress on goal attainment.