Youngstown school board President Kimble must now put children first

Brenda Kimble, president of the Youngstown Board of Education, has been schooled in the law by four judges and a magistrate, but it remains to be seen if she has learned anything.

We’ll know when Monday comes because that’s when the 7th District Court of Appeals expects Kimble to appoint a “teacher” to the new state-mandated Youngstown City Schools District Academic Distress Commission.

In issuing their ruling Friday, Judges Cheryl Waite, Mary DeGenaro and Carol Ann Robb rejected the board president’s selection of Carol Staten, who was a substitute principal. Staten, a distant cousin of Kimble’s, has since been named principal of Discovery at Volney.

Waite, DeGenaro and Robb weren’t swayed by the arguments put forth by Kimble and upheld the ruling of Common Pleas Judge Lou D’Apolito that the “common and ordinary meaning of ‘teacher’ should be applied. D’Apolito’s magistrate, Daniel Dascenzo, had presided over the initial hearing of a lawsuit filed by the teachers union challenging Kimble’s choice.

The board president appealed D’Apolito’s decision and the 7th District judges heard oral arguments Thursday and rendered their decision a day later .

Although a majority of the seven-member school board has given Kimble permission to take the case as far as it will go, we would urge her to accept defeat and do what’s in the best in interest of the children of the school district.

The new commission – four of the five members are already in place but have been prohibited from officially meeting because of the pending litigation – is the first step in the academic rebirth of Youngstown schools.

Under the so-called Youngstown Plan, contained in a bill passed last year by the Republican Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. John Kasich, the commission will appoint a chief executive officer who will have total control of the failing school system.

The state of Ohio will pay the CEO’s salary.

Gov. Kasich, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, has made the future of the Youngstown district a priority and has told local business, political and community leaders that the status quo is neither acceptable nor sustainable.

We have endorsed the state’s push for a complete makeover of the system because we believe that academic failure is now the rule rather than the exception.

The urban school district with a declining enrollment and a majority of children within the federal poverty guidelines was declared in academic emergency in 2011. It is currently under academic watch, but not because of an improvement in the state test scores. Rather, daily attendance has increased.

A FOOL’S ERRAND

The clock is ticking, yet school board President Kimble, with the support of three other members of the board – Ronald Shadd, Jerome Williams and Michael Murphy – has embarked on a fool’s errand with her lawsuit. Shadd is Kimble’s son.

We applaud the three members who have objected to the president’s personal agenda. Jackie Adair, Atty. Dario Hunter and Corrine Sanderson have shown through their actions that the interest of the students must remain a priority and that Kimble’s legal action is a waste of tax dollars.

Should the board president shrug off the ruling from the 7th District Court of Appeals and file an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court, we would urge Adair, Hunter and Sanderson to find a way of derailing Kimble’s irresponsible action.

As Adair said Friday after the 7th District court’s decision was made public, “I personally feel this court process has gone on long enough. We’ve spent enough taxpayer dollars on an effort that was not, to me, absolutely necessary.”

The board member added that it’s time to move on and allow the academic distress commission to do what the law requires of it. The school board can then figure out its role, she added.

At some point, elected officials must set aside their personal agendas and do what’s in the best interest of the community.

We’ve arrived at that point with regard to the academically challenged Youngstown City School District.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it many times: Gov. Kasich will not sit back and allow the school district to wallow in academic mediocrity. If steps aren’t taken to implement the Youngstown Plan, the Ohio Department of Education could intervene and reorganize the district.

The time for games is over.