Our Story Sr. Jerome’s Schools (formerly known as Developing Potential, Inc.) founded Youngstown Community School (YCS) which currently operates as an independent non-profit Ohio public charter school. YCS operates independently of any school district yet is an integral part of the state’s educational system. Community schools receive the same foundation funding as traditional public school districts, but do not benefit from school taxes, levies or bonds. YCS is funded and audited by the state, follows state curriculum and regulations, teaches specific academic standards and is supervised by its sponsor, Mahoning County Educational Service Center. Community schools exist to provide a choice for parents.


YCS opened in 1998 with 36 kindergarten pupils and since then has added grades 1-6 totaling 322 pupils in the academic year 2013-2014. Our alumni total is now 444 students.


Each child deserves the best educational resources available. To ensure that the mission of individual attention and focus is attained, the school employs 25 degreed classroom teachers certified in the State of Ohio in 2013-2014, YCS maintained a pupil-teacher ratio of 12:1 in kindergarten, grades five and six and 16:1 in grades one through four. Two full-time, fully certified and degreed intervention specialists (special education) and one part-time Special Education Director to serve our special needs students.

In addition to the low student-teacher ratio, the YCS family also includes fully degreed, full-time certified teaching specialists who focus on physical education/health, music and computer. YCS also employs the following full-time personnel: principal/superintendent, assistant principal, licensed treasurer, math/science coaches, technology coordinator, licensed practical nurse, two secretaries and a behavior intervention assistant. We also employ the following part-time personnel: school psychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, librarian, and payroll/accounts payable. YCS has one full-time custodian, along with three cafeteria workers (two full-time, one part-time) and four part-time employees in housekeeping.


YCS is preparing pupils educationally by offering state-of-the-art techniques available in teaching today. YCS serves economically disadvantaged children who reside only in Youngstown, 91.8% of the pupils are below poverty level thus qualifying for Severe Need in the USDA breakfast and lunch program and participation in the Title 1 schoolwide program.

Two parents serve on the Governing Authority Board allowing them a formal means to participate in the policies of YCS. Because of strong parental involvement and excellent communication between parents and teachers, the student attendance rate at YCS is 96.0%.