Education News for 01-04-2012

Statewide Education News

• Financial and academic changes bring uncertainty to area districts (Marion Star)

MARION - As area school districts look ahead, it's likely to be all about the money. Included in that is how much they can expect to get under a new school funding method expected to be released early this year. There also will be continued talk of doing more with what they have. School officials started 2011 waiting to see what state funding there would be in the future. Among changes with incoming Gov. John Kasich was the phase-out of reimbursements that school districts were receiving in place of tangible personal property tax. Read More…

Local Issues

• Bucyrus school alters program (News-Journal)

BUCYRUS - Rewarding students who achieve high marks and attend class has long been practiced by area schools. One of those schools is Bucyrus High School, which has tweaked its program. In the past, top students based on grades, behavior and attendance received Gold Cards -- exempting them from taking exams. But there was a drawback to that plan. Some students had not taken any exams before heading off to college, hurting their test-taking skills. Read More…

• Workshop to take on bullying (Dispatch)

Starting in February, local schools will have another tool for dealing with bullies: family Saturday school. “If you’re a bully, and we suspend you for five to 10 days, when you come back, you’re still going to be a bully,” said Rich Playko, who oversees student services for Groveport Madison schools. “We’ve done nothing to change the behavior.” The district plans to send first-time offenders to the workshop. It won’t be mandatory, but students who attend with their parents can reduce the length of their suspension. Read More…

Editorial

• Take time to develop school plan (Tribune Chronicle)

Allocating funds among hundreds of school districts to ensure all provide the "thorough and efficient" education required by the state constitution is easier said than done, as Ohio Gov. John Kasich is learning. Soon after taking office, Kasich pledged to overhaul the state formula for funding public schools. By January a plan would be in place, the governor thought. He was wrong. His advisers say the January deadline was a self-imposed one that won't be met. Better to get it right than to get it on time, they add. Read More…

Education News for 01-03-2012

Statewide Education News

• Commission continues its work on Youngstown schools' academic recovery (Vindicator)

Youngstown - There’s no set time line for development of a new academic recovery plan for the city school district. “As much as I would like to have it soon, it’s more important to do it well,” said Richard Ross, chairman of the newly organized Youngstown City Schools Academic Distress Commission. Superintendent Connie Hathorn said the district will continue to work to move forward while the next version of the plan is developed. Ross was appointed to the academic distress commission in November by Stan Heffner, state superintendent of public instruction. Read More…

• Literacy today means more than reading, writing and a high school diploma, report says (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Traditionally, being literate has meant being able to read and write. That definition is too narrow for today's economy, according to the Literacy Cooperative, an umbrella group helping to guide and inform many of the scattered literacy efforts in Northeast Ohio. Read More…

• Ohio educators still waiting for funding plan (Marietta Times)

It may now be at least 2013 before Ohio schools have a new funding plan from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, which leaves Ohio school districts in a familiar position - waiting and wondering. A deadline of January had been set by the administration to unveil the plan but will not be met, according to his office. "We've been dealing with different funding systems for the last couple years," said Marietta City Schools Treasurer Matt Reed. Read More…

• Ohio teachers to be watched and graded on classroom performance -- and many are OK with that (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Teachers across Ohio should expect a lot more criticism of their classroom work in the next few years. Their principals will be in their classrooms more. Or their assistant principals, or even outside evaluators, all watching them, taking notes and essentially grading the teachers. Read More…

• Student transfers not just from public schools to charters (Dispatch)

More students moved between the Columbus City Schools and neighboring districts in recent years than transferred with charter schools, new research shows. In the past three academic years, 20,745 students spent some time at a Columbus school and some time elsewhere in Franklin County — either another district or charter school. Of those, roughly 13,000 went between Columbus and another traditional school district. Read More…

Local Issues

• Jackson High School library goes digital (Repository)

