Education News for 07-20-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Liberty school officials, state financial panel discuss budget (Vindicator)

LIBERTY - Almost a year after the school district was placed in fiscal emergency, school officials met with the state-appointed financial oversight committee Wednesday. Chairman Roger Nehls and his committee discussed appropriations and expenditures with Liberty Superintendent Stan Watson and Treasurer Jim Wilson. The committee went through budget items from the previous school year as well as items for the upcoming year, said Nehls. The district spent approximately $15.5 million from its general fund by the end of fiscal year 2012. Read more...

• School groups warn of lottery windfall hurdle (Newark Advocate)

Higher-than-expected state lottery profits in the past fiscal year do not equal a windfall for Ohio's schools this year, according to three major public education associations. Earlier this month, the Ohio Lottery Commission released results for this past fiscal year, which concluded June 30. Sales surpassed $2.7 billion, and that led to a profit of $771 million, well above the $717.5 million that had been budgeted for schools. By law, all Ohio Lottery profits must be directed toward K-12 public education. Read more...

• Taxing sales to fund schools? Expect hefty hike (Repository)

COLUMBUS — As Ohio considers new ways to pay for public schools, legislative analysts said Wednesday one option is to replace local property tax revenue with an increase in the state sales tax, but they cautioned that it might be a risky move. To raise the more than $9.9 billion that’s needed, policymakers would need to more than double the sales tax rate — from 5.5 cents on the dollar to 13.2 cents. It’s one of many ideas being kicked around by an Ohio House subcommittee laying the groundwork for a new state funding formula for schools. Read more...

Local Issues

• Johnstown retracts decision on busing to private schools (Newark Advocate)

JOHNSTOWN - More than a month after it passed a resolution deeming busing for some non-public school students impractical, the Johnstown-Monroe School Board retracted its decision at its Wednesday meeting. The board will work with Northridge Local Schools and administrators from private schools in Newark and Granville to attempt to find another solution, board president Roger Montgomery said. This past school year, Johnstown had about 35 students the district bused to private schools, including Granville Christian Academy. Read more...

• Cleveland schools seek big tax increase in November to carry out transformation plans (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland School District and Mayor Frank Jackson will ask voters this fall to raise their school taxes by about 50 percent to make major changes aimed at pulling the district out of its academic and budget hole. The 15-mill levy -- the first operating increase for the district since 1996 -- would give the district an estimated $77 million more a year to add to its $670 million operating budget and $1.1 billion total budget. It would also provide $5.5 million to go to charter schools that partner with the district, making it the first local tax in Ohio to go to charters. Read more...

• Board to vote on eliminating positions (News-Sun)

Northwestern board members are expected to vote tonight on a controversial decision to eliminate a position championed by some families. The board will decide whether to eliminate the family liaison and middle school principal positions to prepare for the move from three to two buildings when Northwestern opens its new schools next fall, said Superintendent Tony Orr. The board will vote at 6 p.m. tonight in the auditorium at Northwestern High School. Read more...

Editorial

• Schools cut costs by sharing (Tribune Chronicle)

The idea of shared school administrations is taking hold near and far. If school districts in Trumbull and Mahoning counties don't figure out ways to share these duties, local teachers and students will continue to get shortchanged. Nearby, Grand Valley and Pymatuning Valley school districts in southern Ashtabula County have opened discussions on sharing a superintendent beginning this fall. Pymatuning Valley Superintendent Alex Geordan resigned to accept a job in Canfield, prompting the Board of Education to contact Grand Valley about sharing its superintendent. Read more...

Education News for 07-18-2012

Local Issues

• Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board meeting draws hundreds as teacher negotiations continue (Sun News)

Emotions ran high at the July 17 Brecksville-Broadview Heights Board of Education, as teachers, parents and residents asked tough questions of the board in front of a crowd about 300 people. Jeff Luce, who recently resigned from his post as Advanced Placement math teacher at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School after 18 years, said he was concerned the board would bypass more qualified teachers for younger — and less expensive — educators. Read more...

• No mediation sessions yet slated in NB contract talks (Findlay Courier)

NORTH BALTIMORE - North Baltimore school officials and the teachers' union are checking their calendars to arrange a date for a mediator to join stalled contract talks. An impasse in negotiations was declared recently and a mediator was contacted. "We're waiting for dates they have available," Eve Baldwin, the school district's treasurer and a member of the board's negotiating team, said Tuesday. Vacation schedules have made arranging a date challenging. Read more...

• New Lex students to get iPads through lease deal (Times Recorder)

NEW LEXINGTON - Summer's end might be unwelcome, but New Lexington High School students will have a something to ease their pain this year -- free iPads. New Lexington City Schools recently signed a three-year lease with Apple. The district will pay $416,316 -- three payments of $138,772 -- and in return will receive 600 32GB iPads with WiFi. That equates to about $690 per iPad over the three-year lease. That's more than the $599 list price to buy a new iPad outright, but the New Lex deal also comes with a two-year protection plan. Read more...

