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Adair will not bow down to the throne of the CEO
YOUNGSTOWN
A Youngstown Board of Education member said she will not be “held hostage for information” by being asked to attend the district CEO’s update meetings – so she can come “bow down at the throne of the CEO and his staff.”
“I am not attending the CEO’s meetings,” said Jackie Adair. “This board agreed to attend [its own] two-hour meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.”
Her comment Tuesday night followed many questions board members say have gone unanswered by CEO Krish Mohip.
As Mohip has stated in the past and during this meeting, however, most information that board members seek is available during his monthly CEO update meetings. These meetings began in November, after combined meetings with the CEO and the board of education were unsuccessful and argumentative.
“This decision comes in response to the Oct. 25 meeting when three board members left after a nearly 30-minute argument with Mohip about who controls the agenda,” The Vindicator previously wrote when Mohip decided to start his own meetings.
Board members still voice concern about poor communication practices by Mohip.
“If it wasn’t for The Vindicator, I wouldn’t know what’s going on in this district,” said Michael Murphy, school board vice president. “The whole communication in this district is ridiculous.”
Mohip is running the district under the authority of House Bill 70, state legislation passed in 2015 that puts control over academics and finances in his hands, in yet another effort to raise the district’s poor academic performance.
Board member Dario Hunter said Mohip seems to act as if he is paranoid about the things he is doing in the district.
“If you don’t want to [answer questions] here, I don’t see why you’re here,” Adair said.
Mohip said he is willing to address any and all concerns during his CEO update meeting.
Hunter said Mohip’s response is a cop-out and just another public-relations move.
“You heard my concerns,” he said. “You have ears, a mouth and a mind. Is that what you say to parents concerned about their children?”
Hunter added he thinks Mohip is arrogant in thinking that he doesn’t have to respond to the board or the community.
“[Hunter’s] saying I’m not responding to your questions, but he just does not like my response,” Mohip said.
Board President Brenda Kimble said she mirrors the concerns of her fellow board members and is sorry to say she thinks the lack of communication between Mohip and the board is juvenile.
District spokeswoman Denise Dick said school board members receive the same news releases sent to the media, at the same time they are sent.
“If board members want to know what’s happening in the district, the CEO’s monthly update meetings are open to the public,” she said.
In other board business, member Ronald Shadd gave a positive report of a recent visit to Taft Elementary’s Math and Literacy Night.
“It was so wonderful to see,” he said. “The night is done in-house – by staff – and they had hundreds, roughly 300 people there, and I really applaud them for having families come in for things unrelated to what parents typically come in to schools for.”