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DeWine no-shows; HB 70 town hall sees more questions than answers

By Ellen Wagner
Representatives of East Cleveland, Lorain and Youngstown School Districts discussed ending state takeovers in a virtual town hall on Monday. In clockwise order: Lorain Academic Distress Commission Member Steve Cawthon; Youngstown City Schools School Board President Ronald Shadd; state Rep. Kent Smith (D-8); The Rev. Kenneth Smith; Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro; and state Rep. Joe Miller (D-56).
 
Representatives of East Cleveland, Lorain and Youngstown School Districts discussed ending state takeovers in a virtual town hall on Monday. In clockwise order: Lorain Academic Distress Commission Member Steve Cawthon; Youngstown City Schools School Board President Ronald Shadd; state Rep. Kent Smith (D-8); The Rev. Kenneth Smith; Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro; and state Rep. Joe Miller (D-56).
 

YOUNGSTOWN — Questions about local control returning to school districts remained unanswered after the third town hall meeting to discuss an end to House Bill 70, the so-called Youngstown Plan.

The meeting Monday was sponsored by the East Cleveland, Lorain and Youngstown School District Coalitions on Education. House Bill 70 took academically distressed school districts out of local school board control to be subjected to state oversight by academic distress commissions, including the appointment of a CEO. Youngstown City School District CEO Justin Jennings is Youngstown's second CEO since 2015.

Though organizers had said Gov. Mike DeWine would attend the meeting, Devin Babcock, assistant policy director in DeWine’s office, showed up instead to represent him. Babcock told meeting attendees he could not speak for the governor, but he would take questions back to DeWine.

About 200 people participated in the Zoom call, and many shared their concerns that DeWine was not there to answer questions.

Some of the questions for DeWine from participants included if he would move to abolish House Bill 70 and return control to local school districts; how to create a more equitable formula for funding public schools; and why some parents believe HB 70 caused them to be disengaged from their child's education.

“This is something that I can say with some confidence that we look forward to working with the legislators on this call and some other figures over the next couple of months,” Babcock said.

The Rev. Kenneth Simon said the next town hall will be planned at a time when DeWine can join and answer questions from people in all three school districts.

An organizer for Ohio Education Association William Klatt asked everyone on the call to send an email to DeWine asking him to return local control to the three school districts. A sample email will be sent out to participants of the Zoom meeting on Tuesday morning.

This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 4:11 AM with the headline "DeWine no-shows; HB 70 town hall sees more questions than answers."