A new school year kicked off in Youngstown today. But just last week, the city鈥檚 school board joined a handful of groups in filing a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Education. They maintain a new law allowing a state takeover of the district is unconstitutional. Despite the recent legal action, local leaders tell StateImpact Ohio鈥檚 Amy Hansen, today was business as usual.
It was organized chaos on Monday morning at Taft Elementary School on the city鈥檚 east side.
As a sea of students clad in blue-and-white polo shirts and khaki pants shuffled around a gymnamisum trying to locate their new teachers, Principal John McMahan said the kids鈥� energy was high.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 feel any of the outside negativity that鈥檚 potentially going on,鈥� McMahan said.
And Youngstown School Board President Brenda Kimble said that鈥檚 the goal for all of the district鈥檚 roughly 5,000 students.
鈥淲e promised a smooth opening, and that鈥檚 what鈥檚 happened. All of our programs are still in place, all of our teachers are ready to teach, and I saw buses all over Youngstown today, and we鈥檙e good. We鈥檙e good,鈥� Kimble said.
Earlier this summer, the Ohio General Assembly introduced and passed House Bill 70 in less than 24 hours.
The new law allows the state to form a new five-member commission, which would then appoint a CEO to have complete administrative control of the district.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the bill say H.B. 70 didn鈥檛 receive the required number of hearings in the state legislature.