Ed News

Education News for 05-04-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • May 7 is School Bus Driver Appreciation Day (Daily Sentinel – Pomeroy)

    • Stan Heffner, State Superintendent of public instruction, reminds Ohioans that Monday, May 7, 2012, is School Bus Driver Appreciation Day in Ohio. “Safely transporting students to and from school is vital to education,” said Heffner. “The professionalism of Ohio’s 15,000 school bus driver is why the school bus remains — by far — the safest way for students to get to school. Read More…

  • Clyde to take part in school pilot test (Fremont News Messenger)

    • A group of McPherson Middle School eighth-graders will take a pilot social studies online assessment this month. The Ohio Department of Education selected Clyde-Green Springs Schools to participate in the test. Assistant Superintendent Laura Kagy said the online assessment will serve as a preview for how the state intends to administer future assessments. "This is to help facilitate that transition," Kagy said Tuesday. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Local school for autistic kids abruptly closes (Canton Repository)

    • Dragonfly Academy, a local private school for autistic children, unexpectedly closed its doors Thursday morning amid allegations from parents that promised services were not being provided. Parents were notified via text message from the school’s executive director, Brianne Bixby-Nightingale, at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday that the school would be closed Thursday and today for “restructuring,” several parents confirmed. Read More…

  • Monroe board agrees on emergency property tax levy (Middletown Journal News)

    • Monroe Local Schools board officials unanimously approved an emergency property tax levy on Thursday, which is expected to be placed before voters in August. The board decided upon a 5-year, 7.5-mill emergency property tax that is projected to raise more than $2.5 million for each year. Read More…

  • Transgender student-teacher dismissed (Wilmington News Journal)

    • When an area school district dismissed a Wilmington College (WC) transgender senior in January on the second day of a student-teaching placement at Hillsboro High School, the district may have broken federal law. In a statement to the Wilmington News Journal, the Hillsboro school district superintendent based the dismissal on an alleged violation of the Licensure Code of Professional Conduct for Ohio Educators. When on two separate occasions the newspaper requested he cite an excerpt from the code for his decision, he declined to discuss the matter in further detail. Read More…

  • Plan for smaller schools OK’d in Youngstown (Vindicator)

    • Ninth-graders who aren’t enrolled in one of the school district’s specialty programs will return to East High School next year, where they’ll be housed in a small-school environment. The city schools’ Academic Distress Commission approved Superintendent Connie Hathorn’s plan for the change at a meeting Thursday. Read More…

  • Ex-Gov. Strickland to Address Schools Forum (Youngstown Business Journal)

    • Former Gov. Ted Strickland will be among the panelists Monday night to discuss “the protection of the public school system from privately operated schools,” the Mahoning County Education Service Center announced Thursday. The meeting, sponsored by the educational service center, will be held at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Boardman High School, 7777 Glenwood Ave. Other panelists are Ron Iarussi, superintendent of the service center; Frank Lazerri, superintendent of Boardman schools; Deborah Cain, a member of the state board of education; Read More…

  • Lakota students share opinions on how to run district (Enquirer)

    • During a focus group session at the Lakota Central Office Thursday, it was the students teaching Lakota administrators on how to better run the state’s seventh-largest school system. The student-led focus group was the first of four sessions with Lakota officials, as the school district looks for more effective ways to educate its students. “Students will tell you the truth and that is what we are looking for,” Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia said. “We want to make sure we are responsive school system in meeting their needs. In order to do that, we need to ask them. Read More…

Education News for 05-03-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Is Senior Year of High School a Waste of Time? (State Impact Ohio)

    • The Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education have teamed up to wipe out senioritis. Graduation season is upon us, but many high school seniors have been coasting for months. Ohio education officials hope to change that by revamping the senior year of high school and having students take college classes, do apprenticeships or get technical training. “We have to find a way to maximize the 12th– grade year,” said Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro on WCPN 90.3’s The Sound of Ideas this morning. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Residents give input on future of Youngstown schools (Vindicator)

    • Conversations with small groups continue to gather opinions about the community’s aspirations for city schools. A town-hall meeting will be scheduled for late next month. Part of the academic-recovery plan for Youngstown schools adopted by the academic distress commission and approved by Stan Heffner, state superintendent of public instruction, calls for a community-engagement process “focused on increasing community expectations and aspirations by all students.” Read More…

  • Intermediate students 'on the move' this week with exams, exercise (Newark Advocate)

    • Granville Intermediate School students are having an unusual week this week. It started with exercise, followed by several days of testing and finishes with more exercise.

