Education News for 05-15-2013

State Education News

• Legislators try to combat school-standards rumors (Columbus Dispatch)

Tom Gibbs has reluctantly watched conservative commentator Glenn Beck and is up to speed on the criticisms of the new Common Core…Read more...

• Columbus school district’s staffs being interviewed a 2nd time (Columbus Dispatch)

State investigators started a second round of interviews with dozens of teachers at most of the Columbus school district’s high schools yesterday…Read more...

• School board urged not to arm teachers (Newark Advocate)

Top state law enforcement officials urged members of Ohio’s state school board Tuesday not to support arming untrained teachers with guns in response to recent school shootings…Read more...

• School board members hear ideas on school safety, but seem to be rejecting arming teachers (Ohio Public Radio)

School safety was the top topic for the state board of education, which hoped to learn about how to make buildings, staff and students more secure…Read more...

• Brookfield in fiscal emergency (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

The Brookfield Local School District is in a state of fiscal emergency, according to a report released Tuesday by Auditor of State Dave Yost…Read more...

• State Board Hears Ways To Boost School Safety (WBNS)

Ohio’s top law enforcers addressed members of the state school board as it considers how to best update its school safety polices…Read more...

Local Education News

• Cleveland school board OKs new teachers contract (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The Cleveland school board Tuesday night approved a groundbreaking contract with its teachers, while also picking a new home for district offices…Read more...

• No one told teachers they would lose jobs (Columbus Dispatch)

Less than two weeks before the May 7 election, Groveport Madison schools announced $2 million in cuts if voters turned down…Read more...

• Treasurer’s mistake cuts up to $1.5M off Jonathan Alder’s budget (Columbus Dispatch)

Officials in the Jonathan Alder school district in Madison County don’t know how much money they have to operate on next school year…Read more...

• Lorain School Board hears high school update, approves busing contract (Lorain Morning Journal)

The new Lorain High School has stayed within budget during its design development phase and few changes have happened since the initial design…Read more...

• Lorain City Schools reassessing its 'Success for All' reading program (Lorain Morning Journal)

Lorain City Schools is reevaluating its “Success For All” reading program and could switch to a new system by next year…Read more...

• Some Youngstown school principals to be in new posts (Youngstown Vindicator)

Some positions are being reshuffled to align with the new city school building configuration…Read more...

Education News for 04-03-2013

State Education News

• Educators line up to tour Reynoldsburg (Columbus Dispatch)

If you’re an educator who wants to tour Reynoldsburg schools, you’re going to have to wait until fall. The district leads about two tours a week for educators from around the country and across the world, and they’re booked for months…Read more...

• Ohio’s bookkeeping improved, 2012 audit finds (Columbus Dispatch)

If not for the state’s massive Medicaid health-care program, there would be little to talk about in this year’s annual audit of Ohio’s financial records…Read more...

• Area schools named Schools of Promise (Lima News)

Many pieces go into determining whether a pupil finds academic success, and Superintendent Dale Lewellen believes it’s why both Bath's elementary and high schools landed on the state’s…Read more...

• 21 Mahoning Valley schools designated Schools of Promise (Youngstown Vindicator)

Twenty-one Mahoning Valley schools have earned the designation “School of Promise” for the 2011-12 school year from the Ohio Department of Education…Read more...

Local Education News

• Ashtabula City Council tweaks curfew laws (Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

The children spoke and City Council heard them…Read more...

• Huron school board upholds firing former Superintendent Fox (Lorain Morning Journal)

A majority of Huron School Board members voted last night to uphold their firing of former Superintendent Fred Fox, despite a mediator’s report last month that said Fox should be reinstated with back pay…Read more...

Editorial

• Out of Akron (Akron Beacon Journal)

For the past several years, Akron Public Schools administrators have been engaged in an exercise they refer to as “right-sizing” the district. They have closed several school buildings and laid off staff members, including principals, teachers…Read more...

• Clarity on school funding urgently needed (Canton Repository)

Nothing about Gov. John Kasich’s proposed two-year budget is simple. It’s filled with fundamental changes in the way state government operates, and he faces opposition…Read more...

