It's a new era for the Youngstown City School District as the board appointed a new district superintendent at Monday's board meeting.

This comes as former Superintendent Justin Jennings resigned for personal reasons, following 21 News' Watchdog reports that tracked questionable spending.  

After the Youngstown City School Board spent over an hour in executive session discussing the matter, they selected Jeremy Batchelor to fill the top role in the school district.

"Continuity and consistency are what we've been talking about for years," Batchelor said. "And to have that, I believe with me, is something we can build on and continue going down the path we've been going down to get better."

The decision came just days after Justin Jennings left the district, effective July 1.

Batchelor, who was previously the Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Staff told 21 News he plans to focus on moving the district forward.

"We want to continue to work," he said to 21 News. "We've made a lot of progress with our AIP and we plan to continue to continue to reach those benchmarks and beyond."

Batchelor steps into the role with ongoing contract negotiations with the district's teachers union. Last week, the Ohio Budget Bill was passed without including Youngstown City Schools on certain language that could have exempted the district from reverting to state control.

"We've also been very compliant and worked diligently as a board and as a district to develop an academic improvement plan and develop benchmarks that were attainable but also set the vision for the future," Batchelor said. "While we're a little disappointed, it won't stop our work, we will just continue to work to move forward."

Regardless, Batchelor said he's ready to focus on the district's students and help improve the district as he starts the role.

The board is still deciding what Batchelor's salary will be. Jennings' salary stood at an annual $190,000.