    And two worthy causes are attached to the latter event. This past Monday, every student in the building did some Zumba, a combination of dance and aerobic elements with some Latin choreography, martial arts and hip-hop. It was led by Zumba fitness instructor Pamela Conn, of Columbus. Read More…

  • Reynoldsburg schools pay $1.4 million to escape exotic investment (Dispatch)

    • The Reynoldsburg school district paid $1.4 million to terminate an interest-rate swap with a financially troubled European bank this year, the same step the New Albany district has taken to shed the exotic investment. The same investment adviser who placed the New Albany schools in a swap that they paid $6.2 million to terminate last month advised Reynoldsburg on its deal. Both deals were signed in 2007 and appear to have worked identically: Read More…

  • Schools will have a choice on ‘pink slime’ (Springfield News Sun)

    • Starting next school year, districts won’t automatically get beef with the substance critics have called “pink slime.” And if districts get it, they’ll know it, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, because they’ll have to ask for it. Grocery chains like Kroger and fast food giants like McDonald’s have stopped serving beef with the product after a public outcry in March. The substance isn’t harmful, according to food scholars and government regulators. Read More…

  • State may take over Monroe schools’ finances (Hamilton Journal News)

    • The state could soon take over financial control of the Monroe School District. Officials with the Ohio Department of Education confirmed Tuesday that Monroe’s fiscal recovery plan was not accepted and they recommended to the state auditor’s office the district be placed into fiscal emergency, which would be a first for any Butler County school system. Read More…

Education News for 05-02-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Northeast Ohio schools welcome electronic devices to promote learning (Plain Dealer)

    • Cellphones and other electronic devices, once banished to school lockers, are becoming part of classroom lessons in some area school districts. From pop quizzes through text-messaging to lab results loaded onto electronic tablets to looking up information on smart phones, teachers are finding ways to engage students with the latest devices. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Disabilities in kids are increasingly nonphysical (Dispatch)

    • Growing numbers of American families say they’re raising a child who has a disability, and the most-prevalent conditions are less and less likely to be physical disorders. A report released yesterday by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution found that the top five chronic childhood conditions that limit typical activities are some type of developmental, behavioral or mental problem. Read More…

  • State recommends fiscal emergency for Monroe schools (Middletown Journal News)

    • The state could soon take over financial control of the Monroe School District. Officials with the Ohio Department of Education confirmed Tuesday Monroe’s fiscal recovery plan was not accepted and they recommended to the state auditor’s office the district be placed into fiscal emergency, which would be a first for any Butler County school system. Read More…

  • Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson pitches school reform plan to lawmakers; concerns over charter school provisions linger (Plain Dealer)

    • Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson on Tuesday formally pitched his education reform plan to state lawmakers, asking them to approve his proposal without making any changes. But charter school advocates, who have influential allies in the Statehouse, already are voicing objections. Read More…

  • Cleveland schools plan still has some critics (Dispatch)

    • A bipartisan group of lawmakers hopes to approve legislation by the end of May to overhaul Cleveland schools, but they still must resolve a final sticking point with charter school advocates who say the plan could limit school-choice options. Concerns about the tax-funded, privately operated schools are the “biggest obstacle,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, after a two-hour hearing on the bill yesterday. Read More…

  • Envirothon competition teaches students outdoor science skills (Hamilton Journal News)

    • The competition was billed as The Area IV Envirothon, but area science teachers found the 62-school regional competition as a way to entice their students into learning and applying science outdoors. Franklin’s team trains all year for the event. Badin’s geared up the week before. Both looked to be enjoying themselves, Tuesday on the Pleasant Vineyard Ministries campground. Read More…

  • Ex-CEO of Cleveland schools works on Chaney plan (Vindicator)

    • A retired chief executive of Cleveland schools is working as a consultant in the Youngstown schools. Eugene Sanders, who retired Feb. 1, 2011, from the Cleveland school district helm, is working through his Sanders Transformation Group at Chaney’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics school. Read More…

  • High-schoolers’ COTA passes stay in Columbus schools budget (Dispatch)

