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One student’s growth raises the bar for Youngstown City Schools
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown schools CEO Krish Mohip said when families buy into the “vision” of the school district, anything is possible.
Rayen Early College Middle School eighth-grade student Trey Riddle, 14, is one example – of 185 students at REC – of what Youngstown schools can do with the right support system.
Trey started at Rayen last fall with a below-grade reading level and a worried family.
The problem, said his mother, Megan Mercado, was that Trey’s former charter school just wasn’t challenging him enough.
Trey “would finish [his work] before everyone else and use his time to help other students rather than work on something else,” said Mercado, a regular attendee at Youngstown Board of Education meetings.
Since switching schools, Trey’s reading level has steadily improved to almost at grade level. In fact, Mohip says he’s improved by three grade levels.
Mercado said not only has Trey’s reading level improved, but his confidence level has, as well.
“At charter school, he was motivator of the group, building up other kids, but now it’s mutual,” she said. “Rayen’s pace is more picked up, so it’s more comfortable for him. Rayen sees motivation in him and sees the potential he sometimes doesn’t see.”
Fred Mercado, Trey’s stepfather, said he likes the fact that REC “personalized” the education based Trey’s needs.
“Just the fact that they made him care and that he cares right now is a major improvement,” he said.
Although Trey’s mother credits the REC staff and willingness of Debbie DiFrancesco, principal at Rayen Early College, DiFrancesco credits the entire support system: the school, Trey’s family and Trey himself.
“It was really a team effort,” she said.
DiFrancesco said Trey started to improve from Day One at his new school because of a different set of expectations.
“Everybody strives to achieve at REC, so I think it took him not very long to understand this is what we do here,” she said.
Mohip said it’s possible for anyone’s child to be exactly what they expect, as long as they have the proper support in place, working cohesively.
“We supported that child in the school with the resources he needed, and there’s the outcome – here’s a child who has had a challenging experience in schools, and now, after three or four months, you see three grade levels of improvement – which is almost unheard of,” he said. “If you do that for one child, you can do it for all. We’ve just raised the bar on what success looks like.”
Trey doesn’t quite see himself as the model for success, but as an average teenager who enjoys building anything car-related and reading horror novels such as Stephen King’s “The Shining.”
“I like to be able to work on difficult stuff,” he said. “It’s nice to have something and complete something a little bit challenging.”
DiFrancesco said what most amazes her is that Trey came to REC with learning needs and has excelled so much during his short time there.
“We are really glad he came because he is a really good addition to REC,” she said.