• District adds business chief (Tribune Chronicle)

WARREN - A former superintendent from Trumbull County is returning to the area to work at the city school district - as its executive director of business operations. Warren City Schools Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously appointed Michael Wasser of McDonald to the post. He was awarded a one-year contract, which provides an annual salary of roughly $90,000, effective July 23, 2012, through June 30, 2013. Wasser is replacing Michael Notar, who moved from the position to the high school principal's seat earlier this year. Read more...

Editorial

• Promising plan (Findlay Courier)

Suppose, with one good idea, we could: Decide the fate of Findlay's Central Middle School after students move out this winter? Keep at least part of the beloved old school around for our lifetimes? Save a key property from becoming an embarrassing, gaping hole in Findlay's downtown, and huge parking lot for no one in particular? This seems to be the promise of a plan for a performing arts center built around the Central Middle School auditorium and unveiled to the public via the Findlay Board of Education. Read more...

Education News for 07-17-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Schools facing reading issues (News-Sun)

More than one in five third-graders in a dozen Miami Valley school districts were not proficient in reading last year, according to 2010-11 report card data. In Dayton and Jefferson Twp., about 45 percent failed to meet that state standard, while in Springfield it was about 37 percent and Middletown, 30 percent. School districts are taking steps this summer to prepare for the new state third-grade reading guarantee, which would generally require districts to hold back third-graders starting in 2013-14 if they are not reading at grade level. Read more...

• Ohio’s education challenge (Vindicator)

Gov. John Kasich, a man who does not shy away from challenge, is saying that he intends to work with the legislature to come up with a better way to fund the state’s schools, likely in time for next year’s new state budget. Meanwhile, members of the General Assembly are doing the homework needed to craft reform. Parents who think their district is doing great might be shocked to find out that, compared with national achievement-test scores, in many cases student performance is substandard. Read more...

Local Issues

• Backpack program helps parents feed kids (Middletown Journal)

MIDDLETOWN — It sounded like she was talking about more than a plastic grocery bag full of six meals for her children. “This is a godsend,” Julie Oglesbay, 44, a mother of two children, said Friday afternoon at the Catalina Manufactured Home Community. “As a mother, you always want your kids’ stomachs full. This helps tremendously.” Because of a $1 million grant from Governor John Kasich’s office, a Summer Weekend Backpack Meals program was established this year in the state, including the Middletown area. Read more...

• Canton City Schools students learn guitar in summer program (Repository)

CANTON — Newly formed non-profit, Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) teamed up with Canton City Schools’ Arts Academy at Summit, the University of Akron’s guitar department and McKinley High School to offer summer guitar lessons to City Schools students. Led by Arts Academy music instructor George Dean and James Marron, guitar professor at the University of Akron, the program will culminate in a free concert for the public. Read more...

Editorial

• The Creativity-Testing Conflict (Education Week)

Doublethink is "to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them," according to George Orwell, who coined the phrase in his novel 1984. American education policymakers have apparently entered the zone of doublethink. They want future Americans to be globally competitive, to out-innovate others, and to become job-creating entrepreneurs. Read more...

Education News for 07-16-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• New state law: Third graders must read to pass (Marion Star)

MARION - An educator will tell you that, until the third grade, a student learns to read. When that student reaches third grade, that's when the student reads to learn. A new law in Ohio adds another layer to that adage. A third-grader will have to read to pass. A compromise in Columbus postponed the full implementation of what's called the third-grade reading guarantee. Students entering third grade in 2013 will have to pass a threshold to be determined by the Ohio Board of Education. Read more...

• Troubled tutoring service gets dismantled (Dayton Daily News)

A troubled tutoring program that drew allegations of fraud and mismanagement locally and across the state has been dismantled in favor of giving local school districts more control over providing help to struggling students in low-performing schools. The Ohio Department of Education revamped the federally-funded Supplemental Educational Services (SES) program as part of its waiver under No Child Left Behind. Individual school districts will now receive money through the program and be in charge of providing the necessary oversight. Read more...

Local Issues

• Property owners pay to ‘settle’ schools’ tax-value appeals (Dispatch)

Property owners owe taxes to schools, parks, libraries, county agencies that protect children and help the developmentally disabled, and others. But what if they could cut a deal to pay just the schools and make part of the potential bill that they owe the others disappear? It’s happening more and more as businesses settle property-value disputes with a “direct payment” to a school district in return for the district dropping a case in which it claimed that a parcel’s appraised value was too low. Read more...

• Talk about East Holmes schools over breakfast (Times Reporter)

BERLIN — Residents of the East Holmes Local School District are invited to join board members and administrators for breakfast and conversation about the schools during a series of meetings in the coming weeks. Residents will have the opportunity to share thoughts and concerns directly with the board and to have any questions answered. Meals will be paid for by the Citizens For East Holmes for any East Holmes resident willing to attend. “We want to talk about whatever they want to talk about,” said Superintendent Joe Edinger. Read more...