JACKSON TWP. — The Jackson High School Library shifted into OverDrive this school year. “For a couple years, it’s been ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ ” explained Library/Media Specialist Christina Conti. “We’d been looking for the right platform ... and this is it.” Although it probably remains a secret to some students, the school library has gone digital. It’s the first school library in Stark County, and only the third in Ohio, Conti said, to offer students a selection of downloadable e-books — about 525 titles so far. Read More…

• Pesticide cleared in students’ sickness (Middletown Journal)

TRENTON — It is unlikely that a pesticide application applied by a lawn care company on athletic fields at Edgewood Middle School caused students to become sick, according to a report by an investigator with Ohio Department of Agriculture. Laboratory analysis confirmed that Momentum FX2 was applied to the field in question on Oct. 11 by BCF Lawn and Landscape. Laboratory analysis for the active ingredient in Momentum FX2 was completed on a swab sample that was collected from the classroom window where students complained of an odor. Read More…

• Principals’ raises resented (Dispatch)

Some educators at Northridge schools in Licking County are upset that a group of administrators will make more money next year after teachers gave up raises for the next two years because of the district’s financial situation. The most-recent two-year contract calls for teachers to receive no raise in their base pay and no step increases based on seniority and education because the district successfully argued that it could not afford any wage increases. Read More…

• TPS students miss fewer days from suspensions, expulsions (Blade)

When Toledo Public Schools leaders pitched the move to K-8 schools, the possible impact on school discipline was near the top of the list of perceived benefits. Middle schools were havens of misbehavior. More focus could be given to individual students if officials split seventh and eighth-grade students up between neighborhood schools. Parents and students could develop better relationships with teachers and principals. Read More…

• Literacy program benefits tutors, students (Times Recorder)

ZANESVILLE - Charles and Phyllis Cerney's grandchildren live out of town, but they are eager to step in as "substitute grandparents" and mentors to children who need them. "We like to read, we're interested in children and are willing to work with them," Phyllis said. "The kids work hard and they teach us a lot." For the past couple of months the retired couple has spent an hour each Tuesday at John McIntire Elementary School for a literacy-based effort to expand their minds and those of the students. Read More…

Editorial

• A better start (Dispatch)

Another Ohio win in the federally funded Race to the Top education-grant challenge could boost future school performance in Ohio by giving more children a better start before they even start elementary school. The state is one of nine that will share in a $500 million pot to fund programs that prepare children for kindergarten. That means, among other things, creating higher-quality preschool programs for poor children and developing a test that more accurately assesses how ready a child is for kindergarten. Read More…

Education News for 12-30-2011

Statewide Education News

• Lake, Geauga counties, area schools feeling squeeze (News-Herald)

As the economy tries to rebound from a recession, Lake County government continues to see operating revenues decline due to flat sales tax revenue, property values that declined by 10 percent and meager earnings on investments that used to generate millions of dollars. Commissioner Daniel P. Troy said the county has done nearly all that it can to cut expenses and that has meant a reduction in the number of employees who are paid through the county's general fund. Read More…

• Launch nears for Youngstown teacher’s new app for grading tests (Vindicator)

YOUNGSTOWN - Elijah Stambaugh wasn’t a teacher for long before he realized a fundamental flaw in the education process. “Students in some classes score very low, and others score very high,” the former Stambaugh Academy seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher said. “I was looking for tools to better analyze students’ strengths and weaknesses.” So Stambaugh came up with an idea for a test-scoring software application to help teachers better organize and analyze their teaching tendencies. Read More…

Local Issues

• Truancy Decrease May Help Lessen Crime (WBNS 10 CBS)

COLUMBUS - Police said that a decrease in truant students has helped Columbus’ crime rate, CrimeTracker 10’s Jeff Hogan reported on Thursday. Five years ago, Columbus police created a special unit to track down truants. That unit now has 10 officers. “If we can get the kids back in school and get them on the right path at an earlier age, we'll prevent them from either being a victim -- or a suspect,” Sgt. Kevin Corcoran said. About 10,000 students have been picked up by police since 2007, police said. Read More…

• Homeless shelters seeing most children ever (Marion Star)