    • Next year’s Columbus City Schools general-fund budget would grow by about 1.9 percent and maintain COTA bus privileges for high-school students, according to a preview that Superintendent Gene Harris presented to the school board last night. If approved by the Columbus Board of Education, the general-fund spending plan would grow by $13.5 million, to about $741 million. Read More…

  • Law Day offers Ross County students chance to argue case (Chillicothe Gazette)

    • Students at several area high schools were more likely to approach the bench than the chalkboard Tuesday as they took part in moot court sessions led by local attorneys. The courtroom simulations at Chillicothe, Southeastern and Unioto high schools were part of an effort by the Ross County Bar Association to spark student interest in the legal process for Law Day, which was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhowser in 1958 to mark the nation's commitment to the rule of law. Read More…

  • Online summer school has lower cost, more flexibility (Dispatch)

    • Some Olentangy students will go white-water rafting and ballroom dancing as part of a physical-education class this summer. Others will earn gym credit online. The district is one of many across the country moving summer-school classes online, in some cases to cut costs but often to provide students with a more-flexible schedule. Read More…

  • School reevaluating bullying prevention, other programs after bomb threats (WTOV-Steubenville)

    • A week after a student was accused of making bomb threats because she was being bullied, Jefferson County Joint Vocational School officials said they are reevaluating how they deal with social issues. Cecilia Abdalla, program assessment coordinator at the JVS, said they have an anti-bullying presentation to students at the beginning of each school year. Read More…

Education News for 05-01-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Number of homeless children on the rise in Athens, across Ohio (Athens Post)

    • The number of homeless students attending Ohio public schools climbed to 21,000 during the 2010-11 school year, according to a report by the Ohio Department of Education, an increase of more than 2,000 students from the previous school year. As homelessness rates in Ohio and Athens County continue to climb, particularly among school-age children, its traditional criteria no longer apply, said Patrick Gallaway, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education. Read More…

Local Issues

  • New methods sought for student discipline (Toledo Blade)

    • Fighting, turning over desks, and otherwise disrupting classes at Toledo Public Schools are not acceptable to Toledoans United for Social Action. But neither is arresting students for such behavior instead of finding ways to address discipline problems and motivate them in classrooms, Robert Birt, minister of Glass City Church of Christ, said during the group's annual meeting Monday. Read More…

  • Columbus schools might need $555 million (Dispatch)

    • Columbus City Schools might need to raise more than a half-billion dollars in additional property taxes and borrowing over the next four school years to continue current programs, add programs to boost student performance and fund the next phase of its school-rebuilding program. Superintendent Gene Harris said today that the $355 million in operating money and nearly $200 million in bonds for school construction are just a place to begin the conversation with a citizen millage committee. Members are reviewing whether the district should put a tax request before voters this fall. Read More…

  • Liberty ends summer school (Vindicator)

    • The school district’s fiscal commission approved Monday the closure of Liberty’s summer-school program as part of a plan that would save an additional $49,500 going into fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1. Superintendent Stan Watson said the summer school was used mostly for remedial courses and cost the district $13,920 each year, according to district records. Read More…

  • Schools to cash in on casinos (Dispatch)

    • Franklin County schools could share about $7.2million in casino revenue next fiscal year, and more than double that amount in following years. The money may help ease state budget cuts and stop the steady drumbeat of cutbacks. Wagers at Ohio’s four new casinos are estimated to total $1.42 billion once the casinos are fully operational, according to estimates from the Ohio Department of Taxation and largely confirmed by a 2011 analysis by Moelis & Co., the governor’s gambling consultant. That haul would yield an estimated $470 million in tax revenue, based on the 33 percent rate set in the Constitution. Read More…

  • CPS takes out $26.8 million loan for green renovations (Enquirer)

    • Cincinnati Public Schools board of education Monday approved 5-1 taking out a $26.8 million low-interest loan for energy-saving renovations at 28 schools. The seventh board member Vanessa White was absent. About $5.5 million of the money will be spent renovating the old Hyde Park school which will re-open next year as a neighborhood school with a district-wide gifted program. The re-opening has been long-lobbied for by a group of Hyde Park residents. They collected hundreds of signatures from neighbors saying they’d send their kids there if the district re-opened it. Read More…

  • Tallmadge elementary school to reopen after meningitis scare (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • A Tallmadge elementary school is reopening today after district officials canceled classes Monday because of a possible case of meningitis. Summit County health department officials assured the school district the unidentified student from Dunbar Elementary does not have a form of meningitis that requires preventive treatment for others who have had contact, Superintendent Jeff Ferguson said. Read More…

  • Students test the waters (Vindicator)

    • Seventh- graders were excited to get in the water and learn a few environmental lessons.

