YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Superintendent Dr. Connie Hathorn and Youngstown's Board of Education emerged from an hour and a half executive session Wednesday night to give a unified statement on the Superintendent's evaluation.

"We know that the district is not where we want it to be, but we're moving in the right direction. We have many success stories and things that have been successful," said Rich Atkinson, President, Youngstown School Board.

The overall ranking for Dr. Hathorn, from evaluations that each board member filled out, is a three out of five. Atkinson said the highest score shouldn't be expected with the district still in Academic Distress. However, the board is pleased with the results they are starting to see from the changes that Hathorn has made over the years.

"We're getting students coming back to the district. We've got the special programs that are being successful, so we've got a lot of good things going and we're going to continue to do that now," said Atkinson.

He added that the board would like to see better communication from the superintendent to the community, such as with civic groups and businesses.

"I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect, I didn't expect to be perfect. In regards to the evaluation, I did the best I could do at this time and I'm going to continue to improve and work with everybody, the community, the board, the commission and the staff. And we'll keep moving forward for the students," said Dr. Hathorn.

There are three more years on Dr. Hathorn's contract with the school board.