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Youngstown school CEO will drive fundamental shift
Application deadline is May 11
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The city schools CEO should have the ability to drive a “fundamental shift in school culture and instructional practices that result in gains and ongoing high performance,” the job posting reads.
The Youngstown City School District Academic Distress Commission is seeking a chief executive officer to manage and operate the school district. The ad seeking applicants for the job began running this week on the Ohio School Boards Association website and other sites and publications aiming to reach a national pool of candidates.
A national search is underway led by the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
“The minimum qualifications, we got from the state, but the characteristics, the commission members developed,” said Brian Benyo, commission chairman.
The application deadline is May 11, and those applications will be screened May 12-16. The first round of interviews is tentatively scheduled for May 25-26 with a second interview round May 31. The academic distress commission expects to make its decision by June 3.
The commission will meet Wednesday to review ethics with the assistant attorney general who represents the panel. The commission will talk more about the position.
“That will give commission members the opportunity to talk about the strengths, characteristics and traits they want in a CEO,” Benyo said.
The new commission, which met last week for the first time, was established through the Youngstown Plan, legislation approved last summer by both houses of the state Legislature.
Applicants should have master-level education and professional work experience that “demonstrates solid and timely advancement in responsibility as well as employment stability and commitment,” the posting said.
Those interested in applying should send a letter emphasizing qualifications, recent achievements and reasons for interest, a resume, three letters of reference and a copy of educational credentials.
The commission “anticipates a multiyear contract and the projected salary is between $160,000 and $180,000,” according to the job posting.
The panel is on a short time line. The legislation directs the commission to appoint a CEO within 60 days of the selection of a commission leader.
The former state superintendent of public instruction named Benyo, president of Brilex Industries, the commission chairman last December.
A lawsuit filed by the Youngstown Education Association, the city schools teachers’ union, and related legal action delayed the process.
By law, the school board president, Brenda Kimble, gets one appointee who is supposed to be a teacher.
Last year, Kimble appointed Carol Staten, a substitute administrator at the time, to the seat.
The teachers’ union filed the lawsuit, arguing that a classroom teacher should have been appointed.
A magistrate and a judge in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court agreed with the teachers.
Kimble appealed but after three judges from the 7th District Court of Appeals earlier this month affirmed the lower court judge’s decision, Kimble rescinded Staten’s appointment. She then named Vincent Shivers, a media arts instructor at Choffin Career and Technical Center, to the seat.
The state superintendent’s other appointees are Jennifer Roller, president of the Raymond John Wean Foundation, and Laura Meeks, retired president of Eastern Gateway Community College.
Mayor John A. McNally appointed Barbara Brothers, a retired Youngstown State University dean, to the panel.