Mohip rips city school board at Ohio Senate hearing

By AMANDA TONOLI

atonoli@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown City Schools CEO Krish Mohip told Ohio lawmakers weighing the future of House Bill 70 that the city and its families deserve much better than what the elected school board has given the school system in recent history.

Even though he’s essentially off the job as CEO and replaced by Justin Jennings, Mohip said HB70 must continue.

Mohip testified on behalf of House Bill 70, a law that created his position, last month in the Ohio Senate.

The Senate was hearing testimony from both sides on House Bill 154. The bill, which passed the House last month and is being considered by the Senate, would restore local control of school districts taken over by the state under the authority of HB 70.

HB 70, also referred to as the Youngstown Plan, was signed into law by former Gov. John Kasich in July 2015 as an effort to improve the academic performance of failing or struggling public school districts.

In Youngstown, the legislation enabled a state-appointed academic distress commission to hire Mohip to lead the city school district. The law gives Mohip complete operational, managerial and instructional control.

Brenda Kimble, the Youngstown school board president, said she was shocked to hear the schools’ CEO was testifying on behalf of HB 70.

“He can’t come to work, but can come to Columbus to testify against the district,” she said. “How is his testimony taken to be credible given his mismanagement?”

Mohip repeatedly stated during his time in the district he wanted to put politics aside and focus on the children.

In his testimony, Mohip discussed his history in urban education and his experience in Youngstown.

His history included more than 19 years of experience in urban education and “a track record of success for repairing and transforming schools and school systems that are failing students.”

Before his time in Youngstown, Mohip served as CEO in a Chicago-area school district. He lauded his accomplishments in Chicago noting that during his time “not a single school was left in the lowest tier of schools in Chicago, and today these schools continue to find success,” he said in his testimony.

He also provided data that showed the Youngstown district was doing better, despite having a failing state report card that showed the district earned an overall F grade made up of two D’s and four F’s.

“Those looking to vilify our work and claim it is not working will make the claim that we are still an F, but let’s break down the achievements realized in this measure, and you can determine for yourself if you believe that our academic efforts are fai ling,” Mohip said in his testimony.

His data showed a reduced achievement gap in reading and math for African Americans, Hispanics, English as a Second Language students and students with disabilities.

Kimble said she thinks his information is false.

“I think his testimony was not based off of true data of and what’s going on in the Youngstown City School District,” she said. “He hasn’t been in this school district in months. ... It’s a shame he is still manipulating the process to continually destroy our district.”

Mohip claimed further success in grade-school reading and math tests.

“The Recovery of Youngstown has begun, and I point directly at the legislation that allowed for the ADC model as a main reason for the success,” he said in his testimony.

Mohip officially leaves his position effective June 30.

In his testimony, Mohip said he feared for his safety living in Youngstown.

“Having bricks thrown through my windows on four separate occasions, my car windows smashed two different times and multiple death threats to my phone [and] having my character assassinated by board members, union leaders and state lawmakers despite the incredible gains made by our teachers and students has led me to this decision [to leave],” he said in his testimony.

Mohip said Friday he was clear in his testimony that returning control to the board of education “would be disastrous and cruel to the children.”

“Our students and families deserve much better than the governing body which allowed our scholars to be educated in oftentimes an illegal, inequitable, an immoral manner,” he said. “Throughout their never-ending onslaught of personal attacks and lies over the past three years meant to discredit and disrupt my leadership, our team of administrators and educators worked tirelessly to undo the decades of damage inflicted by this board of education.

“We simply cannot allow them to put their own egos ahead of the needs of our learners. Success and pride is finally being restored under the HB70 governance. Anyone who feels that this board is the solution and a better governance structure than HB 70 simply isn’t paying attention, or doesn’t care about the children of Youngstown.”