YOUNGSTOWN — The three Ohio school districts, including Youngstown, under state control because of multiple years of failing grades on state report cards now will get their long-awaited chance to return to local control.

Some local critics of state academic oversight have waited to have this opportunity, and now are saying all parties — the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission, city schools Chief Executive Officer Justin Jennings and the elected board of education — need to be at the table to create a workable way out.

Jennings, meanwhile, says he’d welcome the chance to stay on as district superintendent should the school board choose this option, as provided by new state legislation.

Youngstown, East Cleveland and Lorain can have a path away from state control because Gov. Mike DeWine approved a two-year state budget that includes steps these districts can take to emerge from oversight from academic distress commissions.

But the path to local control is neither quick nor simple because school boards in the three communities must fulfill specific requirements. Districts will have to develop and implement three-year academic improvement plans and get them approved by the state superintendent.

The districts have until June 30, 2022, to develop these plans, according to John Richard, chairman of the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission. Richard also is Ohio’s deputy state superintendent of public instruction. Until the plans are approved, the school districts’ CEOs and the commissions will remain in place.

THE PROCESS

∫ Once the three-year academic improvement plans are approved, the ADCs will continue to exist to provide assistance to the districts — but they will relinquish operational and managerial control. During the transition period, however, the school boards may decide to hire their commission-hired CEOs as district superintendents while implementing their academic improvement plans.

∫ If they choose to hire the CEO as superintendent, the state will continue to provide compensation under the terms of the CEOs’ contract, until the district either again becomes subject to its commission or its ADC is dissolved.

∫ Districts that fail to successfully meet the objectives of their improvement plans will, once again, fall under control of the commissions, which will select CEOs to run them.

∫ The state auditor is required to do performance audits at least once during the implementation of the three-year improvement plans.

∫ Once the districts meet the majority of the plan’s benchmarks, the ADCs will be dissolved.

WANTS TO STAY

CEO Jennings last week reiterated his interest to remain in the district, but in the appointed superintendent role.

Joe Meranto, the Youngstown district’s last superintendent, retired in June.

“I’ve tried to work closely with school board and have them in the decision making process,” Jennings said. “I will continue to work with them until my time is up.”

Whether he remains with the district during the implementation of the academic improvement plan will be up to the board, Jennings noted.

Board President Ronald Shadd said he is not clear on the future of the CEO after 2022.

“The board needs to understand the language of the legislation more clearly,” Shadd said. “It seems that the CEO position may play a role in the district beyond June of 2022. The Ohio Auditor’s performance audit may indicate changes to our executive structure that we may not be able to predict prior to the audit being completed.”

At least one board member, Jackie Adair, remains critical of Jennings and is not sure he should remain as the superintendent, because, in her opinion, he has followed the policies of his predecessor, former CEO Krish Mohip, which have kept the district in academic distress.

“We must have a positive change agent with an aggressive plan to move Youngstown city school children from being the worst academically in the state, within three years, not five, to at least somewhere in the middle,” Adair said. “Not another five-year plan that has led to nowhere.”

In East Cleveland and Lorain schools, CEO Henry Pettiegrew II and CEO Jeff Graham were named earlier as their districts’ superintendents by their boards of education.

COLLABORATION?

Youngstown ADC chairman Richard said the commission, CEO and board can work together successfully if the focus remains on what is best for the Youngstown school children.

“From the ADC side, the best thing is for us to work collaboratively with the board and Mr. Jennings,” he said. “The primary issue is one of trust between the school board and Mr. Jennings. We will be advising them toward finding common ground. We should all be working in the best interest of the children, not the adults.”

Community activist Kenneth Simon emphasized the future of the district should not rely only on the school board members.

“We are all stakeholders,” Simon said. “We have to make sure all parties are at the table — the ADC, the CEO and the board.”

Simon, who served as an ADC member from 2014 to 2015, served prior to the passage of House Bill 70, the so-called Youngstown Plan that brought in a CEO, Mohip. Simon was replaced on the commission when it was reconfigured.

The district was first placed under an academic distress commission in 2010. It was five years later that HB 70 was approved and the CEO model established.

School board member Brenda Kimble described the ADC at that time as working in concert with the board, providing advice and guidance in helping to move educational programs forward. At the time, the board could assign two people to serve on the commission. Those members could be anyone living in the commmunity.

Later, the commission format was changed, so the board is only allowed to provide one ADC member and that person must be an employee of the school district.

Simon agreed that Jennings and the board must work together on the development and implementation of a unified plan.

He believes the ADC in Youngstown was designed to fail from the beginning, because the entities — the board, CEO and ADC — were not working together to achieve the same goals.

“Other districts have had some success with the CEO, board and ADC working together,” he said. “Our board has been ignored by the CEO and the ADC. All parties must be unified with no agenda but the children.”

Simon, senior pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, is one of the leaders of the Community Leadership Coalition on Education that has been fighting to eliminate HB 70 and encourage local control of the school district. He describes the takeover as a failure, noting there has not been any significant improvement in state report-card grades over the last six years.

He is encouraged that the board was invited to have a combined meeting with the commission last month.

GETTING INVOLVED

Youngstown residents can impact the district’s future by making sure they elect the best of the candidates running for the three available board of education seats in the next election, according to Simon.

“We want people whose interests are focused on making this the best district for the kids,” Simon said. “Residents must stay involved after the election by going to board meetings and making sure the members are accountable for their actions.”

Parents and residents also can help by being involved in any way they can at their area schools, he noted.

Jimma McWilson, founder of the African Education Party, said he is pleased a path for local control has been established, but emphasized the district was receiving failing grades for years before the state brought in the ADC and before the CEO model was established.

McWilson is working with a state board of education task force looking at the best academic practices to educate black children.

“I believe in local control when they are producing results,” McWilson said. “Parents and students are generally doing the right thing. It is the system that’s broken and not fixed. It is designed to be unequal for black children.”

rsmith@tribtoday.com