Jeremy Batchelor, Youngstown City Schools superintendent

YOUNGSTOWN — By a 5-0 vote, the Youngstown Board of Education has appointed Jeremy J. Batchelor as the district’s next superintendent.

During a special meeting Monday at Choffin Career & Technical Center, the board selected him for the post, which was a direct pathway for Batchelor, who had been appointed interim superintendent during a committee meeting last month.

Board members Brenda Kimble and Jerome Williams were absent from Monday’s session.

Batchelor’s role as interim superintendent began as he started to fill the role of Justin M. Jennings, who stepped down June 5 and whose last day as superintendent was Friday. Jennings had attributed his resignation to “personal reasons” and refused to elaborate.

Jennings faced scrutiny for having spent $5 million in federal money to buy internet equipment that went unused when he was the district’s chief executive officer and answered to a state academic distress commission.

After Monday’s special meeting, Batchelor, who also served as East High School’s principal, said his primary plans are to keep the Youngstown City Schools moving forward via reaching and exceeding a variety of academic benchmarks. He also intends to strive for greater “continuity and consistency” regarding improving the district, he explained.

Batchelor began working for the city schools about five years ago. He spent two years each as East High principal and the district’s chief of staff before his appointment last July as deputy superintendent of teaching, learning and leadership.

Batchelor said he was “disappointed” about the Senate version of the two-year Ohio budget bill, which, if passed, would release the Lorain school district from state oversight and control but not Youngstown or East Cleveland. The three districts have been under state control since the passage in 2015 of the controversial House Bill 70 that gave complete academic and financial decision making to an appointed CEO.

That possibility, however, will neither deter nor hinder the district from acting on plans to continue moving forward and growing, Batchelor said.

Batchelor’s salary and other contractual matters have yet to be worked out, board President Tiffany Patterson said after Monday’s meeting.

Selecting Batchelor was a natural fit largely because the board feels that “keeping someone in place, not starting over” is the best move, as well as because he’s well versed in what needs to be done in the schools and is committed to ensuring the district meets a variety of benchmarks in a manner that aligns with the board, she explained.

“He will help us get out from under,” Patterson added.

Before coming to Youngstown, Batchelor served four years beginning in 2014 as the Austintown school district’s assistant superintendent. He also was a principal and administrator of student services in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., school district.

Batchelor earned a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from John Carroll University and a master’s degree in educational administration from Youngstown State University.