    “This gives me a chance to do hands-on activities,” said Isaiah Donley, one of the participating students from Volney Rogers Middle School. The students participated in the sampling and testing of water quality Monday in the Ax Factory Run, a small stream that flows over a rocky bottom in a wooded ravine on the city’s West Side alongside the school. Read More…

  • Cleveland teachers, supporters rally for rainy day fund (Plain Dealer)

    • Umbrellas served a dual purpose on Monday evening as the Cleveland Teachers Union rallied to urge Governor John Kasich to release rainy day funds to help Cleveland Schools. Outside the Cleveland Board of Eduction, Annette Chase, a second and third grade teacher at Louis Agassiz school, attached raindrops to her umbrella, each drop carrying the name of one of her students. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

  • Guaranteed improvement (Dispatch)

    • As Ohio lawmakers consider instituting a “third-grade reading guarantee” — a law that says kids who can’t read at grade level by the end of third grade must be held back a year — Florida’s experience with the idea offers some guidance: Give schools some time to prepare, but not to needlessly delay; provide the help for kids who are behind so they can catch up; and make provisions as mandatory as possible, so that schools can’t evade the unpleasant remedy. Read More…

  • Secure plan for teacher retirement (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

    • Virtually everyone agrees something needs to be done about the $13.3 billion in unfunded liabilities burdening the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System. And - as has not always been true in other states - there seems to be a consensus on how to accomplish that. Read More…

Education News for 04-30-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • It's simple: preschool works, but it costs (Enquirer)

    • Every year 500 families are wait-listed for a preschool spot in Cincinnati Public Schools. Unfortunately, when a 3-year-old’s brain is ready to learn, it really can’t wait. You can’t hold it in abeyance, even if you’re Ohio, the state that has slashed $13.3 million from preschool education over the last three years and now ranks dead last of 39 states that offer state pre-K support. Read More…

  • Blue-ribbon mentor (Dispatch)

    • Lynn Elfner, CEO of the Ohio Academy of Science, will retire at the end of this year. By late Saturday afternoon, more than 1,200 students will have packed up their experiments, folded their poster boards, gathered their ribbons and trophies if they won them and headed back to all points across Ohio. Another year, another Ohio State Science Day. Read More…

  • A big payout? (Dispatch)

    • Work continues on Columbus’ casino, expected to open later this year and generate millions in state and local revenue. Ohio will reap hundreds of millions of dollars a year after casinos start opening in May. Even more will pour in if horse-racing tracks withstand a court challenge and open lottery-run slots parlors in coming years. Read More…

  • Legislature considers teachers' benefits (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Teachers may have to work longer and pay more into their pension system if a proposal to the Ohio Legislature is accepted. The Legislature is moving on public pension reform, and three of the funds have updated their proposals. The most significant updates are in the State Teachers Retirement System, or STRS. Read More…

  • More teachers retiring earlier (Dispatch)

    • Groveport Madison High School teacher Jack Wills plays a small blues concert on his guitar for students each year before final exams. Wills, who teaches Chinese, will perform his last show this year. He decided last month to retire at the end of the school year, joining the larger-than-anticipated number of educators heading to the exits. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Tech prep aims for job skills (Marion Star)

    • Tech prep partners are working to make sure students can get skills needed in the workforce. Funding cuts have forced those helping in this effort to consolidate and streamline services. The cuts come as schools face increased requirements. The end game remains the same: making sure high school tech prep programs meet state requirements and giving students an opportunity to continue their education beyond high school. Read More…

  • New 'Green Ribbon' honors Loveland High's recycling work (Enquirer)

    • Environmental sciences teacher Tracy Burge remembered the first time she tried getting her Loveland High students interested in recycling two years ago. As she dug in cafeteria trash bins, “up to my elbows in spaghetti,” pulling out soda cans and other materials, “they all stood back and watched me,” she said Monday. “Then as I continued to do it, one or two brave souls joined me.” Read More…

  • Some charter school supporters urge opposition to Cleveland schools reform legislation (Plain Dealer)

