Editor’s note: This is the ninth biggest story of 2021 in Mahoning County as voted by Vindicator staff.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city schools began 2021 as one of a handful of districts across Ohio that were still fully remote learning and teaching, and its board was still fighting to end the district’s nearly six years under a state-controlled CEO model of operation.

In February, of 609 school districts in Ohio, Youngstown was one of only 34 that were fully remote. The number of school districts that were returning to some form of in-person education — either fully in-person or some form of hybrid model — grew quickly as Gov. Mike DeWine was beginning to pressure districts to reopen doors to students.

DeWine specifically mentioned Youngstown, Cleveland and Akron school districts and a Cincinnati high school as examples of public schools that had not at the time guaranteed they would reopen to in-person education by March 1.

The Youngstown district did not reopen until mid- to late March 2021. The schools had been operating under a fully remote model for more than a year.

In the meantime, members of the Ohio Senate were working on plans that would enable the three academically troubled districts — East Cleveland, Lorain and Youngstown –under state control of operations through CEO models to begin working their way back to local school board control.

When the state approved DeWine’s two-year, $75 billion budget in June, it contained the basic framework for the districts to begin moving to local control. The three school boards, often working alongside the administrators and CEOs whose positions they are looking to replace, worked to develop academic improvement plans that would be approved by the state superintendent of instruction before Dec. 31.

LEADERSHIP

It was, perhaps, easier for the Lorain and East Cleveland school boards to develop their AIPs, because the relationships between those boards and CEOs were more conducive to working with one another. Both boards already had voted to have their CEOs named as superintendents, although there is no guarantee the boards will keep them as the superintendents in July 2022.

Jeff Graham was Lorain’s superintendent before the district went under state control. Graham is expected to remain the superintendent after the board is awarded control.

Henry Pettiegrew II, CEO of East Cleveland schools, also has been working under the dual titles since shortly after he was hired as CEO.

Although Youngstown CEO Justin Jennings earlier had publicly expressed a desire to remain in the district as the next superintendent after Joe Meranto retired, the board would not vote to give him the additional title.

State control under an academic distress commission and CEO came about under House Bill 70 in 2015, and the Youngstown board has fought to regain local control through both the Legislature and through the courts. In 2020, the Ohio Supreme Court voted against the board’s effort to eliminate the House bill.

In July, the Youngstown board began setting up meetings with community stakeholders and educators to formulate the district’s improvement plan.

Its first meeting did not have many participants — five people. But it drew greater participation as the board became more focused.

The board members later learned that the improvement plan must be based on the district’s already established strategic plan developed by Jennings and the district leadership team.

The board, working with that leadership team, established goals and a timeline on accomplishing 23 academic benchmarks included in the strategic plan and focused on measurable improvement in core subjects from pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade in literature, mathematics, as well as improvements in other areas.

The district’s first AIP was sent to the state superintendent for review in September. But critics worried the district were not setting high enough goals for student academic improvements, especially in mathematics. The AIP was returned to the board in October with specific instruction needed to allow the plan to be approved.

The board held multiple meetings with district’s leadership team, with the assistance of representatives of the Ohio School Boards Association, and a revised plan was sent to the interim state superintendent of instruction in November. It was approved earlier this month.

In the meantime, Youngstown voters decided to replace two of the current board members — board President Ronald Shadd and Jackie Adair — with two new members during November’s election.

Shadd has been having meetings to provide guidelines and direction for the new board’s preparation to regaining local control, including the hiring of the next superintendent.

Jennings interviewed and was prepared to be hired to become an assistant superintendent in the Akron school district earlier this month with a vote of the Akron Board of Education. But that was delayed, reportedly, because current, and/or past Youngstown school board members sent negative information to the Akron board to consider.

Because of the alleged actions, John Richard, director of the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission, broke off communication with the Youngstown board.

rsmith@tribtoday.com