MARION - Local and national agencies are reporting an increase in homelessness among children as the economy continues to struggle. The National Center On Family Homelessness recently released its report "America's Youngest Outcasts 2010," which estimates one in 45 children in America are homeless within a year's period. That's a 38 percent increase when compared to the 2007-10 economic recession. The Marion Shelter Program is seeing a similar trend as its women and family homeless shelter served 116 children in 2010. Director Chuck Bulick said that was the most in the program's history and said he expects to meet or exceed that number in 2011. Read More…

Editorial

• Building agreement (Dispatch)

Gov. John Kasich has asked Ohio’s 37 public colleges and universities to figure out how to divvy up the state’s slim budget and submit a single wish list for campus construction and repairs. Positioning the schools to cooperate rather than compete is astute. University leaders are best-positioned to evaluate the hard choices that must be made, since they live with the problems daily and will have to live with the decisions long-term. And by making colleges sit down together to determine priorities, they cannot help but gain a better understanding of the needs of their sister institutions. Read More…

• For public schools, the year brought big cuts (Post-Gazette)

In public education circles, 2011 was the year that officials quickly learned how to do more with less. No relief was provided from the federal No Child Left Behind mandate that the state's 500 school districts continue to move students toward proficiency in math and reading. Yet, the state budget provided nearly $900 million less in funding for public schools. Read More…

Education News for 12-28-2011

Statewide Education News

• Charter schools get win in White Hat suit – Columbus Dispatch

The 19-month fight over whether Ohio’s largest for-profit manager of charter schools must share detailed financial records could be coming to a close.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge John F. Bender has decided he can rule on the case, and he reiterated an order he made in August that White Hat Management release records showing how the charter-school operator spends the millions of tax dollars it gets each year. Read More…

• Six Ohio Education Stories to Watch in 2012 – State Impact Ohio

Here’s our take on the six education stories to watch in 2012:

1. School funding.
2. College-readiness.
3. The feds.
4. “School choice.”
5. Charter school accountability.
6. Teachers rising.
Read More…

Local Issues

• Energy conservation at schools benefitting taxpayers – Oxford Press

Efficient new buildings save Hamilton thousands of dollars. While utility bills for homes have been increasing, many area school districts have seen their bills drop thanks to a variety of energy conservation programs.

And thanks to those bills dropping, the districts can put money back into their general fund, creating less drain on taxpayer dollars. And in at least one case, that has enabled a district to delay putting a levy on the ballot. Read More…

• Yardsticks for local students are analyzed – Marietta Times

By one measure, Washington County's school districts are ranked in the middle to bottom third in the state.

But another ranking assembled by a nonprofit education organization dramatically changes some of those positions. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

• School reform takes time – Youngstown Vindicator

Steubenville Herald-Star: Allocating funds among hundreds of school districts to ensure all provide the “thorough and efficient” education required by the state constitution is easier said than done, as Ohio Gov. John Kasich is learning.

Soon after taking office less than a year ago, Kasich pledged to overhaul the state formula for funding public schools. By January a plan would be in place, the governor thought.

He was wrong. His advisers say the January deadline was a self-imposed one that won’t be met. Better to get it right than to get it on time, they add.

They are right, of course. Public education reform is among the chief concerns of many Buckeye State residents. Read More…

Education News for 12-27-2011

Christmas Holidays edition of education news

Statewide Education News

• Preschool grant is a boon to Ohio: editorial – Plain Dealer

The federal government's decision to give Ohio nearly $70 million to improve preschool for disadvantaged Ohio youngsters easily earns an A. It was the largest of nineRace to the Top Early Learning Challenge prizes recently given to states after a competitive process. Now Ohio must plan for the long haul to get the most value out of the money. Read More…

• New effort to make kids college-ready – Columbus Dispatch

Teachers in elementary, middle and high school often team up to help students prepare for the next level. In a new twist, some high-school teachers in Columbus City Schools will be paired with college professors to ensure that more students are college-ready. Read More…

• Athens Meigs Resource Center Looks At Shared Services Possibility – WOUB - Athens

