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Search to begin for schools CEO
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The search for a Youngstown schools chief executive officer will be a bit different from a typical school superintendent search.
“Normally when we’re looking for a superintendent, one of the qualifications is a superintendent’s license,” said Ron Iarussi, superintendent for the Mahoning County Educational Service Center. “In this case, that’s not one of the qualifications. We’ll expand outside of what we would normally do.”
The job qualifications and description are being finalized.
“They’re going back through HB 70 to review all of the provisions set forth in the law and making sure those are followed,” Iarussi said.
House Bill 70, also called the Youngstown Plan, was proposed and approved last summer by both houses of the state Legislature. It addresses school districts long-plagued with academic difficulties. Youngstown City Schools, the first district to see an academic distress commission in 2010, is the first district for which the new legislation kicks in, but other struggling districts could be affected later if they don’t improve.
The Youngstown School District Academic Distress Commission is using the ESC to do the search for the CEO. Its five members took that action at the commission’s first meeting Wednesday.
The CEO, who will be paid by the state, will have wide-ranging authority to manage and operate the school district including the power to hire and fire, reopen contracts and close failing schools or turn them over to charter or other outside operators.
The CEO’s salary is expected to range between $160,000 and $180,000.
There is no charge to the commission although search expenses will be reimbursed to the center, Iarussi said.
“We’ll probably post to some national and state educational websites” including the Ohio and National school board associations, the Ohio Department of Education as well as some private job-search organizations, he said.
ESC staff will review the applications received to weed out those that don’t meet the minimum qualifications.
The academic distress commission, newly constituted under the Youngstown Plan legislation, has 60 days, until June 7, to select a school district CEO. The commission plans a forum to gather public input about desired CEO characteristics, likely in early to mid-May.