treasurer

Education News for 04-01-2013

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State Education News

  • Catholic schools embrace Common Core (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • The Common Core isn’t just for public schools anymore. These days, private schools across the country are jumping on the public education standards bandwagon…Read more...

  • Lawmakers aren’t near a school-funding resolution (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Faced with an unpopular formula, a fast-approaching deadline, and an uncertain amount of money, Rep. Gerald Stebelton doubts a final school-funding plan can be crafted by the time the two-year state budget is approved…Read more...

  • Reports of child abuse, neglect increase (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Reports of possible abuse or neglect of children continue to rise in Franklin County, driven in part by more notices from schools, day-care centers and others who work with kids…Read more...

  • Ohio’s new chief educator is expected to seek change (Columbus Dispatch)

    • People who know Ohio’s new state school superintendent have called him provocative, direct and impatient…Read more...

  • Charter schools would receive 'F' in new standards (Newark Advocate)

    • Seven in 10 Ohio charter schools wouldn’t make the grade under Ohio’s new school rating system, which will replace ambiguous terms with an A-F scale…Read more...

Local Education News

  • Treasurer predicts fewer students will leave Akron for charter, private schools (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Each year in May, Treasurer Jack Pierson prepares a five-year financial forecast for Akron Public Schools…Read more...

  • Lobbying not part of education panel’s expenses (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Columbus Education Commission had spent just under $360,000 through February and had about $640,000 in city cash and pledges from the business community, officials said last week…Read more...

  • Campus Impact program helps students cope with bullying (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • In light of reports of bullying involving children, preventative programs such as Campus Impact are being sought locally to help students deal with the issue of bullying…Read more...

  • Linkage coordinators reflect on three years helping students stay in school (Newark Advocate)

    • In July 2010, Josh Devoll and Dava Kaltenecker became linkage coordinators…Read more...

  • Mathews teachers, board OK contract (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Mathews schoolteachers and the board of education have ratified a three-year contract containing no salary increases for the duration of the contract and increased medical premiums in the third year…Read more...

  • Youngstown board members sound off on supt., each other (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • “Fractured” and “strained” are some of the adjectives city school board members used to describe their relationships with one another and with Superintendent Connie Hathorn — but so are “cordial” and "professional."…Read more...

Editorial

  • Medina situation in a word: Disconnect (Canton Repository)

    • Medina residents are rightly upset about their school board’s lax policies on spending. They aren’t likely to rest until they’re satisfied that the board and administration are making resolution of this issue a top priority…Read more...

  • Give consideration to school consolidation (Lancaster Eagle-Gazette)

    • This past week, we raised the question: Does Ohio need 612 school districts? There is no clear-cut answer, but we believe it’s a question worthy of closer scrutiny…Read more...

What Administrators Are Really Saying About Kasich’s School Plan

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From our mailbag.

The Governor’s office deceptively highlighted the minority of Administrators across the state that are actually pleased with Kasich’s plan to make permanent his historic education cuts. What are school administrators among the 60% of districts receiving no additional state funding actually saying about Kasich’s plan?

  • “The statements the governor made are a damn lie.” – Arnol Elam, Superintendent of Franklin City Schools
  • “[We were] duped by Kasich. We got told all the right things, but he didn’t follow through. This is not what we were told.” – Bob Caldwell, Superintendent of Wolf Creek Local School District
  • “Everyone in the room when he [Kasich] announced his budget was misled.” – Roger Mace, Superintendent of Gallipolis City Schools
  • “This is really going to hurt us.” – Becki Peden, Huntington Local Schools Treasurer
  • “It just seems like the rich get richer, and the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves.” – Larry Hook, Superintendent of Carlisle Schools
  • “What the governor and his staff told us in Columbus just was not true… Five of the seven districts will not receive any more money [in fiscal year 2014].” – John Rubesich, Superintendent of the Ashtabula County Educational Services Center
  • “Instead of closing the gap between poor and wealthy districts, it appears to be exacerbated.” – Tom Perkins, Superintendent of Northern Local Schools of Perry County
  • Aurora Schools Treasurer Bill Volsin said his district will receive the exact same amount from the state as it did last year. While state government officials say Aurora will receive almost half a million more in 2014, Volsin and Superintendent Russ Bennett claim that isn’t true. – Auora Advocate, 2/13/13

Education News for 11-13-2012

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State Education News

  • GED test to triple in price (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Angela Surles can barely afford to buy diapers and clothes for her 1-year-old daughter. The 22-year-old single mom from the Short North quit her job at Sears to enter a six-week course to help her get her high-school equivalency certificate…Read more...

