Correspondent photo / Sean Barron ... The Our Lady of Mount Carmel banquet hall in Youngstown was filled with many Youngstown Education Association members for Monday’s town hall meeting about the state of the city school district.

YOUNGSTOWN – The Youngstown City School District is on a path out of eight years of devastating effects from Ohio House Bill 70, a longtime religious leader and community activist contends — but it needs to be more transparent and accountable.

“We’re trying to help the board establish its role to ensure (greater) checks and balances,” the Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, the Community Leadership Coalition on Education’s chairman, said.

Simon, who also pastors New Bethel Baptist Church, led a two-hour town hall meeting Monday evening at Our Lady of Mount Carmel banquet hall in which education and elected officials updated the public about state school district takeovers. HB 70, which passed in 2015, mandated the appointment of chief executive officers to have complete academic and financial control over failing districts, and gave them the power to override local school boards’ decisions.

For years, Simon and many others have spoken loudly and often against HB 70, which they have said strips decision-making from local hands, that in turn deprives the community of having a voice — a situation he said parallels “taxation without representation.”

Besides Youngstown, HB70 affected the Lorain and East Cleveland districts.

GAINING CONTROL

As it gains greater local control, the Youngstown Board of Education needs to demonstrate greater transparency and accountability, including how it spends money, Simon explained.

For example, he criticized the administration for the way it spent more than $5 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds earlier this year on a plan to buy equipment to improve broadband capabilities in the district without first consulting city officials about possible liability concerns. The equipment has not been put into use.

Nevertheless, the coalition is trying to help the board establish further autonomy and be more fiscally responsible. In addition, Simon stressed he is not attacking CEO Justin Jennings — now district superintendent — or anyone else, but rather the adverse conditions and system he and others say HB70 has created.

Jennings was appointed superintendent by the school board a year ago.

During the session, several education and elected officials from Lorain and East Cleveland spoke in person and virtually against HB 70 and what they see as its long-term effects on their districts and communities.

Since its passage eight years ago, the law has failed to provide clear guidelines for greater student success, neglected to give the struggling districts tools for improving their academic standing (under HB 70, East Cleveland sank to No. 604 of the state’s 608 school districts in academic performance, one of its officials said), set up state administrators whose agenda was not education-centered, did not raise test scores, unintentionally created hostile work environments and failed to consider the needs of individual districts, they said.

Eric Teutsch, the local YEA president, said HB 70 also has disenfranchised many families, eliminated valuable programs and allowed for the waste of money.

‘RED FLAG’

In addition to HB70, a slew of proposed legislation is being considered that would have detrimental, long-lasting effects on Youngstown schools as well as those throughout Ohio, state Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, told the crowd of more than 100 Youngstown Education Association members and others.

She cited Ohio Senate Bill 1, which would revise education law, revamp the state Department of Education and rename it the Department of Education and Workforce.

SB1 would dissolve the department and create a new one and give the governor and state Senate full control over locally elected and state education bodies. Most educators oppose it, but many in the business community support it — a situation McNally called “a red flag.”

“Senate Bill 1 is not the right changes we should be doing,” she said.

McNally also expressed opposition to HB 8, the so-called “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which would require public schools to adopt parental-notification policies regarding student well-being and health, along with materials deemed to contain sexually explicit content.

Nevertheless, HB 8 likely would result in further bans on controversial books and would foster distrust between students and teachers, McNally predicted.

McNally, however, expressed support for other pieces of legislation, one of which is aimed at getting rid of mandated academic distress commissions and another that would eliminate retention under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee via providing struggling readers with supports such as reading-intervention efforts.

BENCHMARKS

School board member Brenda Kimble said that the district is still struggling to meet certain benchmarks that include third-grade literacy, math in grades nine to 12 and reducing chronic absenteeism.

Teachers, many of whom continue to struggle, must have a voice in all decisionmaking and be allowed to focus on learning without outside interference, Teutsch noted.

Lynnette Miller, a former guidance counselor and educator, urged attendees to vote for those who represent their best interests, ensure stakeholders work collectively and attend board meetings consistently.

“We must act like we care, because we do care,” she added.

“We need to act like we care, because we do care,” she said.

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