YOUNGSTOWN – The Youngstown Board of Education is trying to stop Mayor Jamael Tito Brown from naming a new five-person school board to replace the district’s existing board.

The board today filed for a temporary restraining order in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to bar Brown from moving on the appointments. The new board is to begin in January.

The state is seeking to replace the school board because the district has received overall “F” grades on the state report cards over the last four academic years. The ability to replace the board is contained in Ohio House Bill 70, also known as the Youngstown Plan, which the board has been fighting.

Passed in 2015, HB 70 states if a school district does not receive at least an overall “C” grade on the state report card in the fourth year, the school board shall be replaced by a board selected by the community’s mayor.

Brown is scheduled to receive names of the candidates Friday. He then will have 30 days to select the five people to the new board.