YOUNGSTOWN — A group of Youngstown activists is demanding increased accountability from city school leaders to make sure students earn significantly greater than 2.0 grade point averages.

The Community Education Oversight Task Force is suggesting that a group of 11 Youngstown City School District administrative leaders earn more than an average of $113,771.18 per year, but their work has been delivering some students with GPAs so low that they don’t qualify for free tuition at Eastern Gateway Community College.

The community college has guaranteed that high school graduates from Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties with cumulative GPAs of 2.5 and higher can attend the school at no cost, said Jimma McWilson, director of the campaign for African American Achievement.

In addition to the salaries of 11 top Youngstown schools administrators, the task force also scrutinized salaries of principals and some assistant principals of individual schools, where the group said salaries ranged from $77,000 to $112,416.

The school district, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the task force’s presentation, when contacted Monday evening.

McWilson was one of several task force members who spoke Monday at the Millcreek Community Center, Glenwood Avenue. He described Chaney and East high schools each having students whose average GPA is 1.785 and 1.09, respectively. Chaney’s 2019 average student GPA was 2.70 and East’s 2019 student GPA was 2.24, he said.

Youngstown Rayen Early college had a five-year average GPA of 2.56, increasing to 3.38 in in 2019.

The city school district has for years been under the direction of a state academic distress commission and an appointed chief executive — and not the local elected school board — and is looking at avenues for returning to local control. Youngstown ADC chairman John Richard previously said the commission, CEO and school board can work together successfully if the focus remains on what is best for the Youngstown school children.

PROGRESS REPORTS

McWilson said the task force will be releasing to the public and to state officials progress reports of the district, as well as to individual school buildings, so that stakeholders will be able to keep up with the progress of students in the buildings.

Louis Muhammad, first vice president of the Youngstown NAACP branch, emphasized that trust in the government must be re-established.

“Systemic racism has failed and victimized the black community and is now literally failing our children,” Muhammad said. “We want to put our attention on the need for transparency and accountability to the public. This will be done quarterly or every 10 weeks. The district should constantly notify parents about the status of the district and their child.”

“It is time that we have an outcome-based system that is transparent, and those in that system, everybody, is held accountable for the outcomes,” he continued.

Lois Thornton, a former principal in the Youngstown schools, emphasized that all students, especially black students, have the ability to learn when guided by educators willing to teach them.

Thornton said during the 2009 -2009 school year, she was hired a utility administrator at Taft Elementary. By the end of the 2010-20111 school year, the school went from having an “F” on its state report card to having a “B” grade.

“The rating increased by using the knowledge of an experienced staff, best practice methods for attendance and discipline, parent and community support, and effective communication skills,” she said.

Jackie Adair, a member of the Youngstown Board of Education, emphasized she believes the slow progress being made to improve black student learning over the last 20 years is due to a lack of leadership.

“Any business, operation, or team is no better or worse than its leader,” Adair said. “Better yet, competent, knowledgeable leadership with demonstrated accomplishments and demonstrated success.”

“Tax-paying city residents must demand these qualification be a major, probably the only, consideration when leaders from top to bottom are considered for promotion and, or, employment,” she said.

“District leaders, to date, have not shown an ability to accomplish academic achievement in spite of receiving over- the-top financial compensation,” she said.

rsmith@tribtoday.com