YOUNGSTOWN — Offering the use of buildings owned by the Youngstown City School District to other entities free of charge was a major topic of discussion at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.

The issue was brought up several times throughout the meeting, but came to a head when board member Brenda Kimble addressed calls she and other board members received about plans by the district to remove Mahoning Valley Community School from the space it occupies inside Woodrow Wilson Alternative School. MVCS is separate from the district, and provides trauma-informed education, dropout prevention and credit recovery.

Kimble, along with board members Joe Meranto and Tina Cvetkovich, received calls about the contract from a representative from the school. All three called for more transparency in making these types of contractual decisions.

Kimble asked Superintendent Justin Jennings when the contract for the community school ends. Treasurer Robert Kearns said the contract ends June 30 and originally it was for the P. Ross Berry Middle School building, but then was extended to the Wilson building on Gibson Street.

Jennings defended the move, saying a written notice was given to the alternative school, which informed officials there that the space will be utilized for purposes of the district.

“At some point, we have got to start doing what’s best for our scholars and we need that space for our alternative program,” Jennings said. “Our younger kids are alternative more than anything else and we don’t have the space for them. We need to make sure we can put them in a building where we can help them and put them back with our regular kids.”

Jennings said the school sent him an email reply, saying they wanted to utilize the space until October, which Jennings called “unfair” to Youngstown students because it doesn’t give the district time to begin planning for its own programs.

The discussion led to Meranto saying he hopes to better define the roles the board and admininistration play in making decisions that affect the district.

Board member Kenneth Donaldson urged board members not to discuss items in a public meeting without having first allowed the board to discuss the matter beforehand.

“We should have an executive session and talk about this before it’s public so that we have all of the information so that we’re not looking uninformed publicly,” Donaldson said.

Donaldson also addressed the district providing services for other entities without cost.

“We’re looking at the budget. We’re looking at financial losses. We have been serving people in this community without cost for years,” Donaldson said. “Now that we need our own space, we’ve got to justify the need for our own space. Something is wrong with that.”

Earlier in the meeting, Donaldson expressed similar sentiments when discussing the partnership between the district and Youngstown State University to allow students from Youngstown Rayen Early College to transition into higher learning.

Jennings said the partnership, which is paid for by the district, should be made to be beneficial for both sides.

Donaldson said he has spoken with YSU interim President Helen Lafferty about a proposal to improve the student-to-teacher pipeline at the university and he also said a proposal is in the works to re-examine the contract with the university to create a more “workable partnership” with financial benefits for both sides.

OTHER BUSINESS

Penny Wells, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, introduced a video of an eight-day field trip that sent several Youngstown City School District students traveling through an American history experience through many civil rights sites in the Deep South. Several students who took the trip spoke afterward and advocated for allowing black history to be taught as American history, rather than be taught separately.

Board President Tiffany Patterson told Wells and the students she agreed with their statements and said she’d work with the board to incorporate black history into American history courses.

Deputy Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor announced that 97.4 percent of Youngstown students took the Ohio test for English language arts. The next round of testing for math, science and social studies are underway this week.

The board also unanimously approved a program proposal for YCSD’s Paid Bus Driver Candidate program. The program would give bus driver candidates the opportunity to obtain their Ohio Class B Commercial Driver’s License with P and S endorsements, which would allow them to be considered for full-time employment in the district.