43
Despite flak, Kimble sticks by her choice for new Youngstown distress panel
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Despite opposition from teachers who showed up in force to Tuesday’s city school board meeting, President Brenda Kimble is sticking with her decision to appoint a substitute principal to the new academic distress commission.
Other board members support her.
Teachers attended the meeting carrying signs with messages “United for student success,” “Teachers need to have a voice” and “Listen to your teacher.” They filled the room, with many standing in the back of the meeting room or in the doorway.
They’re upset that Kimble appointed Carol Staten, a retired school principal, to the commission. The new commission will choose the chief executive officer who will manage and operate the city schools.
Larry Ellis, president of the Youngstown Education Association, the teachers’ union, told board members that any effort to improve children’s education in the school district should involve teachers.
“Bring us to the table – hear our voice,” he said.
Paula Valentini, union vice president, said the board and teachers have to work together.
Teachers were disappointed that no active classroom teacher was appointed to the commission, she said.
“We have the utmost respect for Dr. Staten, but she’s not an active classroom teacher,” Valentini said.
Teachers are the people who analyze the data generated by student test scores and try to come up with prescriptions for improvement, she said.
“We would hope that you would consider making a different choice,” Valentini said. “There is a wealth of accomplished teachers to choose from.”
The school board president gets one appointment to the commission, which the law says is to be a district teacher. The mayor gets one appointment, and the state superintendent of public instruction appoints the other three.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Kimble said she stands by Staten’s appointment.
She points to a section of Ohio Revised Code that defines a teacher as “all persons licensed to teach and who are employed in the public schools of this state as instructors, principals, supervisor, superintendents or any other educational position for which the state board of education requires licensure.”
Kimble said Staten has worked in several capacities, including as a teacher, in several buildings across the district. Staten now works in the district as a utility principal, a person called in by the district to fill in for a certain number of hours.
“This is a liaison for the board,” Kimble said.
That’s why the law affords the board that appointment, she said. If those who developed the new law had intended the member to be a teachers’ union member, that’s what the law would have said, the board president reasons.
“It’s a liaison to take the concerns of the board back to the academic distress commission,” Kimble said.
If teachers want their voices to be heard, that should happen through their leadership, she said. A grievance process also is in place, she said.
And Staten is open to listening to teachers, too, Kimble said.
Other board members back Kimble’s decision.
“I support her selection 100 percent,” board member Jackie Adair said.
She’s known Staten for many years, she said.
“She’s very well-rounded, and she was a teacher,” Adair said. “She’s been all over the district.”
Kimble acknowledged that Staten is her cousin, but points out that the commission appointment is a voluntary position. Members aren’t paid.
Kimble said she’s not the only person affiliated with the district who has family members working there.
“There are other members in this school district who could have a family reunion without leaving the building,” she said without elaborating.