YOUNGSTOWN — As the Youngstown City School District’s reconfiguration plan moves closer to fruition this school year, many of the logistics and much of the behind-the-scenes work is on track, though vacancies remain in the personnel department, a school official says.

“We have about 40 to 42 open teaching positions across the district being filled,” said Greg Kibler, the district’s executive director of performance and accountability.

Kibler was among those who spoke during a special ad hoc reconfiguration committee meeting Thursday at Youngstown Rayen Early College High School regarding updates about the plan to merge Chaney and East high schools into a single Youngstown High School, which will occupy the current East High building on Bennington Avenue.

The plan also includes reconfiguring Chaney and East middle schools into a single Youngstown Middle School, which will be on Bryn Mawr Avenue, also on the East Side.

So far, about a dozen of the teaching positions have been filled, though it’s especially challenging to find additional special education and high school math instructors, Kibler noted.

A second bidding process is underway to fill the remaining vacant spots, he said.

Among the nonteaching positions that need to be filled are school psychologists and speech pathologists, Kibler noted.

Applications are being accepted. Those interested in inquiring are asked to go to www.ycsd.org and click the “Employment opportunities” tab.

Logistically, 101 truckloads of items related to the reconfiguration have been moved, even with a limited team and some staff members on vacation, Nancy Mikos, the district’s business manager, said during the 40-minute session. Most teachers’ pallets are in place, and furniture will soon be moved as well, she added.

The driving and moving teams have worked excellently — despite having to endure the recent heat wave — to keep the work on track, Mikos continued.

Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor noted that uncertainty remains about the fate of the school buildings that will be vacant. Officials have up to two years to make such a decision about them, according to state law, he said.

Section 3313.411 of the Ohio Revised Code states in part that school districts with unused or underused facilities are required to first offer them for sale or lease to alternative public education providers.

Also during Thursday’s session, Batchelor praised the reconfiguration committee for its work in handling the plan beginning with many conversations and much legwork a few years before its implementation in May 2025. As a result, he recommended the committee be discontinued and possibly absorbed under the umbrella of business management.