Y’town school busing flap demands that heads roll

To understand the serious- ness of the state’s searing report on the Youngstown City School District’s busing program, imagine this worst-case scenario:

A school bus is involved in a major traffic accident resulting in children being injured – or worse. The parents or guardians of the victims hire aggressive lawyers to sue the district for negligence.

The lawyers delve into the transportation system and find this:

Incomplete driver and vehicle maintenance records; nonexistent vehicle repair records; lack of documentation of required bus-driver training.

But that isn’t all: The lawyers learn that the findings from a review conducted this year by the Ohio Department of Education are not new.

And then, the legal eagles uncover the following allegation from ODE officials: The Youngstown school district ignored recommendations contained in reviews of the busing program conducted since 2006.

It wouldn’t take long for the plaintiffs to see dollar signs flashing before their eyes.

In a nutshell, what the Ohio Department of Education report says about the attitude and behavior of individuals involved in the district’s busing program must be of major concern to the community.

After all, the safety of children should not be compromised in any way.

Hence, we were taken aback by the district’s new chief executive officer, Krish Mohip, saying he’s not interested in assigning blame.

Mohip, who has been on the job for a month and is under pressure to have a draft of an academic recovery plan ready by early September, conceded he was “disappointed” with the busing program’s problems.

“This can never happen again,” the native of Chicago said.

Bitter truth

But here’s the reality that Mohip cannot wish away: The egregious violations of state regulations spanned at least a decade. For us, that means one thing: The individuals responsible must be fired.

The chief executive officer’s desire not to make waves as he tries to prevent a total collapse of the academically troubled urban school district has its limits.

“We need to find out if these are systemic issues or it’s happening because of a lack of oversight,” he said.

Is Mohip just being coy, or he is truly ignorant of the fact that all the district’s problems come down to one thing: incompetent personnel? It starts with the elected members of the school board and goes all the way to the occupants of the administration building.

We have long advocated a top-to-bottom independent evaluation of the employees to determine what qualifications and experience they possess for jobs they perform and how they got on the payroll in the first place.

Here’s one glaring example of what we’re talking about: The ODE report on the Youngstown school busing program revealed that one mechanic who also drove a school bus was not certified or qualified to drive. Yet, the individual was paid overtime for being behind the wheel while he was on the clock as a mechanic.

The ramifications of this incident alone are huge for a public institution that is under pressure from the state to improve its academic performance. Indeed, the district was in fiscal emergency before it was placed in state- declared academic emergency in 2011.

CEO Mohip was hired by the state-created Academic Distress Commission to chart a new course for the school system. His success will depend, in large part, on the willingness of teachers, administrators and staff to embrace his vision and carry out his orders.

We are reminded of a previous school superintendent who came to Youngstown with all the optimism and enthusiasm of a believer and left a disillusioned, disappointed man.

Dr. Connie Hathorn was unable to overcome the opposition from entrenched special interests, including some members of the board of education.

That is why we strongly advise Mohip to come down hard on the individuals who were responsible for the school-busing program. He must send a clear message that the safety of Youngstown’s children will not be compromised.