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Judge blocks Kimble’s choice for Youngstown distress panel
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Carol Staten won’t be serving on the city schools academic distress commission – at least not yet.
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order to the Youngstown Education Association, the union representing teachers at Youngstown City Schools.
The teachers argue that the appointment should be a city schools teacher.
The temporary order prevents Brenda Kimble, school board president, from appointing Staten, a substitute principal, or anyone else who isn’t a city schools teacher, to the commission and prevents Staten from accepting the appointment.
A hearing on a preliminary injunction in the matter is set for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 14.
“I’m going to let the court take its course,” Kimble said.
She said she supports the teachers and that support predates her tenure as a board member.
“This is not their appointment,” she said.
Kimble said her appointment, which she said was made with the consensus of the full school board, is supposed to represent the whole school district and be a liaison for the school board.
“I still have to do what I think is best for the total school district and not just for one organization,” Kimble said.
Paula Valentini, YEA vice president, is pleased with the judge’s decision.
“We felt strongly that our case was justified and that the best selection for the academic commission – and the person who would be able to do the most amount of good – would be ... an active teacher in that position,” she said.
The teachers are the ones who have the closest contact with children regarding academics, Valentini said.
“We’re the ones who are looking at the data and addressing whatever problems they’re having with academics,” she said. “We understand the program because we’re the ones who have to implement the programs and take part in professional development with any initiative. We’re working on the ground level, and we see what’s working and what’s not working, and we have ideas we’d like to share.”
Kimble said that when she and Michael Murphy, board vice president, met with Valentini and Larry Ellis, YEA president, the teachers talked only about the concerns of teachers.
“They were not concerned about the crossing guards, principals or others who aren’t represented by a union,” she said. “They didn’t have concerns about the other unions. They were just thinking it’s all about them. I think that’s very sad because it’s supposed to be about the whole district.”
Valentini said the commission is about academics.
“I believe that those groups would agree that when it comes to academics, the teachers are the ones with the expertise, and, therefore, they would be able to make a better contribution on an academic commission,” she said.
The academic distress commission is the panel that will appoint a chief executive officer to manage and operate the school district under the Youngstown Plan.
The CEO, who will be paid by the state, will have broad authority.
The commission includes five members: three appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction; one by the mayor; and a fifth, a district teacher, appointed by the school board president.
Staten is a retired school district principal who now serves as a substitute principal when called by the district.
The teachers union argues that the appointment should have been a teacher.
In defending her appointment last week, Kimble pointed to a portion of state law that defined a teacher as “all persons licensed to teach and who are employed in the public schools of this state as instructors, principals, supervisor, superintendents or any other educational position for which the state board of education requires licensure.”
In his motion for the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, Atty. Ira Mirkin, who represents the union, wrote that Staten, who is Kimble’s cousin, is not a teacher employed by the city schools.
“She has no classroom instructional duties,” Mirkin wrote.
Kimble acknowledged that she and Staten are cousins but points out they aren’t first cousins. She’s been to Staten’s house only a handful of times, and they see each other at family reunions, Kimble added.
“That woman has been in the district for 35 years,” the board president said. “She shouldn’t be penalized from holding a voluntary position just because I decided to run for [school] board.”