A moment of reckoning for Youngstown schools

Fresh eyes are now focused on the academically challenged Youngstown City School District, and what they see will determine the direction the urban system will follow to achieve long-sought success.

We urge Krish Mohip, the new, first-ever chief executive officer of the Youngstown district, and Paolo DeMaria, the new state superintendent of public instruction, not to be distracted by the myriad special interests that have fought so hard to maintain the status quo.

As we have argued in this space ad nauseam, the children in Youngstown have suffered because the adults have been unwilling to set aside their personal agendas.

Mohip, a native of Chicago, began his new assignment Wednesday, and immediately took on the challenging assignment of building bridges.

If there’s a slogan that summarizes the new CEO’s vision for the troubled school system, it would be this: “It’s all about the students.”

Interestingly, DeMaria, the new state superintendent, expressed a similar sentiment when he met Thursday with Vindicator writers.

“The decisions we come to must be anchored on what’s right for the kids,” said DeMaria, who took over his duties last week.

The Ohio Education Department chief was in Youngstown Thursday to meet Mohip and to reassure local officials that “success of the Youngstown schools is a priority for us.”

With two sets of fresh eyes looking over a school district on life support, we are cautiously optimistic that the academic recovery plan Mohip must develop within 90 days will address the myriad problems that have undermined the system and the city of Youngstown for so long.

“We could be a model for what urban education should look like,” Mohip told Vindicator Education Writer Denise Dick, who observed the CEO during his first day of school.

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Although the state law that created the new position as part of the Youngstown Plan requires Mohip to work with various stakeholders in developing the recovery plan, he made it clear that he wants to embrace the true believers.

“It’s about getting everyone’s expectations to be raised – getting everyone to believe in our children.”

For his part, DeMaria, who has been involved in state government for more than two decades and served as executive vice chancellor at the Ohio Board of Regents and associate superintendent for school options and finance at the department of education, says he’s ready, willing and able to help Youngstown.

That commitment will be music to Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s ears. For the past six years, Kasich has railed against the academic collapse of the city school district. Frustrated with the lack of improvement, he concluded that a change in the status quo was necessary.

The governor persuaded a group of business and community leaders in the Mahoning Valley to take up the task of re-engineering the urban school system. Legislation passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law by the Republican governor reflects that effort.

The Youngstown Plan is designed to create a new paradigm for public education – kindergarten to 12th grade – in the state.

CEO Mohip, for instance, not only has full control and authority over the district, which is under state supervision, but he has the power to marginalize the elected school board. He also can set aside all labor contracts and hire and fire nonunion employees at will.

However, Mohip says he intends to reach out to all the interest groups that are committed to the academic recovery of the Youngstown schools.

It should reassure the CEO that the Ohio Department of Education, in general, and the state superintendent, in particular, are just a telephone call away.

“We have a vested interest in this being successful,” DeMaria told The Vindicator.

As for judging how well the district is doing, DeMaria said he would like to be able to return in a year and see that the actions taken strongly reflect the students.

The question that goes to the heart of the Youngstown City School District’s recovery is this: “Is there a culture of continuous improvements?”

Indeed, that’s how Mohip will be judged.