YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Board of Education wants public input on an academic improvement plan to help the district move out of academic distress but there may be limited interest as only five people attended a special meeting Tuesday night on the matter.

Two additional public meetings are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Aug. 17 and 31 at the Choffin Career and Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St.

Board President Ronald Shadd said the Youngstown City School District has the opportunity to be removed from a state classification of academic distress once an academic improvement plan is in place.

“We want to ensure that we got the community’s voice involved and to address any concerns that they may have,” Shadd said.

Justin Jennings, Youngstown City Schools CEO, said he would like to receive more community input.

“The only people who can change the Youngstown school district is the citizens of Youngstown. We can’t wait for Columbus or anyone else. We have to step up and do it,” Jennings said.

“This is the time for our community to collectively speak and make sure we have what is needed to improve our schools.The stronger our schools are, the stronger our community will be. We want to have a stronger school system,” he said.

“One of the steps to get out of the academic distress commission is to develop a plan and submit it to the state superintendent for approval, which will take place over the next four years,” he said.

The districts have until Sept. 30 to develop these plans and present them to the state superintendent of instruction. The superintendent then will have time to review the plans, make recommendations and send them back to the school districts for improvements.

By the end of June 2022, the plans should be finished by the district and approved by the Ohio Department of Education, and Youngstown should be in a position to have local control be returned to the elected board of education. The CEO positions will be eliminated.

Angelo Peruzzi of Youngstown, an employee of Youngstown schools who was one of the five residents to attend, said he recommends the board research other school districts of comparable size or larger that were in academic distress and what they did to get released from state-designated academic distress.

“You can determine what may or may not work in the Youngstown City School District rather than trying to re-create the wheel,” Peruzzi said.

Peruzzi said it is important to stimulate the students into caring about their education. He urged the board to get students’ grandparents and great-grandparents involved as community stakeholders.

“There may be students who don’t respect their mom or dad, but there is the possibility that they may respect their grandparents or great-grandparents,” he said.

Shadd said that he has been advised by the Ohio Department of Education that the academic improvement plan should be based on the strategic plan developed earlier this year by Jennings and his administrative team.

Jennings said that he hopes the board can use the plans he has drawn up, which can be scaled from a 10-year plan to a three-year plan.

“We want to the public involved because they are the ones who runs and owns the school district. We are the ones they entrust to educate their children. We want their input to help make sure we are moving in the right direction and that we have their confidence.

“This is a continuation of what we have already been doing which focus heavily on literacy and math and making sure we offer the students support in class and also after school and online. The board will be the ones to come up with a plan,” Jennings said.

He said COVID-19 put the school district behind in its plans for implementing several programs the past few years.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com