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Valley lawmakers propose modifications to Youngstown schools plan
and Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
At the heart of two lawmakers’ supplement to the Youngstown Plan for the city schools is an emphasis on community engagement and local buy-in to the plan that will put a state-appointed CEO in control of the school system.
The proposed supplement – presented by state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, and state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, at a Friday news conference – would remove the CEO’s authority to reopen or change employee contracts.
It also would extend the time required before the officer could close a failing school, increase the membership of the academic distress commission, take measures to address poverty and mandate that the CEO listen to recommendations from organized groups of community stakeholders, among other provisions.
“We want to find the best CEO for the school. We want to clear up ambiguities in the bill. And we want to make sure that we mandate community involvement,” Schiavoni said.
“We don’t embrace or support this CEO model, but we want to be realistic. We understand that the bill became law,” he said. “We’re taking the approach of sensible, realistic, common-sense change so we can get some legislation moving now, because time is of the essence.”
Schiavoni and Lepore-Hagan plan to propose the bill on the Senate and House floors Wednesday; Schiavoni said he plans to get the bill to the Senate education committee as soon as possible.
Lawmakers said they developed the plan with input gathered from individuals and organizations. Among its elements are involving the community as a partner in the improvement plan process, clearly defining performance standards and adjusting expectations for improvement.
The proposal would change the ground rules for moving students to schools outside of the district; under Schiavoni’s and Lepore-Hagan’s plan, students could move only to an “A”-rated district.
“So, you could promote choice within the school district, but it must be high-quality choice,” Schiavoni said. “Defining that ‘high quality’ is something that I think is very important because you will not be able to encourage choice to subpar charter schools and other schools in the community that are not getting the job done.”
It also would change what is required for schools to emerge from the state takeover. The Youngstown Plan requires the district to earn a “C” grade or higher for control to come back into local hands; Lepore-Hagan and Schiavoni want to measure performance by individual building progress, rather than the overall district, and for the buildings to transition back to local control if they achieve performance benchmarks.
“We figured we would give each individual building the opportunity, so one building can see what the other building is doing,” Schiavoni said.
The proposed legislation would remove sections of the Youngstown Plan that call for a school board appointed by the mayor. That provision – which mandates that the mayor will appoint a new five-member school board from a slate of candidates nominated by a panel consisting of various stakeholders – isn’t set to be effective for at least a few years.
The school improvement plan should be public record, and public hearings about it should be conducted before its implementation, the lawmakers’ recommendations say.
The plan also increases from five to seven the number of members of the academic distress commission to “create greater balance between the community and Columbus.”
Under the Youngstown Plan, the academic distress commission, which will appoint the CEO, includes five members: three appointed by the state superintendent of public instruction, one by the mayor and the fifth, a teacher, appointed by the city school board.
Schiavoni’s plan would have three appointees by the state superintendent, one of which would be a Mahoning County resident; two appointed by the school board president, one of whom must be a district teacher; one teacher appointed by the teachers union and one appointed by the mayor.
The lawmakers’ plan also would remove the CEO’s authority to reopen or alter collective bargaining agreements. It also delays by one year CEO actions to reconstitute a school or replace personnel.
The proposed legislation also would establish school action teams “to give parents and the community a heightened role in working with the CEO to transform the district and to foster positive communication practices,” a summary of the bill says.
Each school action team would include 11 members: the principal or the principal’s designee of the school building, four teachers in the school, one nonteaching school employee and five parents or guardians of students enrolled in the school.
When the original legislation was introduced, it called for establishment of community learning centers. It was amended to become the Youngstown Plan.
Community learning centers provide services to students, their families and the community including mental health services, tutoring and other assistance.
Schiavoni and Lepore-Hagan’s plan would require the CEO to establish at least one community learning center as part of the school district improvement plan.
“That will engage the community and engage the parents,” Lepore-Hagan said. “It’s our responsibility to strengthen public education and protect public education in Youngstown. We’re dealing with one of the highest childhood poverty rates in the nation. We’re dealing with a unique situation, and we don’t want this to be taken out of our hands. We want to have a say.”