NAACP shows confidence in Youngstown schools CEO

By Denise Dick | July 1, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Leaders of the NAACP Youngstown Branch have high hopes the city schools will improve under the operation of CEO Krish Mohip.

Mohip, who started his job Wednesday as the first chief executive officer of the city school district, met with the NAACP, parents and community members for more than two hours Thursday, answering their questions and explaining his plans for the district.

The NAACP called Thursday’s gathering a civil-rights education meeting.

“We have great hope for Mr. Mohip,” said George Freeman Jr., president of the NAACP branch. “He is saying what we have been saying for the last couple of years.”

The NAACP last year called for former Superintendent Connie Hathorn’s ouster and, earlier this year, for Interim Superintendent Stephen Stohla to be removed from office.

Mohip comes to the city from Chicago Public Schools where he’s spent his whole career. He’s helped struggling schools in that system to improve.

“Mr. Mohip has done in Chicago what we need to have done here,” Freeman said.

Mohip was quick to point out that he didn’t do it alone. He worked with a team.

It’s about providing high-quality instruction to every single student, every single day, Mohip said.

Teachers, parents and students need to be supported.

He’s encouraged by the number of people he’s encountered here who want to help the schools and the students succeed. That hasn’t always been the case in other schools where he’s been.

Jimma McWilson, NAACP vice president, said the local, state and national NAACP have approved resolutions against state takeovers of school districts. But he said the organization has tried unsuccessfully to work through the city school board and previous administrations.

Because of that, he’s hoping the gains in the city schools are even greater than some he’s helped achieve previously.

Mohip said he’ll make decisions based on what’s best for students.

Lydia Walker has two children in Youngstown Early College and a younger son who attended Discovery at Kirkmere this past school year. She’s not sure where he’ll go to school next year and is considering home-schooling him. She previously took her children out of the city schools to Girard, then took them back to Youngstown.

“I’m a parent and I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in the Youngstown City Schools,” she said.

She likes Mohip and is encouraged by what she hears. When he says he wants to improve the schools, she believes he’s sincere.

Betty Greene, a retired city school administrator who is an instructor at Youngstown State University, liked what she heard Thursday, too.

“You’re interested in working in a team and collaborating,” said Greene, a former member of the first city schools academic distress commission. “That’s something that’s been severely lacking in the Youngstown City Schools.”

She believes teachers need to establish relationships with their students to show them that they care.

“We’re everything to these children,” Greene said. “We’re their counselor, the nurse and grandma. You are supposed to develop relationships with kids and the academics will come.”