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City schools miss targets, lose $1.8M

Published: Fri, July 20, 2012 @ 8:24 p.m.

District aimed for 11% achievement growth, reached only 2%

City schools miss targets, lose $1.8M


The city school district will see its school improvement money slashed more than 50 percent for next year because the schools didn’t meet growth goals.

The federal School Improvement Grant money allotted for University Project Learning Center, Chaney and East totaled $3.3 million. For next year, the amount is reduced to about $1.5 million, said Doug Hiscox, deputy superintendent for academic affairs.

“Each year you have to go through a process for evaluating how well things were done or whether you met targets,” he said.

The reviewers from the Ohio Department of Education were concerned that some things weren’t done in a timely manner.

John Charlton, an ODE spokesman, said a comprehensive review of all 85 SIG buildings in Ohio is ongoing. Districts won’t get final notification of their funding for next year until that is complete, which is expected in late August.

“There were outside providers that should have been in place early in the school year that would have helped with professional development and staff development,” Hiscox said. “They were not actually contracted until November, December or January. There’s also a monitoring system that needs to be used.”

Principals and assistant principals are required to complete a certain number of classroom walk throughs during the school year, and they either weren’t done frequently enough or not done for a significant amount of time, he said.

There were also concerns about the academic progress at East and UPLC, the deputy superintendent said.

“At the beginning of each year you have to submit what the targeted objectives are, and we had not met those,” he said.

The targeted growth in student achievement was 11 percent for both schools, but both saw about 2 percent growth.

“They haven’t reached the level of academic growth that is expected in the evaluator’s eyes for the amount of money that’s been spent,” Hiscox said.

Read more in Saturday’s Vindicator.


1Ytownnative(931 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

Sounds like we need to up that levy to 20mil and make the taxpayers pick up the tab. Don't worry about that poor planning done by the school system it had to of been G.W. 's fault. I do think if we just keep building new stuff and giving pay raises and watch the student population drop everything will be ok. Aso make sure we keep all the current staff because they are doing such a bangup job.

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2SAVEOURCOUNTRY(459 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

you can't make a race horse out of pack mules over night!

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3georgejeanie(717 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

Sounds like a problem with the bosses, that means the supervisors of the principals are not being tough enough on the principals of these schools. If the principals are not doing what is required of them and walking through the classrooms as required get rid of them. Of course I realize that these teachers must be notified before a principal comes to their class room because of collective bargaining rules. Who would sign a contract that requires a supervisor to notify a teach before a visit? That person should be fired, period. Just another sweetheart deal, probably between a former teacher and the union which represents the present teachers.

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4Education_Voter(805 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

What you are saying is not true, georgejeanie.

I guess you will be relieved to know that the "walkthroughs" that principals do are surprise visits.

In any case, a principal can walk into a classroom at any time.

Now, if you are going to have an evaluation meeting with a teacher, it is only polite to schedule the meeting, so that the kids are not observers.

Where were the principals? No doubt dealing with some aggressive and disruptive students and parents.

Or filling out the endless reports required when one gets a grant.

Some principals let the teacher know the day and period an evaluative observation will be done. But since disciplinary concerns and interruptions from Central Office often put them off schedule, they usually just dropped in when they could for my evaluations.

Also, this is important. Youngstown City is being run by an Academic Commission that has been given the ability to void any provision of the Collectively Bargained Agreement that they want to void. They have been using that ability with abandon.

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5ROBERT(137 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

This group of clowns couldn't organize a good bowel movement. The whole BOE should be nuked and the leadership sent to prison.

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6Ianacek(783 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

I guess its time for the local community & property taxpayers to step in & ensure people are held accountable . This means some staff will have to be fired . In the real world , you can't miss targets by such a margin & expect to be rewarded for it .

Aren't we sick of listening to excuses & false promises in Youngstown ?

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7fd6636(242 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

Some of you teacher bashers out there should consider that maybe just maybe that most of the problems that are in the class room have roots that start AT HOME!!!!! Some of the disruptors ruin the education experence for the rest of the class. Now, you wanna fire teachers who cant control this. Why cant teachers control this??? because these kids get disiplined/suspended by the schools, get sent home. the p.o.s. parent dont want little whats his name home, cramps their "style" and sleep time, so they go to the school and complain, throw the race card out, administrators get scared and intiminated and let the little street urchins back in. Cycle gets repeated. If those out there think they can do better, sit in on a class when little g-money decides he rather kick it than learn and lets see how YOU do!!!It starts at the top, and if the top does not act, you know the old saying: Poop runs down hill!!! Try doing push ups with your hands tied behind your back!!! I feel sorry for the kids who want to learn and succeed be it black, white, or what ever, this should start at the top, not at the teaching level where it ends up. Teachers give up when they know they are not being backed at the higher level. Where is "crazy Joe" when you need him!!

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8Ytownnative(931 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

Maybe they need to get someone in charge who will rid of the little thugs

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9danikytn(239 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

fd6636 is spot on. I am a parent of 3 children in the YCSD, and there are outstanding teachers, great principlas and beautiful buildings in the district. My children attend Taft on the southside, even though i live 1 block from MLK, because i have faith in Taft. My daughter just got her 3rd grade OAA test results back and she scored much higher than the STATE average, not only the district average. Some of that is the teachers doing, but a lot of it is mine and my husbands doing. Unfortunately, most of the kids attending YCSD do not come from solid homes where they are a priority. Most children do not have parents that remain informed of their progress and take initiative to encourage it. The teachers can only do so much, when they are expected to basically re-mother some of these children, they are taking time away from children like mine who are well behaved and ready and eager to learn. I had never heard of a kindergartner being expelled for attacking a teacher, or seen some of the things these children do and say, but they are only mimicking the poor behaviors of their home life. Parents need to stop being so wrapped up in their own dismal ways and start being involved with their children, dont expect a teacher to discipline, educate, clothe and feed your child. There are times i want to take kids away from their parents, when i see and hear how they treat these little ones. You wonder why Youngstown as a whole is going down the gutter, its because children like mine, and parents like me, are now the minority.

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10lumper(254 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

teach these monsters target shooting so that they will hit each other with more accuracy, thus solving quite a few problems at once.

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11mrblue(916 comments)posted 1 year, 5 months ago

PARENTS., That's where it all starts. They don't care and so the kids don't care. Take a look at how many kids and parents have different last names. What does that tell you? Take a look at the board of education. Do they not set down rules? You cannot simply blame the teachers, especially when no one backs them (the higher ups).Youngstown schools will continue to lose money because NOBODY cares.

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