Youngstown Schools CEO Krish Mohip leaves

By AMANDA TONOLI

atonoli@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

As new Youngstown City Schools CEO Justin Jennings arrives this week to meet with local officials, current CEO Krish Mohip has left the district and is unlikely to return.

On Wednesday, the school district confirmed Mohip filed Family Medical Leave Act documents citing “family issues,” effective immediately, until the end of his contract July 31.

His annual salary is $170,000.

“I’m going to take care of some issues that have accumulated [at home], and I’m going to focus my attention there,” Mohip told The Vindicator.

He added it’s a good time for him to take the leave, and that he held off for as long as he could.

The Family Medical Leave Act “entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave ... [for] 12 work weeks of leave in a 12-month period,” according to the FMLA website.

“I don’t see my absence as being a hindrance to all the great work that’s happened and will continue to happen over next few years,” Mohip said.

He said if things change, he might be able to return, but he made it clear he is not resigning.

But Brenda Kimble, board of education president, thinks Mohip should resign.

“He hasn’t been around anyway,” she said. “Him going on family medical leave and assigning others to run our district – we don’t need that. Under his leadership, we failed, and now he’s assigning folks who haven’t helped us at all. He only has a few more months anyway.”

Christine Sawicki, chief academic officer, will be in charge while Mohip is on leave.

Kimble said she asks that the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission just let Mohip go.

“He’s been paid sufficiently enough to go ahead and resign,” she said. “He is stopping us from moving our school district forward, and we can’t afford any more roadblocks. It’s another game he’s playing, and it’s being played at the expense of our children and it shouldn’t happen. They [the YADC] need to have Mr. Mohip resign if they are for the children.”

John Richard, YADC chairman, said Mohip is entitled to FMLA leave.

“We treat it as any other leave,” Richard said. “Because it’s at the end of his time here as CEO, I think it kind of adds to the transition element, which we’ll discuss Friday morning at our meeting.”

The YADC will meet at 10 a.m. at East High School, 474 Bennington Ave.

Richard continued to say that Mohip still has paid leave left.

“Some of this is vacation, and then there’s family medical leave that he’s taking,” he said.

His leave will count toward a completed contract. A longevity provision in Mohip’s contract allows him a $10,000 payout if he completes his full contract.

“We have to uphold what the contract says,” Richard said. “We are following the law and following the contract that was agreed upon with Krish Mohip.”