CEO could strip Youngstown school board of its authority

YOUNGSTOWN — If the chief executive officer of the city schools wants, he or she can assume all of the responsibilities of the school board except for tax levies, under the new Youngstown Plan.

“However, the CEO may also choose to give the board a prominent role in the district,” Michael Sponhour, an Ohio Department of Education spokesman, said in an email.

The Youngstown Plan, approved by the Ohio Legislature and signed last month by Gov. John Kasich, disbands the school district’s academic distress commission and replaces it with a new one.

That new five-member panel — three of whom will be appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction, one by the mayor and the fifth, who must be a teacher, by the school board — appoints a CEO who will have broad authority. That individual will manage and operate the district.

“The board has an opportunity right now to work with the community and come up with ideas to improve the district,” Sponhour said. “This way, when the CEO starts, the board can help him or her hit the ground running."

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