Editorial

• Talk to kids about sexting (Houston Chronicle)

There was a time, not that long ago, when a young person's occasional minor lapses in judgment were treated mostly as private matters involving his or her parents, maybe school officials and perhaps a member of the clergy or other trusted counselor. No more. Technology has made many a young person's "What was I thinking!" moment a matter of public and unfortunate permanent record - before discretion and privacy concerns intervene. This is not brand-new. Read more...

Education News for 07-13-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Senate explores limits to schools’ use of restraints (Dispatch)

WASHINGTON — Violently restraining and secluding problematic students in small, inescapable areas actually increases assaults and behavior problems, experts yesterday told a Senate committee that is considering legislation to curtail the practice. Many schools rely on seclusion and restraint to control students with behavior problems, especially minorities and those with disabilities, according to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Read more...

• Officials stress literacy — by reading to preschoolers (News-Sun)

SPRINGFIELD — A new law requiring children to read on grade level to move past the third grade has made literacy at an early age more critical than ever for Ohio families, according to local officials. State Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, and Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly visited Creative World of Learning, a local child care center, to read with preschool students and stress the importance of literacy skills Thursday morning. Read more...

• Lisbon holding out hope for an ‘A’ (Morning Journal)

LISBON -While the school district is currently expected to receive a B on the next state report card, it could still earn an A by the time the report cards are issued next month. School Superintendent Don Thompson reported at this week's school board meeting preliminary results have the district receiving an "effective rating," or B, but they could end up with an A, or "excellent rating" once the value-added component is figured in, which has yet to be done. Read more...

Local Issues

• Pay-to-play at Frontier tabled; lunch costs to increase (Marietta Times)

NEW MATAMORAS - The Frontier Local Board of Education tabled a proposal to charge a participation fee for sports Thursday and voted to increase student lunch prices by a quarter. The agenda for the board's regular meeting Thursday included an item to approve an athletic participation fee of $25 per sport, with an annual maximum of $50 for one student and $75 for one family. The subject was broached at the June board meeting, but Superintendent Bruce Kidder and board members said Thursday they hadn't received any input from residents about the policy. Read more...

• Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board will continue with negotiations (Sun News)

In response to the July 11 announcement that the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Education Association had taken a strike authorization vote, the Brecksville-Broadview Heights school board said it will continue to negotiate with the unions on a fair and equitable contract. The vote does not mean that the union is on strike or will strike. It means that if the board forces a contract on the union, the union could give a 10-day notice and then strike. As of now, the board has not forced a contract on the union. Read more...

• West Geauga School District earns award for financial reporting (News-Herald)

The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting has been awarded to the West Geauga School District by the Government Financial Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada for its comprehensive annual financial report. The award is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management. Read more...

Education News for 07-12-2012

Statewide Education News

• Ohio links teacher pay to test scores (CNN blog – Schools of thought)

At a time when test scores are used to determine everything from district funding to whether schools can stay open, they’re taking on even broader meaning in Ohio.
Gov. John Kasich has signed legislation that will partially link scores to what teachers are paid.
In Ohio – and many other states throughout the country – teachers have traditionally been evaluated by observers who’ve determined whether the instructors are satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Read more...

• Teachers learn ways to keep students’ attention, but are brain claims valid? (Beacon Journal)

NORTH CANTON: When Chris Biffle called out the word “Class!” Wednesday morning at Walsh University, 450 teachers and administrators yelled back, “Yes!”
“Class class?” he said.
“Yes! Yes!” they replied.
“Classity classity,” he said.
“Yessity yessity,” they chanted back.
Biffle, one of the co-founders of Southern California-based Whole Brain Teaching LLC, is leading a two-day conference at Walsh about his method. He calls the technique “Class-Yes.” Read more...

Local Issues

• Teachers detail efforts to improve academics (This Week News)

The continuous improvement plan for Herbert Mills Elementary School is expected to help improve its academic focus and create a safe and secure learning environment for students.
Principal Pamela Bertke and teachers Alisa Limbers and Jane Stephenson described the plan to Reynoldsburg Board of Education members at a meeting June 19.
"Last year we made some overall goals to improve our academic focus and increase parent engagement at Herbert Mills," Bertke said. Read more...

• Akron Public Schools cut 84 teachers (West Side Leader)

DOWNTOWN AKRON — Akron Public Schools (APS) will open with 84 fewer teachers this fall.
That’s about two-and-a-half to three teachers per school building, said Board of Education President Jason Haas.
The school board voted to make the staff reductions at its July 9 meeting in an effort to reduce its deficit. School districts are required by law to balance their budgets.
The 84 cuts were necessary even after the usual end-of-year retirements, Haas said. “These 84 are not retirements — we just can’t afford them,” he said. Read more...