School board members take HB 70 fight to Columbus

Members of the Lorain Board of Education are building momentum in the fight against House Bill 70.

Members joined representatives from school boards in Youngstown, East Cleveland and Warrensville Heights on May 23 in meeting with state legislators including state Reps. Teresa Fedor, DToledo, John Boccieri, D-Poland, John Patterson, D-Jefferson, and Michele LeporeHagan, D-Youngstown, about ongoing concerns of House Bill 70.

“It is a coalition we’ve been putting together to fight HB 70 and the negative effects it’s had on public education,” said Tony Dimacchia, president of the Lorain School Board. “We met with them and had a great conversation. We’ re gaining some momentum down there and we’ re going to fight .”

Dimacchia stressed the group of school board members is incredibly frustrated and is taking action to wage a war against HB 70.

HB 70 placed Lorain City Schools and Youngstown City School District under the control of the state government and appointed a CEO to run each district, limiting the power of the elected school board.

“None of us are excited about HB 70. We’re very dissatisfied with the nonsense that is going on. We were very honest with the Reps that this was borderline criminal with no accountability,” Dimacchia said. “If we don’t do something this is going to devastate our districts.”

Dimacchia said supporters of changes to state education policy are expected to hold a rally in Columbus at the Ohio Statehouse in about a month.

The coalition is also following the progress of Senate Bill 216, “The Ohio Public School Deregulation Act.”

According to a news release from state Reps Kent Smith, D-Euclid, and Fedor, an amendment was proposed in the House Education and Career Readiness Committee which would freeze additional state takeovers of local school districts.

“HB 70, from the 131st General Assembly is not only bad education policy, it is bad for democracy, and frankly, it is devastating to our children and communities,” Fedor said. “That’s why we’re working to prevent this takeover fromaffecting additional school districts. This is a crisis for our public education systemandwe cannot let it become worse.”

An attempt to table the amendment failed, however a vote has yet to take place after the session was concluded, the release said.

“Although the moratorium doesn’t do anything for Lorain and Youngstown, it sends a strong message,” Dimacchia said.