Statewide Stories of the Day

Educators react differently to increase in public charter schools (News-Herald)

An increased interest in public charter schools has brought up different feelings among educators. While some districts might feel that the addition of these public schools, referred to as community schools in Ohio, provides another option for education, others have taken note of the difficulty they present when it comes to funding. Community schools in Ohio are nonprofit schools that operate independent of any school district under contract with an authorized sponsoring entity, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Read More…

Voluntary teacher departures spike (News-Sun)

Area school districts are seeing a spike in retirements and resignations, which many attribute to changes being made at the state level — including potential changes in public employee pension plans — the climate at local districts and the number of teachers eligible for retirement. “I’m as busy as I’ve ever been in a spring,” said Dan Tarpey, Centerville City Schools human resources director, whose district had an 86 percent increase in voluntary departures this year. Read More…

Dropout rate: Ohio slips as nation improves (Enquirer)

Ohio reported the second-biggest increase in its dropout rate between 2002 and 2009 even as millions of state and federal dollars were being spent on dropout initiatives. An Enquirer analysis of dropout data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics found that Ohio’s dropout rate rose from 3.1 percent in 2001-02 to 4.2 percent in 2008-09. Only Illinois’ rate increased more. The national average was 4.1 percent in 2009, the only year in which all states reported their data. Kentucky, Indiana and the nation as a whole improved during that time. Read More…

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson would alter education reform bill to ease concerns of charter schools (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — Looking to widen support in the Ohio General Assembly for his education reform legislation, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has suggested changes to ease the worries of charter-school operators who fear the mayor's expanded power. State Sen. Nina Turner said that with the changes in place, she hoped the bipartisan bill will win approval this week. Turner, a Democrat from Cleveland, co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill. Read More…

Ohio to track classroom money, student performance (News-Herald)

COLUMBUS — The political fire still burns in Ohio to push more public money into classrooms, even after other states have backed off the idea amid evidence it does little to improve kids’ grades. The state’s latest strategy is to mandate that district spending be winnowed from the existing five spending categories to two by 2013: classroom or non-classroom. It’s part of a push by Republican Gov. John Kasich to reduce overhead and direct funds to classroom instruction. In-classroom spending percentages eventually would appear on state report cards, alongside student test scores. Read More…

Local Issues

Funding school budget forecasts: Tough road ahead (Journal-News)

Five-year forecasts for local schools show some districts will have to make tough choices if drastic changes are not made in their cash flow, a Hamilton JournalNews examination shows. All Ohio school districts are required by law to submit a five-year financial forecast to the state department of education. The forecasts are a primary tool in determining districts’ financial health. The JournalNews study examined the forecasts of the largest Butler County districts and found some have projected deficits by 2016 unless new tax levies are passed or state funding is increased. Read More…

Local districts cut librarians to help save costs (Blade)

When school ends in a few weeks, Maumee High School media specialist Cindy Bramson will retire and, like so many school librarians, will not be replaced. As public school districts across the country struggle to keep their budgets balanced, librarians are winding up on the chopping block -- a trend that some believe will hurt students and their ability to do the kind of research and writing expected in college. "The bottom line is I consider school media specialists part of the curriculum. We are academic," Mrs. Bramson said. Read More…

Valley View Schools to cut 20 staff positions (Dayton Daily News)

GERMANTOWN — The Valley View Local School District announced this week that it will reduce its staff by more than 20 positions. The reconfiguration, begun last year, is intended to generate $3 million for next school year, according to the district. The reductions include eliminating two full-time teaching positions, and allowing another three teaching positions to be reduced through retirements and resignations. Read More…

Schools tackle cyber bullying (News Journal)

Back in the good ol' days when a cellphone could only call and text, defining on- and off-school grounds was as simple as drawing a line. But now, in the age of smartphones and Facebook, school districts are struggling with how to address use of these technologies. This year, school districts are rewriting policies to comply with two new rules. The first is the Jessica Logan Act, signed into law in February, which requires school districts to address cyber-bullying. Read More…

Parents plead to preserve schools for developmentally disabled (Dispatch)

