Staff photo / Hailey Rogenski Incoming superintendent and current Liberty High School principal Brian Knight shakes hands with Melissa Bateman, director of community engagement of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation at a meet and greet at the Liberty Public Library Monday. Bateman seeks a partnership between the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation and Liberty Schools in the future.

LIBERTY — Incoming Superintendent Brian Knight hosted a meet and greet Monday evening at the Liberty branch of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, where he spoke about his plans for the district’s future.

Knight, who most recently was high school principal, was selected to be the new superintendent in April after Andrew Tommelleo announced he would resign Dec. 31. The seat was temporarily filled by Debra Mettee. Knight will take over Thursday.

Knight has spent nearly 20 years in the field of education where he tutored children, served as the Dean of Students at Summit Academy Secondary School, worked for the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West, worked at Constellation Schools in Parma and worked as an attendance adviser for the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

Knight has a master’s degree in educational leadership, an Ohio five-year superintendent license and other licenses and certifications in student support, principal evaluation and teacher evaluation.

He said he hopes to see everybody in Liberty Schools succeed.

“We want to make sure our graduation rate continues to be (high),” Knight said. “Our graduation rates have always been above 95%.”

Knight said he plans to create a three-to-five-year strategic plan to help students succeed, which will have a committee to assist him.

“It’s not just the students, it’s our families, it’s our students, it’s our

staff and it’s people in the community,” he said. “We all can succeed.”

He said a new English language arts curriculum and supporting the social emotional needs of students through a social emotional curriculum are part of the strategic plan.

Knight said he also plans to increase success through attendance by partnering with the “Stay in the Game” program through the Cleveland Browns.

“When we did a deeper dive of data, (we found) the state no longer measures the time you’re in school by quarter days, half days (or) full days,” he said. “What we’re finding is a lot of our kids are tardy so as a result they’re missing anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, maybe two (or) three times a week. After a while, it adds up.”

Knight also said he hopes to achieve transparency through the strategic plan and by making information readily available to the public.

“We are updating our website,” he said. “The other piece it’s going to tie directly in with (is) our social media so, Facebook, Twitter, any form of communication we want to use, it’ll send the same message across the board.”

He plans to create a public access portal to livestream Liberty sports for families for a rate of $70 per year or $7 per month.

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