YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown City School District Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor recently met with Gov. Mike DeWine to discuss removing the district from academic distress.

After the East Cleveland and Lorain school districts were recently released from that status, Youngstown remains the sole district out of more than 600 in the state under that heading.

“We’re doing the right things; I just need people to recognize that,” Batchelor said after the regular board of education meeting Tuesday at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.

Batchelor acknowledged that the local district failed to meet 51% of the 24 benchmarks on the state report card released in September, but said he felt certain aspects of the requirement were unfair because Youngstown is no longer the lowest performing district in the state. He added that some districts now have lower performance than Youngstown, yet are not under academic distress.

A key improvement has been the graduation rate, which was 76% several years ago and is expected to be 90% this year. Certain benchmarks in math have been poor, but are continuing to see gains, Batchelor said.

“It’s not great, but it’s improving,” he added.

After being informed that state officials lacked the authority to remove the district from academic distress, Batchelor was told such a move would have to occur legislatively. As a result, board members at last week’s meeting approved a resolution to support Ohio Senate Bill 332 and Ohio House Bill 610, companion pieces of legislation sponsored in part by state Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, and state Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, respectively.

Along those lines, it’s vital to recognize that Ohio House Bill 70, adopted in 2015, “needs to be removed from the books in Ohio,” the superintendent said.

HB70, also known as the “Youngstown Plan,” was originally intended to create community learning centers that would have provided wrap-around services.

Instead, the legislation became a law in which a state-appointed academic distress commission took over struggling districts via installing a chief executive officer who was solely in charge of making all of their financial, academic and other decisions.

Consequently, the Youngstown School Board was largely stripped of its autonomy and decision-making powers.

Batchelor said the district is already following much of what is outlined in SB332. The bill, which was introduced Dec. 1, 2025, aims to replace academic distress commissions with student-support teams beginning in the 2026-27 school year that would provide resources and recommendations for improved student learning and surveys regarding students’ needs in struggling districts.

“The work we’re doing should stand for itself,” Batchelor said.

The bill has the support of school officials and others who seek to return decision-making abilities to local school boards rather than having them under state control.

Board member Joseph Meranto expressed frustration during Tuesday’s session, saying he feels Youngstown continues to struggle under the weight of continued long-held negative perceptions, despite much progress having been made.

Meranto suggested conducting surveys or other means to ascertain why some families resist having their children attend the city schools and why others are leaving. If such a move uncovers a pattern, school officials would need to work toward addressing it directly, he said.

“The perception of Youngstown needs to change,” Meranto added. “It’s time to promote the district, not just defend it.”