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Two legislators suggest more members for academic panel
By Denise Dick
and Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
The city schools academic distress commission could be expanded from five to seven members under a proposal by two state legislators.
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, and state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, recently met with Lonny Rivera, the interim state superintendent of public instruction, to discuss the city schools academic distress commission.
That meeting was prompted after Brian Benyo, chairman of the commission, asked Schiavoni and Lepore-Hagan for help to move the commission forward.
Schiavoni told Benyo he “wasn’t interested in taking anything away from the school board,” but his suggestion was to expand the number of commission members from five to seven. This way both the school board and union would each have a pick for the commission.
“All of those legal challenges should be dropped because everyone would get what they would want,” Schiavoni said.
Benyo also believes it’s a workable solution.
“I recognize the need to develop a unified working relationship with all the stakeholders in our community,” he said.
Under Schiavoni’s and Lepore-Hagan’s suggestion, the school board president can appoint an individual without a requirement that it be a teacher. The teacher’s union would appoint a representative and a community group such as the PTO would appont the seventh.
“It just increases the amount of people that represent a broader base of our community,” Lepore-Hagan said. “It’s more inclusive of the community and the teachers.”
The commission has been stalled, unable to meet because of ongoing litigation that centers on Brenda Kimble appointment of Carol Staten to the panel.
The legislation says that the school board president is to appoint a teacher. Staten, now a principal and Kimble’s distant cousin, was a substitute principal when Kimble appointed her.
Three of the members, Benyo, Laura Meeks, former president of Eastern Gateway Community College; and Jennifer Roller of the Raymond John Wean Foundation; were appointed by the state superintendent. Barbara Brothers, a retired Youngstown State University dean, is the fourth member, appointed by Mayor John A. McNally.
Kimble’s appointment brought a lawsuit from the Youngstown Education Association, the union representing city schoolteachers, who argued that the appointment should be an active classroom teacher.
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court upheld a magistrate’s decision that Staten cannot serve as an academic distress commission member.
Kimble has appealed Judge D’Apolito’s order and the commission cannot meet until the issue is resolved.
The changes would have to be approved by the state Legislature.
Benyo said whether it’s proposed and passed depends on whether “there’s a willingness of both parties in Columbus to make the strategic change to the academic distress commissions that grants key stakeholders a seat at the table but doesn’t compromise the intent of the legislation.”
He’s anxious to get the process moving.
“Anything that allows this to move forward and bring stakeholders into the process without undermining the entire process would be a good thing,” Benyo said.
Last summer, Gov. John Kasich signed the Youngstown Plan into law. That law will allow a chief executive office, appointed by the commission, to manage and operate the school district. The law dissolved the former academic distress commission and appointed the new one in its place.
Schiavoni doesn’t think a change in the legislation from a five-member commission to a seven-member commission would be difficult.
On Monday, during his campaign speech at Brilex Industries, Kasich repeatedly mentioned the need for change in Youngstown schools.
“My concern is getting the Youngstown schools up and on their feet,” he told a Vindicator reporter.
Kasich said the school district has had nine years to get on its feet and hasn’t done so, so now it’s time to take action.
“These Youngstown schools need fixed,” he said. “It’s going to take major effort.”
Lepore-Hagan said ultimately, Kasich will determine if the change is made.
She said that she and Schiavoni have been trying to move the process forward.
“We’ve been working and meeting and talking to community members,” she said. “Anything we can do at all, we’re there, we’re available. We’re keeping the children in the forefront in our minds. Their interests are the foremost.”