Parents upset about a plan to phase out much of the school-age program provided by the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities say they doubt their local districts can provide comparable education and care. “It’s not their passion,” said Becky Swartz, whose 14-year-old daughter attends the board’s West Central School. The two county-run schools have top-notch adaptive equipment, experienced staff and a proven approach that leads to the best environment for children with the most-significant disabilities. Read More…

Springfield schools transfer requests rise (News-Sun)

SPRINGFIELD — Requests to attend a Springfield city school other than the one geographically assigned have increased by 30 percent for the 2012-13 school year, according to the district. Nearly 85 percent of the increase in requests comes from families affected by changes to elementary boundary lines redrawn this spring. “Some of it is attributable to the boundary changes,” said Superintendent David Estrop. “About (65) of the voluntary transfer requests are in areas affected by the boundary changes, so that clearly has had an impact.” Read More…

Niles BOE to consider layoffs for 34 workers (Vindicator)

NILES - In an effort to save $1.4 million next year, the Niles school board will be asked this week to lay off 15 teachers and 19 nonteaching staff. However, even with the layoffs, a sizable deficit would remain for fiscal year 2013, warns Superintendent Mark Robinson, who will propose the layoffs at the board’s meeting Wednesday. “Even with those cuts, we still have to eliminate an additional deficit of $289,000,” Robinson said. “I could have gone deeper [with layoffs], but we’ve been very conservative, and I’m hoping to find other options.” Read More…

Editorial

A law to save lives (Dispatch)

Some choices aren’t all that complicated, especially when a child’s life is in jeopardy. That’s why it would make sense for the Ohio legislature to allow, or even require, schools to stock epinephrine injectors, commonly called by the brand name EpiPen, for unexpected allergic reactions that can turn fatal. The debate is percolating because of tragedies in other states: In January, a first-grader in Virginia who had a peanut allergy died after her heart stopped in the school clinic. Read More…

Ohio officials differ on how to get help to third graders who need it (Plain Dealer)

Gov. John Kasich is miffed that fellow Republicans crafted an end run around his plans to hold back third graders who do poorly on statewide reading tests. But any big changes in education can be counterproductive without safeguards in place to make sure children aren't penalized as a result. Kasich wants to hold back third graders who score below proficient on statewide reading tests, starting in the 2013-2014 school year. (Most special-education and limited-English learners would be exempt.) Read More…

Education reform must address poverty (Dispatch)

We see stories from time to time reporting how poorly U.S. students do in international testing. For example, in the 2009 testing by the Program for International Assessment of Education conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S ranked 14th out of 21 countries in reading. An analysis by the National Education Association described in a blog by Mel Riddile, associate director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, presents a different perspective. Read More…

We've Had Reform but Not Progress (Wall Street Journal)

George P. Shultz and Eric A. Hanushek's "Education Is the Key to a Healthy Economy" (op-ed, May 1) is well stated. However, we've been doing school reform for over 50 years. Our national dropout rate hasn't improved much. Student proficiency has not improved as we'd like. In Ohio we increased funding, built hundreds of new schools wired and equipped with modern teaching and learning tools, expanded school options, opened science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) schools and even benchmarked ourselves against international standards. Read More…

Make it effective (Dispatch)

The Ohio House of Representatives has helped move education reform ahead in Ohio by restoring some of the juice that the Senate drained out of Gov. John Kasich’s proposals in Senate Bill 316. Applying a “third-grade reading guarantee” to all students who score below the “proficient” level on a state reading test at the end of third grade — instead of limiting it to those who score in the lowest of five categories — will give thousands more children the chance to bring their reading skills up to snuff before they’re advanced to fourth grade and harder subject material. Read More…

House and Senate busy tweaking Ohio's budget review (Plain Dealer)

The General Assembly should complete work the week of May 21 on a key bill to adjust the state's two-year budget. House Bill 487 is part of a four-bill "mid-biennium review" package. Differences between the Senate and House versions are not stark -- but some are significant. Among the more notable Senate tweaks is an overdue move to authorize the sale of $42 million in Clean Ohio bonds, mostly for conservation projects, with $6 million for farmland preservation. The House should concur in it. Read More…