Board members describe ideal superintendent

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The next city schools superintendent will be someone who understands the complexity of urban education, can get along with school board members, comprehends the significance of race in education and is able to evaluate and improve district programs, school board members said.

Brenda Kimble, school board president, believes the district’s new superintendent should know about the district, its problems and programs.

“We need somebody to come, whomever is chosen, who is familiar with what’s going on in our district so we won’t lose any ground,” she said.

Superintendent Connie Hathorn, on the job since 2011, tendered his resignation earlier this month, effective June 30. He’s accepted the superintendent job at Watson Chapel Schools in Pine Bluff, Ark.

Because the Youngstown district is under the supervision of a state- appointed academic distress commission, it’s unclear what role the Ohio Department of Education will play in selecting the new superintendent.

When Hathorn was selected in 2010, commission members at that time provided the school board with three names from a list of five finalists, saying they would be satisfied if any of those was selected. The board chose Hathorn from that list.

But much has changed, however.

The commission members are all new since then, and only two board members who were on the board five years ago — Richard Atkinson and Michael Murphy — remain.

The new superintendent should be “someone who can get along with the board and the commission who puts the students first and the teachers, and knows how to work with the community,” Murphy said.

He’d prefer someone from the area, at least someone from Ohio, he said.

Atkinson and board member Ronald Shadd couldn’t be reached to comment.

Board member Jackie Adair is blunt. She doesn’t want someone from within the district appointed superintendent.

“I’m looking for someone to come in here and pretty much kick butt and take names, and I don’t see that happening from within,” she said. “You’re not going to kick a person’s butt and take his name if he’s one of your friends.”

Jerome Williams, board member, believes the next superintendent should understand the urgency of addressing the educational needs of the students and have experience with students in urban schools.

“I’m looking for a younger person with fresh ideas who is in touch with the youth,” he said. “They should experience dealing with the kids and know how to motivate the kids.”

Board member Marcia Haire-Ellis said she wants the superintendent to evaluate programs in place in the district and determine what’s working in other urban schools.

“The superintendent should be able to listen and hear what all the different stakeholders in our community have to say,” she said. “That’s parents, community leaders and all the people who have an interest in our children. The main thing is what’s best for our children.”

The district’s new leader should also be accountable and hold members of his or her staff accountable.

“I’m looking for someone who has the skill set to take us out of academic watch and to continuous improvement and out of the hands of the academic distress commission,” Haire-Ellis said.

It would be helpful, too, if that person had experience as a superintendent or assistant superintendent in improving an urban school district, she said.

Adair also wants someone with urban school experience who understands that race matters. That doesn’t mean it has to be a black person, though, she said.

“We do come from different perspectives, and that person needs to be able to convey to the community that message and to their staff that race matters,” she said.

Surveys of 20,000 Ohio students indicate that race plays a role in academic motivation, according to ODE. Nonwhite students who receive teacher support are more likely than their white peers to be academically motivated, according to the surveys.

There’s also a difference in discipline, Adair said.

“As African-Americans, students are viewed as having all of these issues that require this harsh discipline,” she said. “And it does not necessarily mean because you’re black you’re necessarily culturally sensitive.”