The CEO of Youngstown City Schools officially takes over that position in August, but Wednesday night, he invited the community to take part in a "meet and greet."

Parents packed the cafeteria of East High School to meet the districts new CEO.
After a brief introduction, Justin Jennings spent the next two hours meeting parents one on one to listen to their hopes and their concerns.

"My goal is to make sure we have a lot more parent involvement than in the past. So to have the parents here is a great sign that we are beginning to move the district," said Jennings.

And parents did have questions.

"Like, what is he going to do differently than the other CEO didn't do? And how can parents help his vision, whatever that is?" asked Fanta Jones.

Jennings also addressed the move in Columbus to place a moratorium on the school CEO position in Ohio. He says the state hasn't given enough time for the CEO's to make a difference in their districts yet.  He says it takes years to make big strides in fixing a failing district.

"The main goal, other than teaching and learning for me, has always been to work myself out of a job. To make sure this goes back to local control and make sure they are prepared to take over. I can't control what happens with legislation, but I know I have time to work toward that," added Jennings.

The CEO says he hopes to create a strategic plan for the district over the next couple of months and he'll hope to do that at public meetings like the one he had Wednesday night, and he hopes they will be just as well-attended.