State takeover of schools in Youngstown is no surprise

When we recently warned that the Youngstown City School District and the Youngstown community at large would live to rue the day that schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn resigned, we weren’t indulging in editorial hyperbole. Our warning was prompted by information we had received of a legislative initiative that was bound to send shock waves through the city.

Last week, the Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted an amendment that calls for a chief executive officer to run the troubled city school system. It’s the trembler we had anticipated. We have no doubt that had Dr. Hathorn not been run out of town by some members of the board of education and self-styled leaders of the black community, he would have had the inside track for the CEO post.

Why? Because in his four years at the helm of the academically challenged urban schools, Hathorn earned the respect of state officials, particularly of Gov. John R. Kasich and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard Ross and of the Mahoning Valley’s business, political and community leaders.

The former superintendent worked hard to put the district on the path to academic success. Hathorn and members of the state-mandated Youngstown School District Academic Distress Commission developed a recovery plan that won praise from Ohio Department of Education officials and was embraced by local principals and teachers. Academic creativity was one major aspect of the plan. The goal was to reverse a long-standing trend of students from the city dropping out or failing to graduate.

But with Hathorn’s departure, it’s a whole new ball game for the district.

The legislative initiative, which is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Kasich, calls for the current distress commission to be disbanded and reconstituted. The new commission would have the same number of members, but whereas three of the five are now appointed by the state superintendent and two by the school board, three members of the new commission would be selected by the state superintendent, one by the mayor of the city and the fifth by the school board with the requirement that he or she must be a teacher.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S AUTHORITY

But it’s the power of the chief executive officer, who would be selected by the distress commission, that promises to turn the district on its head. In the first year of what state officials envision would be at least a three-year commitment, the CEO would be in total control. The individual would not only appoint the superintendent of the school district, but would decide what role, if any, the elected school board would play.

The chief executive officer would have full managerial and operational control and would create an academic improvement plan within 120 days of taking office. There would be input from educators and community stakeholders.

Aware that the legislative initiative will be strongly opposed by all the special interest groups that have contributed to the Youngstown school district’s decline, the state is promising to make available special funds that would be used to improve the achievement of students, including supporting community learning centers. The centers would be private-public partnerships that would provide health services, mentoring and even early-childhood education services in the schools and the community.

While the legislative initiative does not name Youngstown specifically, there should be no doubt that the failing school district was very much on the minds of state officials when the plan was being developed.

Indeed, more than a decade ago, we began warning local officials that the state was running out of patience with the district’s inability to stop its fiscal and academic implosions. The folks in Columbus have made much of the fact that the per students spending in Youngstown is more than double the state average — $13,111 vs. $9,189 — and that more than half of the 10,289 students in the city are attending schools outside the district.

Finally, the total budget of $127 million has grabbed the attention of the taxpayers and decision-makers in Columbus.

Gov. Kasich has bemoaned the fact that Youngstown’s students do not have the same educational opportunities as those in the suburbs. That has been our concern as well. We have long advocated a direct role for the state in the operation of the Youngstown school district. The new legislative plan, with the creation of the chief executive officer position, is exactly what we have wanted.