The Youngstown School Board voted in a new interim superintendent.
 
This happened after the board accepted former Superintendent Justin Jennings's resignation.
 
21 News finds out why they selected Jeremy Batchelor.
 
The Youngstown School Board chose the Deputy Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership to be the Interim Superintendent of Youngstown City schools.
 
School Board President Tiffany Patterson tells us why Jeremy Batchelor was selected to lead the district forward.
 
"He knows the plan he helped write the plan with Mr. Jennings you seen today we are meeting, exceeding the majority of our benchmarks. We hope by putting him in place that we can just continue to grow," Patterson said.
 
The acting superintendent says he is proud of students, teachers, administrators and the central office team for work focusing on growth and achievement. Students were required to meet 13 out of 24 academic benchmarks but met 16. The benchmarks were met in reading assessment, literacy, math, science, career and tech information.
 
"My goals are to continue to do the work that we've already started. We are bound by an academic improvement plan. We have a very solid strategic plan, and I've been involved in that work since the very beginning so we plan to continue to do that," Interim Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said.
 
Batchelor acknowledges more work must be done to reach benchmarks in History and Social Studies,  But tells us he and others have already started working on action steps and will align resources to help students in those subjects. The district will continue working to reduce absentee rates which remain high, and work to increase graduation rates.
 
"We understand those goals, and those benchmarks are not the end for us, but they are a barometer and for us to meet the majority of them already is exciting," Batchelor emphasized.