NAACP wants to help Youngstown schools; calls for firing of leaders

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Branch of the NAACP wants to answer the call of state officials to aid in improving the city schools.

“The NAACP is part of the community at large, and we want to see dramatic change,” George Freeman Jr., president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told city school board members at a meeting Tuesday. “We’re willing to be part of the state superintendent’s call to action to the broad community. He says he needs our help. We’re here to offer it to the local elected officials.”

If the school board isn’t willing to work with the organization, Freeman said the group would seek partnerships with people in Columbus.

Last August, Richard Ross, state superintendent of public instruction, said in an interview with The Vindicator that he was calling on the community to come forward to help improve the schools.

During a news conference Monday, Freeman said he believes that Superintendent Connie Hathorn and the deputy superintendent should be replaced because of the lack of progress on the state report card for the district.

Hathorn and Doug Hiscox, deputy superintendent for academic affairs, have the backing of others in the community, however.

Mayor John A. McNally said his “strong support” remains for the schools’ top two administrators.

McNally wrote in a statement Tuesday to the media that “some in the community continue to mistakenly believe that the academic problems of the district fall squarely on the superintendent’s office.”

He added: “No one is satisfied with the recent [Youngstown schools] report card issued by the Ohio Department of Education. But, as Superintendent Hathorn pointed out during his State of the School District address last week, a period of stability must continue in the district, not only in school locations and academic programs, but also in leadership in the district.”

The mayor also urged more parental involvement for the district to “see long-term improvement in academic performance indicators.” Without more involvement from parents, “no amount of meaningful success” for the district “will occur.”

One of the school board’s student members said she heard support for Hathorn from a parent with whom she spoke.

The district is improving, but “nothing happens overnight,” Shakayla Poole, an East High School representative on the school board, said, quoting from a parent.

The parent said that since Hathorn’s arrival, there has been improvement at Chaney, the parent’s alma mater.