Every day, school districts in the 18 counties in the region send out busses to take kids to school, traveling more than 330,000 miles. The cost is enormous and it's something Rick Edwards knows all too well. Edwards is Superintendent of the Athens Meigs Educational Resource Center. "What we're looking at is, is there a way for us to leverage the mileage, the cost, the square miles, and all those aspects, to leverage a more efficient operation and reduce costs while serving school districts and students better in the region," says Edwards. Read More…

• Ohio gets Race to the Top grant – Marietta Times

Funding focus on better access to and quality of early learning The latest federal Race to the Top funding received by Ohio will focus on improving access to and the quality of early childhood education, something local educators agree is vital. Research has been "overwhelmingly conclusive" in showing that students who learn basic concepts prior to kindergarten require less intervention as they get older, said Warren Local Schools Superintendent Tom Gibbs. Read More…

Local Issues

• Cincinnati among districts moving away from isolating grades 7-8

Educators have long known that the middle school years are critical for a student’s academic development. What’s not known is the best way to group those students to get the most out of them academically. Studies on which system works best are inconclusive, at best. When Cincinnati Public Schools announced this month that it would expand Western Hills High School to grades 7 through 12, it was the district’s latest attempt to boost middle school achievement through grade reconfiguration. Read More…

• Gifted students in Reynoldsburg ‘adopt’ one another to demonstrate their support and remain connected – Columbus Dispatch

Katie Samuelson sees her sisters in class and her moms at recess. All through school, she runs into other relatives — brothers, aunts, uncles and grandparents. By getting “adopted” by sixth-graders this year, Katie and other fifth-graders at Reynoldsburg’s Gateway Academy have a place in a family tree that teachers say stretches at least seven years. Read More…

• Schools count a win – Columbus Dispatch

Hundreds of people gathered in Linden 10 years ago this month to take a leap of faith — breaking ground on the first new school building in the Columbus City Schools in more than a quarter century.

• A band played and schoolchildren sang as construction of the $10.5 million Linden Elementary School was launched, replacing two buildings constructed in 1905 and 1920. The new building at 2626 Cleveland Ave. was designed to show wary voters that the district could manage a huge school-reconstruction plan being pushed by the state, which was offering a 30 percent funding match. Read More…
• Free lunch participation skyrockets in past decade – Oxford Press

The number of Butler County children receiving free or reduced-price lunches in the United States Department of Agriculture National School Lunch Program has doubled over the past decade. In a March, 2001 report by the Ohio Department of Education, 10,326 county school children were participating in the program, 20 percent of the 51,003 children enrolled in public schools. In September, 2011, the ODE reports that 22,371 children, 38 percent of 58,119 students, are now receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Read More…

• Voucher expansion opposed – Marion Star

Elgin and Ridgedale local school boards passed resolutions this week opposing House Bill 136. The bill would expand the state's school voucher program so students in any school district could receive public funds to pay for private or parochial school tuition. Read More…

• North Royalton's Early Childhood Center readying for all-day K – Sun News/PD

Parents of incoming kindergartners have a choice to make for the next school year. Members of the school board approved the establishment of an all-day, tuition-based kindergarten option for the 2012-13 academic year. The Early Childhood Center, housing district preschool and kindergarten education, will designate two classrooms for the all-day program. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

• Ethnic and cultural changes in schools offer challenge, opportunity

The growing diversity of central Ohio’s population means that schools continue to change. It’s up to families and school officials to take advantage of the opportunities this presents, even as they deal with the challenges. Read More…

• State leads the way in early childhood learning – Chillicothe Gazette – Op-ed

Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much these days. But there is one thing on which they do see eye to eye: the value of early childhood education. Once an afterthought of America's education system, early learning now is front and center as educators, governors and legislators grapple with ways to better prepare children for a lifetime of success. Read More…

• Schools are mired down by mandates – Tribune Chronicle - Warren

In some state legislatures and Congress, it has been suggested one means of holding down spending would be to require that when new programs are mandated, budgets for existing ones be pared down. Taxpayers can afford only so much, after all. Perhaps state legislators should consider a similar strategy for public schools. Read More…