  • Groups get ready to fight for schools (Columbus Dispatch)

    • More than 15 years after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the way the state funds public education is unconstitutional, state leaders continue to tinker with the school funding.…Read more...

    


  • State Board to Vote Against Additional Funding for Pre-K, Reading Instruction (State Impact Ohio)

    • Sunday-Wednesday: School board members, administrators and friends gather in Columbus for the annual Ohio School Boards Association conference. Expect the launch of the Strong Schools Strong Communities public education advocacy coalition.…Read more...

  • Colleges need to do more to ensure students stay in school and graduate, task force says (The Plain Dealer)

    • Unless Ohio's two- and four-year public colleges ensure that every student who enrolls is able to graduate and find a job, the state will be unable to compete in a global economy…Read more...

    


  • Rossford schools treasurer reappointed to Ohio school retirement position (Toledo Blade)

    • James Rossler, treasurer of the Rossford schools, has been reappointed to the board of the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio.…Read more...

    


  • Ohio Lawmaker Wants To See Metal Detectors At Every School (WBNS-TV)

    • Knives, box cutters and screwdrivers would never clear an airport security scanner. But those items, along with guns and other weapons, could pass through the doors of most Ohio schools without detection.…Read more...

Op/Ed

  • Now let's talk about real education innovations (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • The Plain Dealer's coverage of blended learning provides a glimmer of hope that, now that elections are over, we will soon come to the realization that having the money follow the child is the only way to provide quality education for all children.…Read more...

Local Education News

  • Nelsonville-York teacher receives national recognition (Athens Messenger)

    • A Nelsonville-York elementary school teacher who was the first from Southeastern Ohio to receive the state’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year award also received national recognition for her efforts.…Read more...

  • School board looks at cost cutting options (The Review)

    • EAST LIVERPOOL - With a five-year forecast predicting budget deficits beginning in the 2015- 2016 school year, the city's board of education this week discussed belt-tightening measures that could be implemented to cut costs.…Read more...

  • South-Western may join Central Ohio Compact (This Week News)

    • The South-Western City School District Board of Education will be considering whether the district should join the Central Ohio Compact.…Read more...

    


  • Rossford officially begins superintendent search (Toledo Blade)

    • The search for a new Rossford schools superintendent has begun in earnest.…Read more...

    


  • Ohio school awards WWII veteran posthumous diploma (WFJM)

    • AKRON, Ohio (AP) - As it marks Veterans Day, a northeast Ohio school district is awarding a posthumous diploma for a man who was drafted into the military for World War II and died in Germany in 1944.…Read more...

Education News for 07-10-2012

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Statewide Stories of the Day

  • Board members focus on state audit (Blade)

    • Rossford school board members want to be kept in the loop. At least one wants Superintendent Bill McFarland and Treasurer James Rossler to record their meeting this week with a representative of the Ohio auditor on the subject of a performance audit of the district. At a special meeting last week, board members Beverly Koch and Jackie Brown said they wanted the nature of the audit to be decided by the board, not the administrators. Ms. Koch also said she wanted the meeting to be recorded so board members could hear what was said. Read more...

  • Educators leery of third-grade requirement in state law (Times Reporter)

    • Area educators fear that with Ohio’s new third-grade reading guarantee, the future of 8-year-olds across the state will hinge on their performance on one test on one day. “That’s more pressure than I ever encountered in the third grade,” said Bob Fogler, superintendent of Indian Valley Local Schools in Gnadenhutten. Late last month, Gov. John Kasich signed into law Senate Bill 316. The education and workforce development legislation contains a provision that would require third-graders to be held back for as long as two years if they cannot read at grade level. Read more...

  • Cincinnati Public Schools selling more schools (Enquirer)

    • CORRYVILLE — Cincinnati Public Schools Monday added four more closed school buildings assessed at $8.8 million to its for-sale list this summer. The seven-member school board unanimously voted to offer Central Fairmount, Kirby Road, North Fairmount and Old Shroder schools for sale. The properties join a previous list of five old schools and four pieces of land being sold: the old Bloom, Heberle, Linwood, Losantiville and George F. Sands schools and property in Millvale, Winton Hills, Mount Adams and East Price Hill. Read more...

