YOUNGSTOWN The Youngstown City School District Academic Improvement Plan, designed to help the board of education to regain local control, itself needs improvement before the state Department of Education will accept it.

That’s the message in an Oct. 27 letter sent to school board President Ronald Shadd written by Stephanie Siddens, interim state superintendent of public instruction.

Siddens said the improvement plan should reflect high expectations for students in all measurable categories, including its benchmarks in math and literacy.

While recognizing that the pandemic continues to have a major impact on achievement, Siddens emphasized that measurable benchmarks for student achievement at the end of the 2025 school year should be higher than they were in the pre-pandemic academic year of 2018-2019.

“The department requests you clearly state the long-term success goals in the context of the improvement plan,” Siddens wrote. “This is especially important context when reviewing the benchmarks your district set related to Ohio State Tests.”

The school district must send the revised AIP to the interim state superintendent’s office no later than Nov. 11.