• Team effort can lift poor black kids – Columbus Dispatch – Op-ed

Forbes writer Gene Marks got the Bill Cosby treatment in the blogosphere last week for his column titled “If I were a Poor Black Kid.” Marks describes himself as a “middle-aged white guy who comes from a middle-class white background.” He admitted that he knows nothing about being poor and black in America, and the solutions he proposes to help kids in West Philadelphia rise above their dire circumstances are not new. Read More…

• Quality of a school is in the eyes of the beholder – Columbus Dispatch LTE

I thank Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, for his kind words about my part in contributing to Ohio’s school-choice movement (“Schools of choice need to be schools of quality,” Forum column, Dec. 14). Of course, the real heroes are the parents, students and staff, who have continued to believe in spite of enormous ridicule and unwavering criticism. Read More…

Education News for 12-23-2011

Statewide Education News

• Rising Health Care Costs Pressure Ohio School Districts – Ohio News Network

Imagine directing a high school band that has won several national championships and was prized by the community.

Then imagine that the music just stops.

"For me, it was a process of what can I do to keep these kids interests going because their lives were shattered," band director Bob McNutt said. Read More..

Local Issues

• Chardon Schools reject outside endowment to support teaching positions – News Herald

A Chardon area man remains undaunted after his alternative funding plan for arts and physical education was rejected by school officials.

Paul Hederstrom, a retired math teacher, had proposed starting an Ohio Educational Endowment for Art, Music and Physical Education fund to benefit Chardon School District. The Claridon Township resident wanted to use endowment proceeds, instead of tax revenues, to pay specialist teachers’ salaries. Read More…

• Euclid Schools downgrade 5-year budget forecast – News Herald

The five-year forecast for Euclid City Schools has turned out to be more devastating than the district had originally anticipated.

After the board approved $1.5 million in cuts to programs and additional staff and salary reductions were made, officials believed that it would be able to balance the budget through next school year, but unexpected changes have suggested otherwise. Read More…

• Richmond Heights School Board to initiate termination proceedings against Superintendent Linda Hardwick – Sun News

On behalf of the Richmond Heights Board of Education, Board President Josh Kaye has issued a letter to Superintendent Dr. Linda Hardwick notifying her he will be presenting the question of initiating proceedings to terminate her employment.

Kaye said the basis for this consideration is on specific conduct, including misappropriation of district property which includes confidential documents and e-mails, dishonesty on her behalf in the communication during an investigation of central office staff concerning the theft and distribution of said documents and e-mails, interference with the district investigation of the central office staff, and any further grounds which may be determined as a result of a continued investigation. Read More…

• Fairless officials seeing abuse of over-the counter medicine – Times Reporter – New Philadelphia

Fairless Local School District administrators are asking parents and community members to help them wage a war on the misuse of over-the-counter drugs.

Fairless High School has, in recent weeks, had a number of students overdose on cough-suppressant medication.

The issue was raised by a concerned parent during a recent Fairless Board of Education meeting. Read More…

• Dublin schools: $7.1 million in cuts needed – Columbus Dispatch

Dublin schools need to cut $7.1 million from the district’s budget over the next two school years, officials say.

The cuts are needed because voters rejected a November levy that would have generated $13 million a year starting in 2013, district officials said.

District spokesman Doug Baker said officials won’t decide on specific cuts until February. A plan that Superintendent David Axner presented to the school board last week proposes cutting 100 jobs, including teachers, administrators and classified staff members. Read More…

• No. 9: Ohio schools see big funding cuts – Mansfield News Journal

Richland County schools saw funding cuts this year -- and made cuts of their own in response.

In an effort to balance an $8 billion state deficit without raising taxes, lawmakers approved cuts last summer to programs and agencies throughout Ohio. Some local school districts, like Lucas, emerged relatively unscathed by the cuts, but most districts are still feeling the pinch. Read More…