43
Youngstown’s early warning system
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown City School District has parted ways with Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court’s Early Warning System and established a system of its own, hiring 11 of its own social workers.
Judge Dellick said after a five-month span of trying to contact school district CEO Krish Mohip and a number of “different roadblocks,” she removed the district from the program and asked Campbell City Schools to join in its place.
The Early Warning System program, which is a result of a grant provided to the court by the Ohio Department of Justice for the Mahoning County Juvenile Court, is aimed at responding early and appropriately to student mental health and behavioral needs, with the goals of helping students succeed in school and preventing negative outcomes.
The grant provides each district $3,000 for each middle school and high school participating in the program from 2015 to 2017.
Mohip disputed Judge Dellick’s claim of a five-month period of failed contact and said the two met once in July, twice in September, once in December, had a phone call in November and met once again in March.
According to an email Judge Dellick wrote to Mohip on March 1, she wrote that the Mahoning County Juvenile Court was terminating the Early Warning System program for the district, and “despite the court’s repeated attempts to work with the district, confusion and the lack of cooperation, consistency and respect are obstacles to the grant’s success.”
She credited termination to “miscommunication and mismanagement” on Mohip’s end.
“Every time I met with a different school, they had a different plan,” she said. “It was challenging. There was no continuity. It was like spinning our wheels working with them.”
Judge Dellick added that “it was just not a good match between the court and the schools.”
While Mohip did agree the match was not successful, he said his educators strove to be accommodating and cooperative with Early Warning System staff.
“Well, I know the judge was upset with some of our schools and the leadership, but we made some changes and implemented them to better work together,” he said. “There were some struggles and some friction, but we were working through those.”
In response to Judge Dellick’s email, Mohip wrote: “I agree that this is the best course of action. With the addition of Joe Nohra, Jennifer Merritt and John LaPlante, along with our continued attention to [the Early Warning System] at all schools around the district, we believe we are making improvements in this area in all schools, and continuing to build our own internal processes for the unique situation of Youngstown.”
Nohra is district chief operations officer, Merritt is alternative education director and LaPlante is chief information officer.
“If the judge can take this program to a district that really needs it, that’s great to support that district,” Mohip added.
He said what the Youngstown school district is doing independently is more effective: restorative justice/practices, positive behavioral interventions and supports, BAG – behavior, attendance and grades – reports; and five-week reviews.
“We see a lot of merit with what the [juvenile court] is doing, and we see great success. However, we’re interested in providing these services to all of our students in every single school, and that’s what we’ve put in place – and I think what we’re doing is high-quality,” Mohip said.
He added that some of the practices he is putting in place in the district are borrowed lessons from the Early Warning System, yet “tailored to needs of Youngstown City School District.”
“If you look at how many students are at a place like Struthers [school district] and how many students – 12, 15 or 20 – were in need of service a month and for our district, we are looking at somewhere between 1,300 and 1,400 students,” Mohip said. “That’s why we made the decision to invest in our own social workers ... because of the quantity of need and even the severity of some of our students. We just had to take this in ourselves.”
Mohip last October hired 11 social workers who make a maximum salary of $41,924 per person annually. Wages depend on qualifications and years of experience.
Nohra said there is almost no difference between what Mohip is doing and Judge Dellick’s Early Warning System program as far as their philosophies.
“It’s about two organizations that really want to help kids,” he said. “Every breath we take is about helping students. We just want to see what’s best for kids.”
The three agree although they are not working together with the Early Warning System specifically, they still will collaborate to help children in other ways.
“We’ll connect down the road again, and the judge’s hand is still out there to work – and our hand is still out there as well,” Nohra said.
Judge Dellick agreed.
“This is nothing that is a divide between us,” she said. “We just felt it was a better use of the court’s resources to move onto another school district.”
Judge Dellick hopes to make the Early Warning System a countywide program.