Youngstown schools trades turkey voucher for discussion with parents

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

City schools administrators and parents made time Thursday to talk turkey about the state of the district and the plans for moving the system forward academically.

As a bonus, Thanksgiving came a week early for some city school families. Those who attended the Parent Community Meeting left with a voucher for a turkey. 1-888 Ohio Comp, a managed care organization based in Cleveland, donated 200 turkeys to be distributed to city school families.

“It’s something our company has been doing for years,” said Wendy Sergent, regional manager. This marks the organization’s first turkey donation to Youngstown City Schools though.

More than 60 parents and guardians attending the session in the school district’s central office learned about the district’s Title I federal program that provides funding for the education of economically disadvantaged students; Parent Pathways; and special services.

Parent Pathways is a program offering liaisons between parents and the city schools. A parent liaison is assigned to each school building. Special services include occupational and physical therapy, speech pathology and psychological services.

Timothy Filipovich, city schools executive director of teaching and learning, said he was excited that the meeting provided him with the first opportunity to have an open discussion about testing and curriculum changes that schools across the state have recently faced.

“With as many changes that occur from the Ohio Department of Education and to legislative changes, a lot of times it’s really hard for us [who are] living in it as school districts,” he said. “We are trying to keep abreast of all the changes, and our parents and students don’t always get the opportunity to get the depth of the new requirements. So that’s why we have to have certain meetings like this with parents.”

A coming challenge Filipovich mentioned is the potential for a decreased graduation rate predicted for 2018 senior students – students who will be the first to graduate after experiencing the new standardized testing practices.

Filipovich assured the parents that the Youngstown district is not the only district facing this challenge. It’s a statewide challenge, and administrators are working together to help get students through this difficult time.

“We are strategically planning how to support those students so they do graduate through schedule changes and curricular changes,” he said. “We have a lot of work ahead for us.”

Other discussion involved many of the goals found in the so-called Youngstown Plan for academic recovery, which includes emphasizing programs for students with special needs, increasing attendance, changing disciplinary practices, providing extra student help if necessary though a new after-school program, and taking care of the “whole child” through increasing parent participation.

The school district is being led by a chief executive officer and overseen by a state-appointed academic distress commission, although its elected board of education remains in place.

“This [meeting] was just one of the venues that this is happening with, and we are also looking to expand each [school] building’s leadership teams to include parents,” Filipovich said. “This will allow representation of everyone in our building leadership teams.”