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Dayton-area school board gives tips to Youngstown board
YOUNGSTOWN
Trotwood Madison school board says students need to come first when it comes to turning a district around.
Trotwood Madison school board video-chatted with Youngstown City Schools Board of Education on Tuesday evening to discuss how it saved its district from House Bill 70.
Tuesday evening was the second day of a three-day retreat.
HB 70, commonly referred to as the Youngstown Plan, was signed into law by Gov. John Kasich in July 2015. It enabled a state-appointed academic distress commission to hire a CEO to lead the district. The bill gives the CEO complete operational, managerial and instructional control. The Youngstown CEO is Krish Mohip. The elected school board now serves in an advisory capacity.
HB 70 came into effect after Youngstown City Schools had more than a decades’ worth of failing grades.
After having honest conversations about what was and wasn’t working, Denise Moore, Trotwood Madison board president, said decisions became focused on moving the district forward.
“We took politics out of it,” she said.
And by taking the politics out of the conversation, the district was able to talk openly and work fluidly together with a common goal.
Moore said the board engaged the community, which is near Dayton.
“We didn’t want our kids to go backward or disenfranchise our community,” she said. “We consistently included our stakeholders.”
And the board trusted in interim superintendent Tyrone Olverson, who was formerly Youngstown City School’s chief academic officer, from his time spent in Youngstown.
That time, Olverson said, gave him an advantage to help turn around the district.
The most important lesson Olverson learned and carried with him from Youngstown to Trotwood Madison was to work together.
“We are working together for the benefit of the kids with the board of elected members from the community [the school board],” he said. “If we are split and divided, I’m not sure how you move forward.”
Olverson added he suggests promoting better communication with the board and the CEO.
Olverson said he is now in a district that is much more open in terms of communication.
But Youngstown board members said the situations are different.
“We started out different and never had a chance to be like that,” said Mike Murphy, Youngstown board vice president. “They [Trotwood Madison board] can’t even compare to us with what we have and what we are dealing with.”
Seeing the other district’s success did positively impact other board members, however.
“It’s empowering to see differences and see what can happen when you get ahead of a commission,” said board member Ron Shadd.
In other business, board member Jackie Adair wanted an explanation from Academic Distress Commission member Vincent Shivers as to why Mohip received a $6,000 bonus despite the school district receiving F’s on the state report card.
Shivers said he can’t justify it.
“I was against the bonus,” Shivers said. Shivers was absent from the Sept. 27 ADC meeting in which the commission unanimously approved Mohip’s bonus.
“If my daughter brings home all F’s, we’re going to have to have a conversation,” Shivers said. “I don’t think it’s something that takes a lot of intellectual thought. It’s very simple. I’m telling students to have high standards. ... But they’re [the district is] getting an F, and I’m rewarding them? No. The F is a reflection on [Mohip].”