YOUNGSTOWN — Outgoing Youngstown Board of Education President Ronald Shadd planned on ending the year laying the final groundwork so the next school board could hit the ground running in planning for resuming local control of the district.

It was not meant to be.

Youngstown Academic Distress Commission chairman John Richard recently notified the board that he will no longer work with the members because some unnamed ones sought to sabotage Chief Executive Officer Justin Jennings’ effort to get a new job as the Akron Public Schools chief of leadership and learning / assistant superintendent.

Jennings’ name was listed on Akron Board of Education’s Dec. 13 agenda as the person they were planning to hire to fill the newly created position. Because of information Akron’s board received prior to the vote, however, it decided not to make a decision at that meeting.

There were four people considered.

Richard wrote to the Youngstown board that the effort to prevent Jennings from getting the job destroyed the trust established between himself and Youngstown school board.

“Unfortunately, with the unfolding of events, as I understand them surrounding Mr. Jennings’ potential employment with Akron Public Schools, specifically the communication between some members of the Youngstown Board with those on the Akron Board, that trust is no longer warranted,” Richard wrote. “At best, some of that communication was uninformed and comments were made out of ignorance. At worst, it was done with malicious intent and deception.

“Either way, it is potentially damaging without merit to Mr. Jennings’ immediate circumstances, and possibly to his future career,” Richard continued. “I cannot understand why any individual, let alone one representing the school district, would make such comments.”

REACTION

Shadd denied having anything to do with whatever was sent to the Akron board and, until he was notified by Richard, any knowledge of anything sent about Jennings.

“I did not talk to anyone in Akron,” Shadd said. “I don’t know any of their board members.”

He emphasized the two to three weeks the ADC and the current school board will not be in communication simply works to shorten the time Youngstown’s board has to prepare for local control of the district — scheduled to begin July 1.

“There is so much to do,” Shadd said. “Any amount of time the board is not preparing is being wasted.”

In response to Richard’s letter, Shadd noted the approval of the board’s Academic Improvement Plan is the epitome of the progress made “between our governing bodies.”

“Alleged comments surrounding the CEO’s personal attempt for employment with the Akron School District should not be a wedge to divide the ADC and the board, both of which are public entities serving the educational interests of Youngstown students,” Shadd wrote. “Recall, too, I even asked you if it would be appropriate to supply a recommendation on his behalf, and that I told you that I would not stand in the way of his search for employment elsewhere.”

Shadd said Richard’s decision to shun the board is unwarranted and unwise, because whatever statements were sent to the Akron board were based on an individual’s personal opinion, not on any actions of the Youngstown school board.

“Sadly, your shunning may undermine the board, and collaterally the ADC, after the board and the ADC have worked so hard to improve the district,” Shadd wrote. “I wish we could have had discussions to create a better resolution.”

Richard this week said the ADC will begin working with the Youngstown board once the new members are sworn in.

“It remains my hope that we can work together for students’ interests in a manner of mutual trust and respect,” Richard wrote. “Hopefully, we can move forward beyond this incident with the new version of the board after January.”

Shadd said his goal when he first was elected was to help the board emerge from state control, and he hopes to continue to work with the board and the ADC in accomplishing that goal, especially today, when they are so close.