Lowellville schools asks community to complete survey by Friday

LOWELLVILLE

In Lowellville, change is a given for the 2014-15 school year.

It did, after all, begin with new faces filling two of the top three administrative roles in the district.

Eugene M. Thomas replaced Rocco Nero as superintendent.

Christine Sawicki, a former consultant with the Mahoning County Educational Service Center, assumed the newly created position of assistant principal, and has been working closely with Jared Van Kirk, K-12 principal since the 2012-13 school year.

The district is, admittedly, in “a little bit of a transition period,” said Joe Ballone, a school board member. “But in this case, I think change is going to be a good thing for the district.”

With those changes, both administrators and board members felt the time was right to take stock of “what’s important to the community” and to also make transparency in all matters a priority, said Jim Alfano, board president.

“Everybody needs to know what’s going on,” he explained.

So, district administrators and board members developed a survey — available through Friday on the school district’s website, www.lowellville.k12.oh.us — that will be used to guide “decision-making in the future,” Alfano said.

The survey, which Sawicki was key in developing, includes questions concerning potential enhancements to the website, perceived availability and accessibility of the district administrators and challenges facing the district in the next few years, among others.

“We’ll be using [the feedback] to gauge where we’re at and to figure out where we want to go,” Alfano noted, saying he’d love to see everyone associated with the district, which this year serves about 600 students, complete the survey. “It’s crucial to stay on the same page.”

Read more about it in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.