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MCCTC, Choffin to share students, services, save money
YOUNGSTOWN
Choffin Career and Mahoning County Career and Technical centers will share students and services for the 2017-18 school year.
They are entering into a shared-service agreement which will allow the schools to share administrative services and offer students at both centers more career-tech options.
Denise Dick, Youngs-town City Schools spokeswoman, said an October 2016 study performed by research students at Youngs-town State University determined the agreement would lower each school’s expenses per student and generate better academic outcomes.
Choffin’s per-student cost is $30,647 compared with MCCTC’s $17,149, according to the YSU study.
Sharing services will lower Choffin’s per-student cost and allow students countywide to choose which school has programs better suited to their needs, said Ron Iarussi, superintendent of MCCTC and the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
It also will put the Choffin building on Wood Street to better use.
“Enrollment at Choffin is dwindling – right now with only about 300 people attending,” Dick said. “This agreement will allow students [from all over] to choose where they want go, either half-day at Choffin or full day at MCCTC.”
Joseph Meranto, Choffin’s executive director, hopes the agreement will attract students from the county’s eastern school districts such as Campbell and Struthers as it’s a shorter commute to Choffin in Youngstown than to MCCTC on North Palmyra Road in Canfield.
Choffin instructors still will be Youngstown school employees, and an administrator from the county will be assigned to Choffin. Meranto and Choffin Principal Jennifer D’Amico will remain in administrative roles outside of Choffin but within the district.
The MCCTC board of education will meet June 22 to finalize the agreement.
“We have a lot of details to work out, but we are really excited about the opportunity to take what we learned the last few years at MCCTC and apply it at Choffin,” Iarussi said.