Schiavoni calls for state superintendent’s removal

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

State Sen. Joe Schiavoni believes the state superintendent of public instruction should be replaced based on the state official’s handling of the Youngstown Plan and the actions of one of his subordinates.

Schiavoni, of Boardman, D-33rd, along with Democrats from the state house and senate believe Richard Ross, state superintendent of public instruction, should either resign or be removed from office.

“I think the school board needs to seriously consider removing Dr. Ross,” he said. “They have the power to do that.”

The Ohio Department of Education’s response is brief.

“Dr. Ross is fully committed to continuing his work as state superintendent,” Mike Perona, an ODE spokesman, said in an email.

The state superintendent is appointed by the state school board. Eleven of the board’s members are elected while the eight at-large members are appointed by the governor.

The Plain Dealer reported this week that state school board members were upset that Ross didn’t inform them about the Youngstown Plan, even when they visited the community to talk to residents about the district and its progress or lack thereof since an academic distress commission was appointed in 2010 to guide the district out of academic morass.

The Youngstown Plan, passed by both houses of the Legislature last month, the same day it was introduced, calls for that academic distress commission to be dissolved and a new one appointed in its place.

That commission would have three members appointed by the state superintendent, one by the mayor and the fifth, who must be a district teacher, appointed by the school board. That commission would appoint a state-paid chief executive officer who would have broad authority to manage and operate the school district.

David Hansen, ODE’s school choice director, resigned last week after a Plain Dealer article reported that he had omitted charter schools’ failing grades from the evaluations of agencies overseeing charter schools. Hansen is the husband of Gov. John Kasich’s chief of staff and campaign manager.

Both of those issues present problems with trust, Schiavoni said.

“It seems that he [Ross] tells people what he needs to tell them in order to get ‘mission accomplished,’” he said.

The Youngstown Plan has faced criticism because it didn’t include input from parents, educators, city school board members or community leaders and because of the perception that it was rushed through the Legislature.