Local Issues

  • What a Mechanical Performance! Bravo! (NY Times)

    • CLUTCHING their scripts, Jeannette Newton and Will Russell climb onstage for a lunchtime rehearsal of a skit that will be part of New Albany High School’s end-of-year production. On cue the actors turn stage right, waiting for their co-star to make an entrance. There is a long awkward pause until a ninth grader, Mitchell Gabel, pokes his head out from backstage. “Mr. Herman,” he says, “can you come back here?” David Herman, a sturdy-looking retired Army sergeant major turned computer-science teacher, steps backstage. Read more...

  • South-Western schools treasurer gets $16,000 raise (Dispatch)

    • After he took a pay freeze for the past three school years, South-Western schools Treasurer Hugh Garside was given a $16,000 pay raise by school board members last night. The increase, to start in August, will raise his annual base pay to $134,450, making him the third-highest-paid schools treasurer in Franklin County. According to district records, only the treasurers of Columbus and New Albany-Plain schools earned more in the 2011-12 school year. Read more...

  • Dover schools to launch new Internet teaching initiative (Times Reporter)

    • DOVER — The Dover City School District will implement a program in the 2012-13 school year that provides middle- and high-school students with access to a new wireless network using their own technology. Students at both buildings will be able to access a filtered Internet connection for educational purposes during the school day using their own laptops, netbooks, tablets or smartphones. “Social media and mobile devices have really created both a crisis and opportunity within today’s schools,” said Karie McCrate, high school principal. Read more...

Editorial

  • Outsiders (Dispatch)

    • Take all the worries common to being a teenager in the United States and add a deep additional layer of anxiety — being lesbian, gay, transgender or bisexual — and you have some idea why the Human Rights Campaign considered it a good idea to ask LGBT teens how they’re doing. The results aren’t surprising, but are an important reminder that, in every middle school and high school, some boys and some girls are suffering because they fear their families, friends or society won’t accept who they are. Read more...

  • Warren’s broken record of failure (Tribune Chronicle)

    • Last year, while in the first year of a three-year contract as Marietta schools superintendent, Bruce Thomas told the Warren Board of Education that his skills were better matched with Warren than Marietta. That sounded good. This year, while in the first year of a three-year contract as Warren schools superintendent, Bruce Thomas told the Lorain Board of Education that his skills were better matched with Lorain than Warren. That sounds like a broken record. Read more...

  • The Opportunity Gap (NY Times)

    • Over the past few months, writers from Charles Murray to Timothy Noah have produced alarming work on the growing bifurcation of American society. Now the eminent Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam and his team are coming out with research that’s more horrifying. While most studies look at inequality of outcomes among adults and help us understand how America is coming apart, Putnam’s group looked at inequality of opportunities among children. They help us understand what the country will look like in the decades ahead. Read more...

Attack PAC - "Stop Public Unions Now" Spotted!

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The Sunlight Foundation reports alarming news that millionaires money, funneled through a shady organization, is going to be used to attack public employees in the coming months.

A new Super PAC has launched with the very timely name Stop Public Unions Now. This political committee launches as Republican governors across the country launch broadsides against public employee unions, often meeting with powerful reactions from unions and negative reactions from the public.

The new PAC has ties to one of those governors. Oxford Communications CEO William O. Black is listed as Treasurer of Stop Public Unions Now and the direct market agency has touted its work for Governor John Kasich's 2010 campaign.

Kasich, along with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, have led the way for governors going after public employee unions. Kasich has proposed limiting public employee unions collective bargaining rights to only cover wages. This has provoked a sharp reaction from the unions and the public. Kasich's poll numbers have plummeted and the public now says they would support former Governor Ted Strickland, defeated by Kasich, by a fifteen point margin. In Wisconsin, Walker has also seen his public standing fall after his very public battle with the state's public employee unions and Democratic senators.

Oxford Communications has operated as treasurer for numerous political action committees over the years. They have also provided services for a number of campaigns, many of which are in Ohio.

The creation of this PAC may be to bring some money into the PR battle. The PAC will be able to raise unlimited funds under the SpeechNow clause.

Super PACs were created after the SpeechNow.org vs. FEC court ruling expanded on the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling by allowing political action committees to raise unlimited funds provided that they only spend that money on political activities.