Scarsella Elected to ESC and Council of Governments Boards

CANFIELD, Ohio – Youngstown native Richard S. Scarsella was recently elected governing board president of the Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio and of the Mahoning Valley Regional Council of Governments. He has also been re-elected to the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation board of supervisors.

Scarsella brings a wealth of understanding and extensive experience to these positions as a long-time Valley resident who has also studied and travelled extensively in western and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union.

He is the Choffin Career and Technical Center Job Training Coordinator, Youngstown City Schools. A summa cum laude graduate of Boston College with a bachelor of arts in history/secondary education, Scarsella also has earned master of science degrees in education administration and special education from Youngstown State University. 

In November 2005, Scarsella was elected to the governing board of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center (now the Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio). He was also appointed to the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center (MCCTC) governing board at that time, and has continued service to both organizations to the present.

In that time, he has also served as president of the MCCTC governing board. Scarsella was appointed to the Mahoning Valley Regional Council of Governments (MVRCOG) governing board in 2017.

He has also been the former chairman, supervisor or associate supervisor of the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation Board of Supervisors, which he has served since 2010.

An active member of the community, Scarsella has devoted extensive time to local initiatives and nonprofit organizations throughout his whole life. He has served on the boards of the Boardman Boosters, St. Charles Home and School Executive Cabinet, the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (Steel Museum), Ethnic Heritage Society, Sister Jerome Mission College Advisory Board, the Mill Creek Metroparks’ Board of Commissioners Interview Committee and Citizens’ Advisory Development Committee and Brier Hill Cultural Center. He is a long-time member of the Boardman Civic Association, Friends of Boardman Library and Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens. Scarsella represented Boardman on the Mahoning Valley Vision for Education task force. He currently serves on the boards of the MCCTC Foundation Governing, Boardman Historical Society and Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum.

Known as a local historian, he is chairman of the board of directors of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society and former president of the Boardman Historical Society. He founded several Idora Park historical societies. In 2005, he published “Memories and Melancholy: Reflections of the Mahoning Valley and Youngstown, Ohio,” which is still in print today. 

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.