Exposing the real "Right to Work" supporters agenda

Efforts to pass "Right to Work" laws go back decades (a measure was defeated in Ohio in 1958, by the massive margin of 63.3% No to 36.7% yes), and have always been pursued by monied interests looking to put a dent in the power of workers ability to stand up for themselves and each other through collective action.

It should not be lost on anyone that the major backers of this latest anti-union push are billionaires and big business, none of whom actually belong to a union. Having seen previous "right to work" efforts defeated, the extreme right, and their big business backers have had to send their latest effort through a rebranding exercise and they have come up with a new catchy title "work place freedom".

Who doesn't love freedom? Well apparently the very people promoting the effort. LimaOhio.com reported on a meeting of Tea Party members discussing "work place freedom" and why they were pursuing it

Speakers at an Allen County Patriots meeting Thursday made the case that the National Education Association abuses teacher dues to support a liberal agenda that disrespects Christian values.
[...]
According to Boyatt, NEA gave close to $15 million to advocacy groups in the 2011-12 school year and $18 million in 2010-11. The advocacy groups, she said, included the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Human Rights Campaign, Women’s Campaign Forum and Rainbow Push Coalition.

From there, it got uglier, much uglier

Harvey said the NEA has supported an “immoral, deviant and destructive” gay agenda for at least 25 years, citing its gay and lesbian caucus started in 1987. Harvey criticized the union for supporting a gay and lesbian history month, diversity training that included homosexuality, and pro-homosexual school counseling. She said the NEA has asked schools to protect students and staff from sexual orientation harassment and discrimination and has replaced the word “tolerance” with acceptance and respect.

“Kids are being trained as activists now,” she said.

Harvey said the NEA has voted to lobby for same-sex unions and said petitions are currently circulating to overturn the 2004 Ohio marriage amendment, which stated that that only a union between a man and woman would be recognized as a valid marriage. The OEA opposed the amendment.

This is why the Tea Party in Ohio wants to pursue "right to work" legislation, not to create any kid of "freedom", but to enable their ongoing bigotry by attacking organizations that have a long history of standing up for equality and fairness. Public opinion polls show strong majorities now supporting marriage equalityand how out of the mainstream these Tea Party "Patriots" truly are.

The NEA and its members should be rightly proud of their support for equality, even when it was unpopular to do so.

Big business backers of this effort ought to take a closer look at who some of their allies are. The world has moved on from 1958, but voters are likely to deliver an equally stinging defeat to the purveyors of this ugly bigoted agenda.

Education News for 03-21-2013

Local Education News

• Jefferson Area School District employees may face layoffs (Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

Educators and staff of the Jefferson Area School District could be facing layoffs as board members unanimously approved the intent for a reduction in force for the 2013-2014 school year…Read more...

• Academic measures may be altered (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Elementary school report cards could have more detail, the grading scale could change and more classes could help boost a student’s GPA…Read more...

• T.J. Lane's 'Killer' T-shirt stirs debate over defendants' statements in court (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz said Wednesday that he was shocked when T.J. Lane showed off his "Killer" T-shirt at his sentencing, but he didn't point it out during the proceeding because he believed the judge would take care of it…Read more...

• Huber schools could restore $1.6M in instructional programs (Dayton Daily News)

Officials with Huber Heights City Schools are considering restoring $1.6 million in instructional programs if the district is able to generate additional revenue by passing a levy in August and receives an increase in state funding…Read more...

• Impacts of Heights tax levy success, failure outlined (Newark Advocate)

Licking Heights schools superintendent Philip Wagner laid out the good news and bad news Tuesday surrounding the success or failure of the district’s proposed new 8.9-mill tax levy…Read more...

• Strike spills into Beachwood, Parma as Strongsville teachers picket at board members' employers (Sun Newspapers)

Picketers for the Strongsville Education Association took their message to the Western Campus of Cuyahoga Community College March 20, where David Frazee, president of the Strongsville School Board…Read more...

• Superintendent Hathorn wants to meet with charter school parents (Youngstown Vindicator)

City schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn wants to meet with parents of students attending charter schools to tout what the city district has to offer…Read more...

• Student fees hot topic at Austintown BOE (Youngstown Vindicator)

School board members spoke out Tuesday about fees that are charged yearly to all students, saying that some parents and teachers have been vocal in their opposition to them…Read more...

