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City school CEO finalists prepared for challenges
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Each of the two finalists for chief executive officer of Youngstown schools has experience in urban schools, says he knows how to collaborate and looks forward to the challenges of the job.
The academic distress commission meets Tuesday and is expected to select either Krish Mohip, a Chicago Public Schools administrator, or Tyrone Olverson, superintendent of Finneytown Schools near Cincinnati, for the job.
Mohip is a principal at one of Illinois’s lowest-performing schools. Before that, he was chief officer of strategic school support services in the Chicago schools. He was responsible for the whole-school reform of 36 of that city’s lowest-performing and most-challenged schools.
Of those, 24 schools saw significant improvement a year earlier than expected.
“I didn’t do anything fancy; we just focused on instruction,” Mohip said, adding teachers need support.
“You have to invest in your people,” he said. “You have to give them the support, the training and the resources they need.”
Olverson has worked in urban, suburban and rural schools, as superintendent of Finneytown, where he was responsible for planning and implementing an effective, standards-based instructional program.
His family lives in Reynoldsburg, near Columbus, and he has resigned his Finneytown position, effective July 1.
He said he wanted to spend time with his family. The family though, would relocate to the Mahoning Valley if he gets the job. First he and his son would move, and his son would attend Youngstown State University. His wife and daughter, who is in eighth grade, would come later.
Olverson grew up in Lincoln Heights, a poor neighborhood of Cincinnati, and attended public school there.
He, his siblings and his mother lived with his grandparents.
“There were 14 of us in a three-bedroom house,” Olverson said. “My dad wasn’t around. I knew who he was, but he wasn’t around. There were four kids with a single mom and three different dads. I’m not proud of it, but that’s the way it was. She did the very best she could for us.”
He knows poverty because he lived it, he said.
Olverson said people in Lincoln Heights are a lot like people in Youngstown. They’re gritty and know how to persevere, he said.
His sister recently graduated from high school at 44. She wanted that diploma, not a GED. She persevered to get it, he said.
“I’m more proud of her for that than anything I’ve done,” Olverson said.
His other siblings have also done well. A sister works for Ford Motor Co., and a brother was recently promoted to police sergeant.
Although he isn’t sure where he’ll live in the Mahoning Valley if he is selected to be Youngstown schools’ CEO, people will see him in the community.
“It’s important we operate as role models,” Olverson said. “You’re modeling what others can do.”
He’ll sport YCSD apparel too, demonstrating pride in the schools.
Mohip went to school in some of Illinois’ best schools and made the conscious decision to work in inner-city impoverished communities.
His parents are from Trinidad/Tobago, and they grew up poor. After coming to the U.S., his father became a college professor, his mother a kindergarten teacher.
“I learned from them that education is the only guarantee to escape poverty,” Mohip said.
He believes every child should be high-achieving.
As principal, he addressed social-emotional issues and focused on instruction.
As a former teacher, he said he’s an advocate for instructors.
“If you give them the time and resources and allow them some flexibility and don’t micromanage, teachers will surprise you,” Mohip said.
Each man says he has a good relationship with the respective unions with which he works. Each also believes the elected city school board should continue to play a role in the schools.
The Youngstown Plan, the legislation approved last summer by the Ohio Legislature which creates the CEO post, allows the CEO broad authority over the district. It’s up to the CEO what role elected board members will play.
Olverson said board members understand the community and could help him by offering their insight.
“I think there’s a lot of value when people vote people into office, and we should listen,” he said.
Mohip said as someone coming from outside of the community and even the state, he would rely on board members for their knowledge and experience.
Both men also recognize the need to build trust among the community, staff and parents.
“When I look at parents, I look at how comfortable they are coming into the schools,” Mohip said.
Often trust is lacking, he said. Parents have often had bad experiences in school themselves.
He would work to establish and build trust.
“Schools are here to help them,” Mohip said. “They’re not a place to be intimidated.”
Schools should help parents by enabling them to help their children, he said.
Olverson said he would schedule community meetings and do so at the convenience of parents, not administrators. That means meetings not just in the evenings, but mornings and afternoons too.
“I’m a collaborator,” he said. “You’ve got to work with people. This is a people business, and you must work with that.”
Olverson earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Ohio State University, his master’s in urban educational leadership from the University of Cincinnati and expects to earn his doctorate in education in December from Concordia University in Chicago.
Mohip earned his bachelor’s in social studies/secondary education from Mount St. Clare University in Illinois, his master’s in educational administration and supervision from Loyola University of Chicago and expects to have his doctorate in education in January 2019 from National-Louis University in Illinois.