YOUNGSTOWN — A crowd of about 200 walked out of a packed Youngstown Board of Education meeting at the East High School library on Monday after hearing from speakers critical of slow movement on a collective bargaining agreement and recently unearthed financial mishaps by Superintendent Justin Jennings, who was not present.

With the deadline approaching toward the contract’s expiration at the end of June, Youngstown Education Association spokesman Jim Courim spoke with a sense of urgency for the board and YEA to come to the table to negotiate a new agreement.

“We’ve been trying to meet with representatives of the board. Mr. Jennings is the superintendent and one of those representatives,” Courim said. “We’ve set dates, but they keep getting moved back each time. We just want the board to say ‘yes, we’re going to meet.'”

Hoping to avoid the deal “hanging around our necks over the summer,” Courim challenged the board to come to the table to negotiate a deal that will shape the next three years of teachers’ contracts.

“It surprises me because the community entrusted this board with the power to do the work for our community and scholars,” Courim said.

According to Eric Teutsch, YEA president, a meeting was set April 20 to negotiate, but they received a message from the district calling for a 30-day delay. District officials said they were busy with pending arbitration and told the YEA they preferred to get that done before contract talks started, Teutsch said.

Teutsch said the YEA suggested keeping the April 20 meeting for both sides to lay out their proposals so the two sides could later build on those preliminary talks. Teutsch said the YEA’s proposal was complete.

He said the union hoped to work out a deal before summer for the sake of the students, teachers and community so they wouldn’t have to worry about whether students and teachers would be in the classroom in the fall.

After Monday’s meeting, board president Tiffany Patterson expressed a desire for a resolution to come about as soon as possible.

ESSER FUNDS

The Rev. Ken Simon, senior pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, addressed recent reports that Jennings used $5 million in federally provided ESSER funds in 2020 aimed at providing internet service for staff and students using Wi-Fi towers spread throughout the city.

The plan ultimately didn’t come to fruition, and Patterson confirmed the equipment still lies dormant in a district-owned bus garage with no current plans from the superintendent or board on what to do next with the nonrefundable equipment.

Simon addressed what he called “unchecked, inappropriate financial decisions” that he said has adversely affected the district and its students. He challenged the board to come together for a “special meeting” to address the issue, suggesting that a federal investigation may come next as more information comes out.

Calling for accountability he said, “Since this board has had control in the last year-and-a-half, more questions are going to be raised, such as ‘did you know?’ ‘why didn’t you know?’ ‘what did you do about what you knew’ and ‘why didn’t do anything about what you knew?'”

He urged the board to prepare themselves as he challenged what the board will do next. Having sat on at least two state audits of the district’s financial status, Patterson said “if something was wrong, the state would’ve found it, not someone here.” She defended the district’s actions and said no wrongdoing would be uncovered if a federal investigation takes place.

She said Jennings has been in talks with different municipalities over what to do with the equipment purchased from Insight Enterprises, an Arizona-based tech company. Patterson said she is hopeful the district will be able to sell the equipment.