Great expectations should be set, met for school year

Optimism abounds as about 85,000 students head back to more than 200 schools in the Mahoning Valley in coming days and weeks for the traditionally exciting start to a new academic year.

Nowhere is that optimism higher or the expectations greater than in the Youngstown City Schools District as it launches its first school year under new and promising management.

Over summer vacation, Chief Executive Officer Krish Mohip was hired as part of the Youngstown Plan to help heal the chronically failing urban school system. Here’s hoping that students, parents, administrators and teachers alike commit themselves to a year of positive change in the district as Mohip finishes drafting and begins implementation of a multiyear plan for steady and tangible improvements in academics, attendance and conduct.

Elsewhere in the Valley, significant and promising changes are in store as well. In the large suburban 4,700- student Boardman Local School District, a major building reconfiguration of schools will take place with the replacement of two middle schools with one intermediate school and one junior-high school.

Elsewhere, 90 freshmen and sophomore students will christen the Valley’s first state-designated STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] Academy in Canfield. Along those high-tech lines, students at several districts will for the first time be given their own laptop computers for use inside and outside of school for the entire academic year.

Those improvements and projects merely scratch the surface of the hodgepodge of new and innovative curricula for the 2015-16 school year in districts large and small throughout the region. They also demonstrate a sincere commitment to student success by talented educators and staff who far too often go grossly under-recognized.

In all districts, school pride will be reignited with the kickoff of another scintillating high school football season next weekend. The Vindicator joins in that excitement through publication of its annual Blitz High School Football Preview special section in this Sunday’s newspaper, which features profiles and schedules for dozens of area teams. You won’t want to miss that informative supplement.

BE CAUTIOUS, RESPONSIBLE

Amid all of this hubbub and renewed school pride, however, responsibility, caution and safety must remain watchwords for all in order to achieve a safe and secure cruise through the school year.

That means drivers must double down on the rules of the road when the sea of yellow buses return to their million-mile routes throughout Ohio this month.

Law-enforcement officials’ biggest worry targets inattentive or irresponsible drivers passing stopped school buses that are loading or unloading children, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reports. Drivers approaching a school bus from either direction are required to stop at least 10 feet back from buses displaying the extended stop signs and red flashing lights.

The patrol also advises drivers to watch out for children walking to and from the bus stop when they are backing out of a garage or driveway.

For their part, parents must instruct their offspring to stop and look both ways before crossing the street when exiting a bus and to be on guard for any sudden traffic.

Parental responsibility also goes beyond safety concerns. According to the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in the world’s leading industrialized nations, there is a direct relationship between parental involvement and student success.

Patte Barth, director of the Center for Public Education initiative of the National School Boards Association, reinforces that connection: “Monitoring homework; making sure children get to school; rewarding their efforts and talking up the idea of going to college. These parent actions are linked to better attendance, grades, test scores, and preparation for college.”

With such engaged and active parents, dedicated and creative teachers and motivated and safety-conscious students, there is little reason why the 2016-17 academic year cannot meet and beat the high expectations all should set right now at its commencement.