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Academic distress commission expects to name CEO by June 7
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown City School District Academic Distress Commission expects to select a school district chief executive officer by June 7.
Brian Benyo, chairman, acknowledged it’s a tight time line that’s outlined in the Youngstown Plan, state legislation approved last summer that calls for a CEO for the school district that has struggled with academic troubles for years.
“We want to honor the time line, but we’re not going to hire the wrong person for the sake of the time line,” he said.
The commission will enlist the Mahoning County Educational Service Center to conduct the CEO search, which will be national.
Members also considered hiring a search firm to do the work, but Benyo listed the cost and the need for quick turnaround as drawbacks to that approach. To retain a search firm, the commission would have to advertise for requests for proposals, review the proposals and select a firm before the search would even start.
The CEO will have broad authority in the management and operation of the school district including hiring and firing administrators, reopening collective bargaining agreements and closing failing schools or turning them over to charter or other outside operators.
Although the law says that the CEO need not have an educational background, Benyo said the majority of the panel prefers someone who does.
Mike Fisher, an assistant Ohio attorney general, said that once a CEO is appointed, he or she has 90 days to develop a plan for the school district. That plan will include input of district stakeholders.
The plan must be approved by the commission.
The CEO will be paid by the state and Benyo said the exact amount hasn’t been finalized. The range is between $160,000 and $180,000 annually.
Paula Valentini, a spokeswoman for the teachers’ union, told the panel that the union supports the ESC doing the search.
“We like the idea of an education background, definitely,” she said, adding that someone from closer to the city would have familiarity with the district and the community.
Benyo said the commission plans a public forum, likely in early to mid-May, to gather input on what qualifications and characteristics people in the community would like to see in a CEO.
What role the district’s elected school board will play will be determined by the CEO once he or she is appointed.
The school board and the teachers’ and classified employee’s union filed a lawsuit last August in Franklin County Common Pleas Court seeking to have the Youngstown Plan legislation declared unconstitutional.
That case is set for trial in September.
The Franklin County judge, though, denied a preliminary injunction by the board and unions to stop the plan from taking effect. They appealed and oral arguments were set for this morning in Columbus on that appeal.