YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Board of Education has unanimously approved a three-year contract, effective in January, for Michael A. Rock to be the district’s next treasurer.

“As someone once said, ‘There’s no place like home,'” Rock said after Tuesday’s regular board meeting at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.

Rock, who graduated from Youngstown State University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, has returned to the Mahoning Valley after having served 21 years as treasurer in the Warrensville Heights School District as well as other districts in the Cleveland area.

Rock, who is originally from Struthers, also earned a master’s degree in financial services from The American College of Financial Services in Philadelphia and a doctorate degree in educational leadership from North Central College in Tempe, Arizona.

He will replace Bryan Schiraldi, who resigned this summer at the end of his three-year contract to be treasurer of the Aurora School District, with a starting salary of $142,000 per year. He began with the Youngstown City Schools in September 2022.

Rock said Tuesday that one of his top priorities will be to work strategically to ensure resources are in place to serve all of the district’s students. He also intends to conduct research into the district to better familiarize himself with the schools’ needs, Rock added.

“Dr. Rock and I will be joined at the hip,” Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said, adding that the incoming treasurer will be entering a district that is financially stable, and that he is well-versed on school culture, urban school finances and believing in people.

Batchelor said that he is confident Rock will provide him with “good, solid data” pertaining to the district’s financial status.

Along those lines, Rock will begin his career with the district at a time when efforts are underway to strategically look at “every dollar spent,” along with where the district may need to further invest, the superintendent continued.

Rock was selected from a pool of five candidates, Batchelor said.

CHOFFIN UPDATES

Also at the meeting, at which a few dozen attended, the board heard several presentations regarding Choffin Career and Technical Center’s growth and new opportunities for students.

The technical school has 622 juniors and seniors, which is nearly double the number of students five years ago, Mike Saville, Choffin’s director, noted. The school is continuing on a growing path to fulfill the region’s industrial needs and business needs, he said.

In addition, Choffin has implemented “super tracker” documentation to monitor students’ progress, program placement, number of work-based hours and, most recently, attendance, Saville added.

Sherry Cross, Choffin’s adult-education director, noted that the school has articulation agreements with YSU regarding the career center’s firefighting science and audio-visual broadcasting programs.

Students who complete the firefighting program at Choffin will earn 34 college credits to go toward YSU’s program. Those in the audio-visual offering will earn 24 credit hours, she said.

Choffin’s adult-education programs have articulation agreements with Kent State University, the University of Akron, Clark College in Springfield and the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Cross said.

Such agreements provide pathways to guarantee that a university will give students credits for finishing the programs at Choffin.

“We are a microcosm of our community; we are a reflection of this community,” Cross added.

In addition, Choffin Career and Technical Center is open to outside districts, board member Joseph Meranto said.

Meranto, who has a 50-year career in education, served 14 years as Choffin’s executive director, after which he served a four-year term as the district’s superintendent.

In other business, the board recognized several young students for achieving academic excellence. Others received accolades for their work on a video titled “When Love Hurts,” which is about the dangers of dating abuse.