We are pleased to see the agreement reached between Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and the Youngstown Board of Education that will allow duly elected city board of education members to maintain their seats, at least for another couple years.

Indeed, the voice of the voters must be heard. Duly elected public officials must be allowed to serve the constituency that elected them in the role they are elected to perform.

If this is not permitted to occur, then we know something in our democracy has gone terribly awry.

But that is what was spelled out in Ohio House Bill 70, a 2015 state law that calls for elimination of the existing duly elected members of the Youngstown City Schools Board of Education. Under that law, seats on the board were to be filled by mayoral appointment when a district under state control receives an F on its school report card four consecutive years.

The most recent F for the city school district was announced in September.

Specifically, HB 70 requires the state superintendent to convene a nominating panel within 30 days if a school district under state control doesn’t receive an overall grade of C or higher in its fourth year. The panel has up to 30 days after its formation to nominate 10 candidates for appointment to the school board.

After that, the mayor would have had up to 30 days to select five members from among the 10 finalists, and those five would replace the existing school board effective Jan. 1.

All that was halted, however, by civil litigation on the matter, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

An agreement approved this week by the existing board of education also spells out, because the law in which the academic distress commission and the chief executive officer positions did not become fully effective until 2016-17 school year, that should be considered the first year report card grades are counted.

The subsequent state report card F grades came in the subsequent two school years, 2017-18 and 2018-19. Then, because Ohio schools were closed by the Ohio Department of Health in mid-March because of the pandemic, the fourth report card has not yet been issued. Further due to the pandemic, no state report card will be issued during the 2020-21 school year. That means the fourth year the law could apply will be the 2021-22 school year.

It seems like a lot of hoops have been jumped through to reach the new deadline spelled out in the agreement. While it’s a temporary fix, frankly, the agreement does not ultimately right the wrong that could take away the voice of voters.

Certainly, social and educational experts should agree that this system created under HB 70 is not working. Challenges Youngstown City Schools face in educating our youth go much deeper than just the classroom.

Undoubtedly, we want to find answers to help all students and school districts that struggle.

But removing elected board members because of a failing school district — particularly when Ohio law has stripped these board members of all control over operations in the district — is not the answer.

Furthermore, rescinding democracy by voiding results of an election is a travesty.

Local election results must be honored.

editorial@tribtoday.com