NAACP seeks to rally East H.S. parents

February 29, 2016 at 8:34p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Branch of the NAACP is issuing a call to action to parents of East High School students.

“East has been an “F” school for 20 straight years,” said Jimma McWilson, chairman of the group’s Educational Justice Committee, Monday at what the NAACP called an East High School Civil Rights Education Summit.

He was referring to the state report cards issued annually by the Ohio Department of Education.

About 30 parents, students and community members attended the meeting at the NAACP’s office on Fifth Avenue.

“These children deserve more than they’re getting,” McWilson said.

He brought up the Franklin County Common Pleas Court lawsuit filed by the city school board and teachers’ union against the ODE regarding the Youngstown Plan, legislation that would allow a chief executive officer to be appointed to manage and operate the schools, and a related case in Mahoning County.

That case was filed by the teachers’ union against Brenda Kimble, school board president, regarding Kimble’s appointment of a principal to the commission that will appoint the CEO,

The union argues the appointment should have gone to a classroom teacher.

“Nowhere in the filing of these legal papers does it mention the children,” McWilson said. “Everything that’s wrong with East is what’s wrong with the district.”

He said the NAACP is there to empower parents and families concerned about their children’s education.