Community supports Mohip's neighborhood schools plan

April 20, 2017 at 12:10a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Krish Mohip discusses neighborhood schools

Youngstown City Schools CEO Krish Mohip discusses the new neoghborhood schools concept.

NAACP Youngstown Branch President George Freeman Jr. was among community members cheering Youngstown City Schools CEO Krish Mohip’s neighborhood school plan

The plan, released by Mohip Wednesday, is simply “wonderful” and takes into account special programs being placed on one side of the city, Freeman said.

“Kids won’t have to go past a school to go to school – it’ll be right in their neighborhood,” Freeman said. “I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mohip’s plan and I say give the guy a couple years and Youngstown will be a school looked up to by people all around the state.”

VIDEO: MOHIP ON NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS

Mohip’s plan will place students in prekindergarten through eighth grade into one of nine school buildings closest to their homes – Paul C. Bunn Elementary, Williamson Elementary, Programs of Promise at Wilson, Taft Elementary, Volney Rogers Middle, McGuffey Elementary, Discovery at Kirkmere, Martin Luther King Elementary and Harding Elementary.

Jackie Adair, known as an outspoken board of education member, is, as Mohip has requested, “buying in” to the idea.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have concerns which include moving Youngstown Early College and the overall costs.

“The move of YEC to 20 W. Wood St. and the cost is just going to be spending way more money yet again,” she said. “We, the board [of education], had already said we need to get out of that building because it’s costing more than a half million dollars a year. We need the roof replaced, the windows redone. ...

“We need to be cognizant of the cost to taxpayers – especially in light of the fact [that] everyone [is] constantly talking about how poor too many residents of the city are.”

Mohip said Mayor John A. McNally asked him not to reconfigure the schools when he started as CEO in June.

Now, McNally said he supports whatever will best help students. Still, he worries about more change.

“Over the past couple years I’ve talked to students, parents, teachers, administrators, Krish [Mohip], Dr. Connie Hathorn [former district superintendent], folks from the state and more and at some point the district and everyone in it needs to have stability – where kids going to school, which programs in which schools, etc.,” he said.

“My biggest concern is having the stability for our kids so they feel safe in schools and get educated,” McNally said. “At some point everyone has to know where they’re going to be year in and year out.”

McNally said no matter what changes come to the district, the students still need more families involved.

“It’s not just all on the teachers and the central office to fix the problems the district has,” he said.

Contact the school district for the web address for the interactive map.