Bishop appoints new schools chief

Bishop appoints new schools chief

YOUNGSTOWN

Bishop George V. Murry appointed Mary Fiala as superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Youngstown, effective immediately.

Fiala has served as acting superintendent since November. The bishop made the appointment Thursday. Fiala joined the diocesan staff in 2011 as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

She had been principal at St. Joan of Arc School in Canton from 1999 to 2011 and at SS. Philip and James schools in Canal Fulton from 1991 to 1999.

She was a classroom teacher at St. Paul School in North Canton from 1979 to 1991.

Fiala earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in elementary administration from the University of Akron. As educational leader of the six-county diocese, the superintendent directs 24 elementary and six secondary schools serving 6,800 students.

Charged with drug possession

YOUNGSTOWN

Police found 53 pills on a man who was a passenger in a car pulled over for an equipment violation about 3:35 p.m. Wednesday at Mahoning and Millett avenues.

Reports said the officers found the pills in the pants of Ruben Best, 22, of Willa Anna Court Northwest in Warren. Best also had a block that police said was marijuana paste. Best told police he smoked the paste in a vapor cigarette, reports said.

Best was arrested and taken to the Mahoning County jail on charges of possession of drugs, illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of drugs – marijuana.

Shooting probe

YOUNGSTOWN

Police continue investigating the shooting and wounding of two people on the city’s South Side.

A 25-year-old city woman was wounded in the shoulder, and another man was grazed in the head by a bullet after someone fired several shots at them about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Potomac Avenue on the South Side.

Reports said the man, 24, also had a small wound to the back of his leg but refused treatment. The woman was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Police collected six shell casings from the street, reports said.

Drug charges

CAMPBELL

Police arrested Zachariah McFall of West Middlesex, Pa., on drug and traffic-related charges at the Blaze Oil parking lot on Courtland Avenue.

According to a police report, McFall was found Wednesday night with 2 grams of suspected marijuana in a plastic bag, a ripped plastic bag and a marijuana blunt in the center console after he was pulled over by police for failing to signal his turn from Gladstone Street. Police also found other narcotics, 3 grams of suspected heroin and $410, reports said.

McFall was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor count of drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. He has a court appearance at 9 a.m. today in Campbell Municipal Court.

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