Editorial

• School aid do-over (Toledo Blade)

When Gov. John Kasich first outlined his plan to reform Ohio public school funding, there was hope it would lead to a more equitable, more adequate system. As details of the proposal have emerged, that hope largely has been dashed…Read more...

Education News for 02-27-2013

State Education News

• School-funding tweaks possible, Kasich adviser says (Columbus Dispatch)

Legislators got another tutorial on Gov. John Kasich’s school-funding plan yesterday, but the additional details failed to alleviate many concerns about how state aid will be distributed…Read more...

• State education department probes data ‘scrubbing’ by schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus City Schools and eight other Ohio districts are now under investigation by the Ohio Department of Education for misrepresenting student enrollment data, meaning they could lose funding and educators…Read more...

• Schools getting ready for state testing in March (Newark Advocate)

From March 11-15, the high school will start on a two-hour delay schedule because of the Ohio Graduation Tests. Buses will run on their normal schedule. All sophomores, and any upperclassmen who need to retest, need to arrive at 7:30 a.m…Read more...

Local Education News

• Columbus school board well-trained in policy governance (Columbus Dispatch)

Keeping your nose out of the CEO’s business doesn’t come cheap. The Columbus Board of Education has spent almost $100,000 for training in “policy governance” since it adopted the management model…Read more...

• Ignoring mayor, school board plows ahead with superintendent search (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman and members of his Education Commission demanded this month that the city school district drop plans to hire a full-time superintendent by April…Read more...

• TPS board delays vote to extend pacts for 4 in cabinet (Toledo Blade)

The Toledo Board of Education delayed a vote Tuesday on contract extensions for most members of the superintendent’s cabinet, but board members claimed their actions were not an indication of a lack of board support…Read more...

• Newark School Committee Discusses Arming Teachers To Improve Security (WBNS)

After the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Newark City Schools formed a safety committee which held its first meeting on Monday. Among the safety suggestions that were discussed was the idea of arming teachers…Read more...

• Chardon reacts to T.J. Lane's guilty plea as it remembers school shooting (Willoughby News Herald)

People heading to a Chardon High School concert on Tuesday night had a variety of opinions on Thomas Lane III's guilty plea earlier the same day…Read more...

Editorial

• A word of caution to CCS (Canton Repository)

Canton City Schools Superintendent Adrian Allison rightly feels a sense of urgency about restructuring the district’s schools…Read more...

• For Chardon, an anniversary and a guilty plea (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

A shaken 200-pound Chardon High School football player walking down the hall wrapped in a Linus blanket…Read more...

Education News for 02-22-2013

State Education News

• Educators, state agency in deadlock over funds (Akron Beacon Journal)

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and more than 350 school districts are in a fight over millions of dollars in Medicaid money that is used to provide services…Read more...

• Ohio Federation of Teachers members take concerns about evaluations to state legislators (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Members of the Ohio Federation of Teachers fanned out across the offices of state legislators today to air their concerns…Read more...

• More changes coming to Youngstown schools (Youngstown Vindicator)

Next year will see restructured schools and programs for the city school district for the second time in three years…Read more...

Local Education News

• School chief will face no charges (Cincinnati Enquirer)

A local school superintendent investigated by prosecutors said an agreement Thursday ending his case doesn’t end the need for more state funding for poor families…Read more...

• No charges for schools chief who ripped Kasich (Columbus Dispatch)

The Warren County prosecutor will not charge a Dayton-area superintendent who blasted Gov. John Kasich’s school-funding plan…Read more...

• McDonald police to patrol village schools (Youngstown Vindicator)

The McDonald Board of Education has agreed to hire village police officers at $25 an hour to patrol the school campus daily…Read more...

• Youngstown superintendent is finalist for another job (Youngstown Vindicator)

The city schools superintendent is one of four finalists for the top job in the Little Rock, Ark., school district…Read more...

Editorial

• School funding? Still clear as mud (Canton Repository)

Tuesday night, in his third State of the State address, Gov. Kasich was generous in his praise of the Legislature for backing the “big ideas” he championed in his first two years as governor…Read more...

• Ohio heroes make life better for all (Columbus Dispatch)

When Gov. John Kasich initiated the Governor’s Courage Award during last year’s State of the State speech, he called attention to the brave and selfless acts of ordinary Ohioans — and some famous ones…Read more...