    • Some charter school backers say the Cleveland school reform legislation would unfairly limit school choice options in the city and are taking their concerns directly to state lawmakers. The plan would allow Mayor Frank Jackson to appoint a Transformation Alliance panel that could block future charter schools from opening in the city unless they meet a set of academic criteria the panel would later develop. Read More…

  • Educators, businesses partner to bring math, science to students (News Herald)

    • Area educators will spend their summer brainstorming how to adjust their teaching style to improve student engagement. Teachers from Lake County schools as well as officials from area colleges and local businesses will work together, specifically in the area of math and science, to construct a teaching model that gets students thinking and incorporates necessary skills from the working world. Read More…

  • Berkshire, Mayfield school districts honored for 'green' efforts (News Herald)

    • Energy efficiency, zero waste programs in their food service operations and community eco-friendly gardens that support local charities are all features that describe Ohio's Green Ribbon School state awardees. These include Berkshire Schools in Geauga County and Mayfield Schools in Cuyahoga County, which received honorable mention in the recognition program. Read More…

  • Breakthrough charter schools play central role in Cleveland school district's plans (Plain Dealer)

    • Charter schools were once the bad guys in the minds of school district officials, who considered them a horde of profiteers out to pillage students and dollars from traditional public schools. Not anymore. At least not when it comes to the Cleveland school district and its chosen charter partner, Breakthrough Schools. Read More…

  • Fairmont teacher case costs district $70,000 (Dayton Daily News)

    • The legal fees incurred trying to terminate the contract of a Kettering Fairmont High School English teacher have cost the school district more than $70,000 in the last year. And, according to Michael Togliatti’s lawyer, John Doll, the case is “far from over.” Read More…

  • Catholic schools report $15M deficit (Enquirer)

    • Two-thirds of the elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati operated at a deficit last year, spending $1.15 for every $1 they raised, the archdiocese reported in its first-ever financial study. At least 61 of 80 reporting grade schools had operating losses averaging about $239,000 each. The total shortfall for all 80 schools was $15 million. (Ten elementary schools and the 23 high schools were not in the report.) Read More…

  • Schools react with anti-bullying programs (Chillicothe Gazette)

    • Most students today are too young to remember the killing spree in Littleton, Colo., that changed the way the American education system looks at violence in schools. The attitude of "it can't happen here" disappeared April 20, 1999, when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into Columbine High School and took the lives of 12 students and a teacher, wounded 24 others and then took their own lives. Read More…

  • Boardman questions allocation of Local Govt. funds (Vindicator)

    • “The more things change, the more they stay the same” is the popular government maxim. It’s especially true of the Local Government Fund — a chunk of state tax funds given to counties, cities, townships and villages throughout Ohio — and how it’s divvied up once it gets to Mahoning County. Read More…

  • Bioscience employers need workers (Springfield News Sun)

    • Bioscience companies are coming to Ohio expecting to find qualified workers, and industry advocates are working to keep pace with their growing demand. From 2004 to 2010, more than 400 biology, medicine or science-related companies began operations in the Buckeye State. Read More…

  • Speaker helps students prepare for standardized tests (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Burt Lancaster won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Elmer Gantry, the con man-turned-evangelist whose fiery oration whipped tent crowds into a frenzy. He could have taken a few pointers from Cheryl Carter, director of the North Central State College Urban Center in Mansfield. Carter had more than 700 Malabar Intermediate School students on their feet Friday morning, cheering, applauding and shouting a pledge to bring their "A game" to three days of Ohio Achievement Assessment testing next week. Read More…

  • 2 Dublin high schools pit skills in global test (Dispatch)

    • Students in two Dublin high schools will take a test next month to compare their math, reading and science skills with those of students in other countries. Dublin Jerome and Scioto high schools were selected among 100 high schools in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada to take an early version of the PISA-based Test for Schools. The test is made by the same group that created the Programme for International Student Assessment, a test given every three years to a sample of schools around the world to compare scores among nations. Read More…

  • Chardon students focusing on something positive as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame prom nears (News Herald)

    • Chardon High School students will be rockin’ out in style at their prom May 5 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Not only was the school voted the winner of a contest for a $5,000 prom package, but numerous additional donors have come forward, ramping up the value to about $150,000, according to Matt Radicelli, founder and owner of Rock the House Entertainment Group. Read More…

