Youngstown schools’ CEO offers depth of experience

At first glance, Krish Mohip is exactly what the doctor ordered for the academically ailing Youngstown City School District.

Mohip, the first-ever chief executive officer of the urban school system, possesses the education, background and experience to take on what is arguably one of the greatest public education challenges in Ohio.

But we won’t know whether the five members of the Youngstown City Schools Academic Distress Commission made the right decision last week in offering the job to the Chicago resident until he has developed an academic improvement plan.

The plan is one of the requirements set forth in the state law that established a new academic distress commission and required it to appoint a chief executive officer.

As CEO, Mohip will have full managerial and operational control of the district to improve student achievement and strengthen the schools.

He currently is principal at a Chicago public school and previously served as chief officer/strategic school support services in Chicago. He has been responsible for reforming the 36 lowest-performing schools in the Windy City. Of those, 24 have demonstrated significant improvement.

Academic commission Chairman Brian Benyo, who led the search for the CEO, had this to say about Mohip:

“He served in some very difficult urban schools. He has the experience of having turned around those schools.”

For his part, the 38-year-old educator comes to the job with the right attitude – at the moment:

“What I love is the challenge; that Youngstown is changing right now.”

In a telephone interview Tuesday with Vindicator Education Writer Denise Dick, who has reported extensively on the trials and tribulations of the Youngstown schools system, Mohip showed that diplomacy may be a strong suit.

“I want to start talking with everyone and engaging with all the stakeholders – parents, teachers, administrators, students, city council, local politicians and all of the players in the city.”

Reaching out

The new CEO’s desire to reach out to as many special interest groups as possible shows a keen understanding of the undercurrents that have plagued the Youngstown district.

Controversy has reigned supreme for many years, with the elected school board at the center of many battles. In recent months, board members have made a public spectacle of themselves by their constant bickering and the heavy-handed behavior of board President Brenda Kimble.

The dysfunction of the school board, along with the continued academic failure of the district, prompted the Republican-controlled General Assembly to intervene. The Legislature passed a bill that established the so-called Youngstown Plan.

Republican Gov. John Kasich, who had asked business and community leaders in the Mahoning Valley to compile a list of recommendations on how to resurrect the system, signed the bill into law. The recommendations were the basis of the Youngstown Plan.

We have been unwavering in our support of this drastic re-engineering of public education and have been encouraged by the actions of the academic distress commission.

In April, we said that the panel would be judged, in large part, on the appointment of the chief executive officer.

Mohip, who will be in Youngstown on Tuesday to meet with the various stakeholders, was one of two finalists from a field of more than 30 applicants. The other was Tyrone Olverson, superintendent of Finneytown schools near Cincinnati.

“They were both equally strong instructional leaders,” Benyo said of the finalists. He added that both had worked in urban settings.

That experience should prove invaluable as Mohip goes about identifying the weak links in the system. He will find that the absence of a stable home life for many inner city students has been largely responsible for the high academic failure rate.

Mohip, with his involvement in the troubled Chicago public school system, undoubtedly understands that what happens in students’ homes is just as important as what occurs in the classrooms.

Thus, his improvement plan must deal with the societal challenges confronting the city’s children.