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Leaders oppose schools plan
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Community, religious and labor leaders came together to voice opposition to the Youngstown Plan, legislation approved last week that would give control of the city schools to a chief executive officer appointed by a five-member commission.
The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon of New Bethel Baptist Church, chairman of the Youngstown Community Mobilization Coalition, said those attending a news conference Thursday in front of the city schools board of education building want those who designed the legislation to know their dissatisfaction.
“This is not in the best interest of our children or the taxpaying people of our community,” the Rev. Mr. Simon said.
People oppose that the plan was developed behind closed doors, he said, and that it will take away local control.
The plan was an amendment to another bill and was quickly introduced at an Ohio Senate Education Subcommittee meeting. Opponents weren’t given the opportunity to voice their protests. It was OK’d by the committee, full Senate and the House.
The Rev. Dr. M. Rosie Taylor, president of the Alli- ance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods, also opposes the bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. John Kasich.
She said she recognized that something needs to be done regarding the city schools, which have been in state-determined academic distress since 2010 with students posting failing test scores for many years before that.
But this legislation isn’t the answer, the Rev. Dr. Taylor said. The committee that initiated the change met behind closed doors to take action against the community, she said.
A committee that included Thomas Humphries, president and chief executive officer of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber; Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel; Bishop George Murry of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown; Herb Washington, president of HLW Fast Track Inc.; Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr., retired from Youngstown Municipal Court; Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College; Connie Hathorn, former city schools superintendent; and Nick Santucci, also of the chamber, began meeting several months ago to try to come up with a schools solution.
“What I’ve done has been pretty clear,” Humphries said later Thursday. “If people thought it was done in secret, that was not my intention. I gathered people who were concerned in the community who I thought I could reach out and talk to who were willing to be engaged with the state board of education and the administration to try to help the kids in the Youngstown City Schools system.”
He’s a business person, and businesses need people who are able to go to work, he said. “This population, in the city schools, are being denied that opportunity due to the lack of education they’ve been able to obtain,” Humphries said.
Paula Valentini, an elementary schoolteacher, was one of several teachers who attended Thursday’s news conference wearing a “YEA [Youngstown Education Association] United” T-shirt. She said teachers weren’t involved in the process.
“Teachers’ goals have always been to help the children of the Youngstown City School system,” Valentini said.
Jaladah Aslam, vice chairwoman of the coalition and president of the Youngstown Warren Black Caucus, said leaving students, parents, teachers, community leaders and school board members out of the process is not democracy.
Brenda Kimble, school board president, said the community needs to send a message not only in the city but across the state and throughout the country. Kasich is expected to run for president and isn’t good for public education, she said.
The message, though, “cannot be a one-day rally,” Kimble said. “It needs to be a total movement.”
She’s also voiced irritation that many of the committee members involved in the legislation aren’t city residents.
Humphries said he’s an executive in the city and pays city income tax. Of the committee members, Judge Douglas, Tressel and Bishop Murry live in Youngstown. Hathorn had a city apartment but maintained a home near Akron. Humphries lives in Liberty.
“I would like somebody to help me understand how [having people who live in the city involved] would mean we would get better results. I believe the board of education members all live in the city and their results are ...,” Humphries said without finishing the sentence. “I’m not sure I understand the line of questioning that people might have.”
As far as a loss of local control, he’s blunt. “You mean since 2010?” he asked.
The city school district lost local control that year when the state academic distress commission was appointed, he said. That followed several years of poor academic performance and low test scores.
“That law was put in place in 2007, and we were the first to fall under that law,” Humphries said. “Five years later, we found that system didn’t work. It was proven that it wasn’t working and it needed to be changed.”
And to those who are angry that they weren’t included?
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Now let’s move forward because we’re not going backwards. Let’s take advantage of the opportunity we have in front of us and let’s move forward.”
Mr. Simon said one way to try to fight the plan is through legal means, and the school board is exploring that.
If the legislation can’t be stopped, opponents would like to see it at least modified, he said.
Under the legislation, the academic-distress commission appointed five years ago would be replaced by a new five-member commission. Three of those members would be appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction, one by the mayor, and a city schools teacher would be appointed by the school board. That commission would appoint the CEO who would manage and run the school district.
“Whenever they have that kind of language, you know they’re up to something,” Mr. Simon said. “They don’t want any community activists on there.”
Nikki Davis, a community activist, said the community needs action rather than more meetings. More people need to get involved in the education system.
The action needed should be what’s best for the children, not what’s best for the state, Davis said.
The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative also plans to show opposition to the plan. A Take Back Our Schools Rally and March is planned for 3 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of Market and Federal streets.