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Youngstown City Schools CEO: We could be the model
By DENISE DICK
denise_dick@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Video
If people want to be part of the city school district and its improvement, they first have to believe that the students can succeed.
“It’s about getting everyone’s expectations to be raised – getting everyone to believe in our children,” said Krish Mohip, who began Wednesday as Youngstown City Schools’ first chief executive officer.
Youngstown children can be among the best in the country, he believes.
“We could be the model for what urban education should look like,” Mohip said.
It’s up to educators and professionals to fill those students’ young minds with the knowledge students need to be successful.
Mohip, 38, has a big job in front of him.
The school district has hovered for years among Ohio’s poorest-performing ones.
The Youngstown Plan approved last summer by the state Legislature called for a new academic distress commission to appoint the district’s first CEO. The commission last month selected Mohip from the roughly 30 people who applied. The law gives the CEO broad authority in operating the district.
“Every decision I make will be student-centered,” he said.
He tells students he wants them to love themselves enough to learn and to improve.
Mohip began his first day in charge with an early-morning run.
After a television interview, he came to the school district administration building to begin a day of meetings.
People gathered outside of his new office for a chance to talk with him.
Those included people from the Taft Promise Neighborhood and area pastors.
Mike Gibson and Candys Mayo, both city school district alumni, came to the administration building to meet Mohip and wish him well in his new job.
“I’m super-excited about this,” Mayo said. “I’m probably the only person in the city who was excited about HB 70.”
The city schools have been struggling for many years, and it’s time for someone to come in who will address the problems, she said.
Gibson looks forward to Mohip’s tenure, too.
But the CEO can’t fix the district on his own, he said.
“It doesn’t just take him; it takes the whole community,” Gibson said.
Jon Howell, a 1980 South High School graduate, and his wife, Adrienne, sent bunches of balloons and a cake to welcome Mohip. The couple lives in Bloomington, Ill., but returns regularly to the Mahoning Valley.
Mohip carried a bright-red Chicago White Sox cap with him throughout the morning. It belongs to his son, Noah, 6. Noah was having a difficult time dealing with his dad’s departure – the rest of the family remains in Chicago for now.
“We have matching hats,” Mohip said. They exchanged hats until Mohip returns this weekend.
Besides Noah, Mohip and his wife, Erin, have two more children, Noah’s twin sister, Bella, and Riley, 3.
Building principals and teachers union representatives were among those scheduled to meet with Mohip his first day.
Before even starting the job, Mohip and district personnel contacted students who have dropped out of the district.
There are 78 – too many for a district Youngstown’s size, the CEO said.
He plans a focus group with some of those students to learn why they dropped out, if they’re interested in returning and how the district can help give them a pathway to graduation.
Mohip concluded his first day with dinner with a district family – something he plans to do regularly to stay engaged with students and families.
The family was the Abdullah family: grandma Khalilah Abdullah; her three adopted children, Kimyra Abdullah, Ra’mond Abdullah and Armund Abdullah; her partner’s son, Dontrell Beach; and her grandchildren, Michael Abdullah-Johnson, Sir Alexander AbdullaH-Richmond, Maya Abdullah and Khalil Abdullah.
Mohip talked with grandma, or Didi, as the children call her, about issues she’s encountered in the school district.
He counseled Armund, 16, coaxing him to think about his future, what he wants to do after high school and his plan to achieve it.
Maya showed off, singing the “Alphabet Song,” and Kimyra, 4, demonstrated how high she can count.
The younger school-age children attend Martin Luther King Elementary School. Ra’mond will go to Ursuline this fall, and Armund attends Mahoning County High School.
For the most part, Abdullah gives the district high marks. The teachers are there to help the students, she said.
One of her grandsons, though, has attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. She believes he needs an Individual Education Program, but he doesn’t have one. That puts him behind.
She understands the concept of No Child Left Behind, referring to former President George W. Bush’s educational initiative.
“But I’d rather have my child left behind if he’s not ready,” Abdullah said.
For the school board, a panel that filed a lawsuit to stop the Youngstown Plan from taking effect, Mohip wants to develop a relationship of trust and collaboration. The ultimate goal is for the district to improve so that HB 70 no longer applies. That means the district will return to the stewardship of a school board.
Board members will be advisory, and he’ll seek their input on decisions. The board, however, won’t get a vote.
Mohip must gather input from a stakeholders committee to develop a district recovery plan and present it to the academic distress commission within 90 days.
The former Chicago Public Schools administrator plans to study district data in the early days on the job, learning what areas have improved and what needs more help.
Mohip says he has a passion for effective urban education. In one Chicago schools assignment, he was in charge of improvement in 36 academically struggling schools. Of those, 24 saw improvement faster than expected. “I guess it’s a calling,” Mohip said.