  • Closing of Columbus schools has upside (Dispatch)

    • Yes, their school buildings are closing. But for the kids at Moler Elementary, and some from Heyl Elementary, there are perks, too. Because they’re being moved this fall to a middle-school building — Southmoor, which is being closed as a middle school — they’ll enjoy a gymnasium. They’ll have a separate cafeteria, music and art rooms and an auditorium with a nice, big stage. Columbus’ elementary buildings typically have combination gyms/lunchrooms/auditoriums. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

  • But it’s good for you (Dispatch)

    • The concerted push on the part of politicians, school officials and some parents to get students to eat more-healthful meals has run into resistance: It turns out that some kids just don’t want what they’re selling. Like other school districts around the country, several suburban districts in central Ohio have seen lunch sales fall after instituting lower-fat and reduced-calorie menus. Read More…

Education News for 04-27-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • State may alter plan for grading schools (Dispatch)

    • Columbus School Superintendent Gene Harris says the state’s proposal does not give schools enough credit for student improvement and graduation rates. Columbus School Superintendent Gene Harris and others took issue yesterday with a new state plan to hand out letter grades to Ohio schools — significantly below current levels, in most cases — and they might get some of what they want. Read More…

Local Issues

  • TPS Students have 'aha' moment (Toledo Blade)

    • Test packets, heaped onto a cart, scattered across Robinson Elementary's hallway. The mass of paper was a temporary hassle for Principal Anthony Bronaugh, but it was covered in positive signs: Most tests had been finished by Robinson's students, and not in a flippant fashion. Children took the test seriously. "If I went based on effort," Mr. Bronaugh said, "we would be at academic excellence." Read More…

  • Olentangy athletic director says he made mistakes in handling money (Dispatch)

    • An Olentangy schools athletic director has resigned, and another has been reprimanded after they failed to document $11,000 in expenses from a tournament account. The school board accepted the resignation of Tom Gerhardt, the athletic director for Olentangy Liberty High School, at a meeting tonight. It is effective at the end of the school year. Read More…

  • Schools: Senior Pranks Costly, Dangerous To Schools (WBNS – 10TV)

    • Bexley City Schools officials said that they were taking a proactive approach when it comes to senior pranks and vandalism, CrimeTracker 10's Jeff Hogan reported Thursday. CrimeTracker 10 obtained new surveillance video of 10 students entering Northland High School earlier this month with a stolen set of keys. Students threw eggs and smeared baby oil on steps. Police found a grocery receipt for the eggs at the scene and the students admitted to police that it was a prank, Hogan reported. Read More…

  • Students’ video portrays consequences of distracted driving (Vindicator)

    • A lecture about impaired or distracted driving won’t do much good, but a video showing teens the consequences can be a whole different story, Newton Falls High School junior Taylor Blandine said. “They’d lose interest real soon in a lecture,” Blandine said Thursday morning after juniors and seniors at her school watched a video she and dozens of other Trumbull County high-school students produced. Read More…

  • Lima board to consider lowering GPA requirement for sports, extras (Lima News)

    • In an effort to stay competitive and give students opportunities to participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities, Lima schools is considering lowering what is required academically to take the field. Currently students must have a 1.75 GPA to participate in athletics or any extracurricular activity that students don't get a grade for. The district's Athletic Board of Control voted last week to lower it to 1.5. Read More…

  • Liberty school items located (Vindicator)

    • Educational equipment that Liberty’s former conversion schools purchased with federal grants has been stored at the Portage County Educational Services Center, the schools’ current sponsors, since February, officials from the conversion schools said. Cheryl Emrich, executive director at Portage County ESC, said in an email that the center had turned over to the Ohio Department of Education Community Schools Division an inventory of what was being held at the center. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

  • Guarantee the guarantee (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • The Ohio Senate Education Committee is considering the proposal for a third-grade reading guarantee included in Gov. John Kasich’s midterm budget review. The measure would hold back in the third grade students who are not proficient readers at grade level after two or more years in a reading intervention program. It requires also that schools provide intensive remediation until the students meet the proficiency standard. Read More…

  • School sale a wise move for district, community (Marietta Times)

    • The Marietta City Schools Board of Education approved the sale of the former North Hills Elementary School and property Monday, nearly a decade after the school closed. We think that was a wise move that will benefit the district and the community. Read More…