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Youngstown mayor says he’d oversee schools, if asked
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Mayor John McNally wants to be actively involved in the process to select a new city schools superintendent and would oversee the district if asked.
Mary Rose Oakar, a member of the state board of education who chairs the Urban and Rural Renewal Committee, asked McNally if he would take over the school district if asked.
The committee met in the city Thursday with parents, teachers, administrators and students of the district and with community leaders. McNally attended the meeting with community leaders.
In Cleveland, the mayor appoints the school board.
“I would certainly do that and look for help from the business community and from people who live in the district who are committed to the betterment of the district,” McNally said.
Oakar, who represents the Cleveland area on the state board, said the committee came to Youngstown “to help and to learn what we can do to be helpful.”
Robert F. Hagan, state board member and former longtime state legislator, is also part of the committee.
“We’re concerned about the entire school system in the state of Ohio,” he said. “Particularly, we’re concerned as a state board about what’s happening in distress communities like Youngstown.”
Because of poor academic performance, the city school district has been under the supervision of a state appointed academic distress commission since 2010.
McNally said that in talking with parents and teachers at the schools when he’s visited, the district “needs a period of calm and a period of stability.”
He pointed to the number of building and program changes the last few years.
“The teachers and the parents I talk to appear to be exhausted,” he said.
Jan Strasfeld, executive director of the Youngstown Foundation, said wraparound services – mentoring, counseling and other social services – for students in the city schools are critical.
“Kids are only in school for a small part of their lives,” she said.
Others expressed concerns that with a school board and an academic distress commission in place, there’s confusion about who is in charge.