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NAACP says Stohla isn’t qualified
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Stephen Stohla, interim city schools superintendent, has no plans to step down amid the NAACP’s call for his ouster.
“I work for the board, and as long as four of them support me, I’m going to keep working,” Stohla said before the regular school board meeting Tuesday.
The Youngstown unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon that Stohla isn’t qualified to continue in his position.
“We’re asking that he be removed,” said George Freeman Jr., NAACP chapter president.
Freeman listed what he called Stohla’s failure to hire math teachers, hire enough English teachers, provide sufficient support services to students with disabilities and to provide a safe environment for students at East High School among their reasons.
The same group called for former Superintendent Connie Hathorn’s resignation last year.
Stohla said it’s difficult to find qualified math teachers, and the district didn’t have math teachers last year.
He hired three math teachers earlier this year to ensure there was one extra, he said.
The interim superintendent said he’s concerned about East, too.
“They’re not more disappointed about what happened at East than I am,” Stohla said.
He was referring to a fight two weeks ago that sent police to the school. Fourteen students were charged, and the school closed for the remainder of that day and the following school day.
NAACP members have a right to speak, Stohla said.
“It’s a free country,” he said. “That’s why I was in uniform so long.”
Freeman said an email was sent to members of the public as well as the school board regarding their call for Stohla’s ouster, but he said making a recommendation to the school board would be a waste of time.
Jimma McWilson, NAACP vice president, pointed out that there are three board members, Jackie Adair, Dario Hunter and Corrine Sanderson, however, who are receptive to NAACP efforts for improvement.
Brenda Kimble, school board president, believes Stohla came into the job at a difficult time.
“He’s done the best job he could be expected to do,” she said.
Kimble said she wouldn’t move to remove someone based on what another person or a group says. She’d want to see all the documentation and evidence and conduct her own research.
She said the problems at East can’t be blamed on Stohla. It’s going to take involvement from parents, students and school personnel to curb the issues, she said.
Freeman said the NAACP recommends Ben McGee, a former superintendent, to take over if Stohla leaves the post. He also said McGee should be considered for the district chief executive officer position.
A CEO to be appointed by the academic distress commission is one of the provisions of the Youngstown Plan. The plan, however, is stalled in court.
But does McGee even want the job?
“At this time, no, I’m not interested,” McGee said when contacted by The Vindicator. He declined to comment further.
In other business, Stohla distributed a draft to school board members, outlining the grade and building alignment for next year.
The district plans to offer all-day kindergarten next year, which means sixth-graders, now housed in the elementary buildings, will have to go someplace else.
Under Stohla’s draft program, Harding, Paul C. Bunn, Williamson, Martin Luther King Jr., William Holmes McGuffey and Taft Elementary schools would become preschool to fifth-grade schools.
Kirkmere, which houses a Discovery program that exposes third- through eighth-graders to art, music, science and Spanish, also would become a preschool to fifth-grade school.
The Discovery program would be consolidated with Chaney’s Visual and Performing Arts and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programs.
Chaney would continue as a sixth- through 12th-grade building, and East and Youngstown Early College high schools would remain ninth- through 12th-grade schools.
Rayen Early College Middle School would continue as a sixth- through eighth-grade school.
Volney Rogers on the city’s West Side and Woodrow Wilson on the South Side would return to being sixth- through eighth-grade schools.
Programs of Promise, an alternative school at Wilson, would move to the P. Ross Berry Middle School building on the East Side. It would share space with Mahoning County High School, which has been housed there for the last few years.
This year, Volney houses Discovery Transitions to Careers at Volney, a seventh- and eighth-grade school with a career-tech emphasis.
The draft also includes reviewing home-schooled boundaries for the seven elementary and two middle schools to re-distribute students more evenly across the district.