A second school district is now under increased state control after a series of poor report cards from the Ohio Department of Education. It seems to be going more smoothly than the first state intervention two years ago.
The Lorain City Schools have been suffering from drops in test scores, enrollment and graduation rates and high absentee rates. An academic distress commission made up of people appointed by the school board president, the mayor and state school superintendent Paolo DeMaria will oversee the district. DeMaria says the next step is to hire a CEO, who can set hiring and academic policies.
“It’s under a very tight timeline. They have 60 days to get it done. So that’ll be the real test.”
The state’s first intervention in Youngstown in 2015 sparked lawsuits, battles between the teachers’ union and the CEO and criticism that the state was seizing too much power from local residents.
