City school district should involve student input

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Tyrone Olverson believes there’s an untapped resource available in the city schools.

“It’s students,” the district’s chief academic officer told The Vindicator Tuesday.

Students are the schools’ customers, Olverson said.

Krish Mohip, the school district’s chief executive officer, announced Monday the addition of Olverson to the district as chief academic officer.

“We need to use student voice to help us move forward academically,” Olverson said.

Quality instruction means students are engaged, he said.

“We need to talk to students,” Olverson said. “Students will tell you. They’re brutally honest.”

Students should be able to explain what they’re learning and how it connects to what they learned the day before, he said.

Olverson started the job Monday. His annual salary is $134,000.

Olverson believes relationships play a crucial role in school improvement. Teachers and administrators need to let students get to know them, let students know the educators as people with lives and families.

He plans changes benefiting parents too. Parents should feel welcomed when they enter a school, he said.

District administrators are calling parents this week, for example, to remind them about the start of school and establish a relationship and a dialogue.

“I call it putting in an emotional deposit,” Olverson said.

That ensures that the first encounter between an administrator and a parent isn’t because the child is in trouble or doing something wrong. He calls contact like that emotional withdrawal.

In situations where school personnel contact a parent about a problem, “We have to value what parents say about their kids,” Olverson said.

Students may behave differently in school than at home or out in the community, he said.

Olverson has worked in the district for the last few weeks as a contractor, identifying ways to maximize efficiency in the district’s central office.

He’s learned about the roles and responsibilities of personnel and offerings at different schools.

That doesn’t mean that people will lose their jobs.

“Like Krish says, ‘You can’t fire your way to success,’” Olverson said. “If anything, we’re looking to re-purpose positions.”

Some people may work more than one job, for example, and need help.

Olverson has worked in urban, suburban and rural schools. Before Finneytown, he worked in Licking Heights Schools, south of Columbus. He taught in Lincoln Heights, an inner-city district in Cincinnati, where he also attended school.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and his master’s at University of Cincinnati. He’s pursuing his doctorate.

Olverson believes district personnel need to contact city school alumni who can return to talk with students about their successes and accomplishments.

“They’re there,” he said. “People like to give back. We just have to reach out to them.”