YOUNGSTOWN — Two city council members say their support of the academic distress commission and the last two Youngstown City Schools chief executive officers has everything to do with improving the futures of Youngstown school children and the city.

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, and Councilwoman Basia Adamczak, D-7th Ward, were identified by Youngstown Education Association President Larry Ellis as council members who did not sign a March 25 letter sent to Gov. Mike DeWine from state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown.

The letter asked the governor to abolish all academic distress commissions in a handful of Ohio school districts, including Youngstown, and to restore local control to boards of education.

Ellis asked YEA members to contact the two council members and ask for their support. In his email, Ellis identified Adamczak as have two children in the Youngstown schools.

Jimma McWilson, a member of the Youngstown NAACP, said that Ellis should not have sent an email to YEA members identifying Adamczak as having children in the district.

“As a parent I would remove my child immediately out of fear for her safety,” McWilson said. “I have represented parents and students in Youngstown City Schools and within Mahoning County who were politely threatened.”

POLITICAL AGENDAS

Oliver and Adamczak said they did not join 21 other local Democrats in signing the letter because each felt there are parts of the letter that are misleading. The council members suggested some school board members are not focused on the best interest of the children, but, instead, their own political agendas.

“Youngstown is not going to get to where it needs to be until the school system is on point,” Oliver said. “We need to create environments where our students can thrive, so businesses will begin to move into the city and the system is moving in the right direction.”

Adamczak, a mother of two girls who attend the city schools, added that since the state takeover parents and students have seen a positive shift in the district, including the addition of the Taft Promise Neighborhood with wraparound services, the hosting of community meetings by former CEO Krish Mohip and current CEO Justin Jennings, and the return of sports to the schools.

“At one point, I was ready to take my girls out of the schools, but now both are thriving,” she said.

The letter sent by Lepore-Hagan notes that Youngstown schools have seen regression of the overall student achievement, the flight of excellent teachers and administrators, elimination of programs that demonstrated potential for improvement and an increase in administrative expenses.

Lepore-Hagan noted that the community is ready to lead the education of its children.

But Adamczak argues that few of the signees of Lepore-Hagan’s letter have ever stepped into the city schools over the last several years.

‘SECOND-HAND’

“What they know is second-hand,” Adamczak said. “I’ve invited them to come to the schools, but most have not.

“Ultimately, it is our goal to move forward with local control,” she said. “However, it is foolish to restore local control without a backup plan.”

Oliver said the state should not return control to a board of education that still has members on it from the time when it was broken. The distress commissions and CEOs were brought in by the state because the local boards could not make headway — in Youngstown’s case, for a decade — in improving academic performance.

“For some this is a political fight and not a fight about what is best for the children,” he said.

Oliver said he believes that Jennings, despite coming into a difficult situation, is doing a good job in transforming the schools. “I thought (Jenning’s predecessor Krish) Mohip was doing a good job,” Oliver said.

Lepore-Hagan on Friday said the community is united in ending the academic distress commission that is now in control of the Youngstown City Schools.

“We will not be distracted or deterred by parties that don’t want to participate in the effort,” she said.

“People are entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts, and the fact is the children of the Youngstown City Schools are trapped in a failed system that must end.”

rsmith@tribtoday.com