Education News for 05-09-2013

State Education News

• Voters OK’d 60 percent of levies for schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Ohio voters approved 60 percent of 137 local tax requests for schools on Tuesday…Read more...

• Just 7 percent of voters go to polls in central Ohio (Columbus Dispatch)

Tuesday was far from a proud day for democracy in central Ohio. It also was a costly one in terms of citizen participation…Read more...

• State takeover closer after levy defeat (Dayton Daily News)

State fiscal watch is imminent for Fairborn City Schools following voter rejection Tuesday of an 11.7-mill emergency levy by a 2-to-1 margin…Read more...

• Senator Looking For $100 Million In Budget To Support Preschool Vouchers (Gongwer)

Sen. Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering) said Wednesday she hopes to amend the budget to add $100 million for a new voucher program to cover preschool costs for three- and four-year- olds…Read more...

• Liberty schools hopeful about teacher negotiations (Youngstown Vindicator)

State officials are hoping contract negotiations with the Liberty teachers union will save the school district “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”…Read more...

Local Education News

• Conneaut BOE, City Council building deal in jeopardy (Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

A possible partnership between the city of Conneaut and its school district to share use of a commercial building is in jeopardy over the cost of rehabilitating the structure…Read more...

• Cleveland school district and teachers union reach agreement on Cleveland Plan details (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Cleveland Teachers Union have reached a tentative agreement on how the two will work together to implement…Read more...

• Huber schools continue staff reduction plan (Dayton Daily News)

The Huber Heights school board will continue implementation of more than $6 million in cuts by reducing 34 support staff…Read more...

• Avon schools prepare to go wireless (Lorain Morning Journal)

Students can ready their Ipads and other Wi-Fi capable devices as Avon schools prepare to go wireless…Read more...

Editorial

• Minority decides for the majority (Columbus Dispatch)

A look at Tuesday’s primary-election results shows that many important races and issues were decided by only a handful of the people…Read more...

• School spirit (Findlay Courier)

Most would agree there's no better investment in the future than education. But by cutting funding in recent years, state government has shifted more of the burden of operating public schools to taxpayers and property owners…Read more...

Education News for 05-08-2013

State Education News

• Toddlers and tech - reasons to share your smartphone (Canton Repository)

A lot of things change when you become a parent. The shows you watch, the restaurants you go to and the concept of sleep as you once knew it all evolve when your family structure transforms from a "me" to a "we."…Read more...

• Security Concerns Raise Questions About Voting At Schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Polls were open at Licking Heights High School on Tuesday, and Superintendent Phil Wagner says security preparations were made far in advance…Read more...

• Ohio school buys eye control device to help students communicate (Newark Advocate)

Like most 6-year-olds, Algassimou Bah has a lot to say. However, living with cerebral palsy has made it difficult for Algassimou, known by his teachers…Read more...

• Maysville schools mull drug testing athletes (Zanesville Times-Recorder)

Maysville Local Schools will be the first district in the area to require athletes to be drug tested if a proposal submitted to the Board of Education…Read more...

Local Education News

• Columbus district sells old school buildings for $3.2 million (Columbus Dispatch)

The Columbus Board of Education sold three vacant school buildings last night, including a historical middle school a block from German Village’s Schiller Park that sold for about half what the county auditor says it’s worth…Read more...

• Hilliard sale odd for one board member (Columbus Dispatch)

Even before Paul Lambert was elected to the Hilliard school board more than three years ago, he raised concerns about residential development outpacing commercial growth…Read more...

• Ada School District voters approve 0.75% income tax (Findlay Courier)

Voters in the Ada School District approved a 0.75 percent income tax…Read more...

• Westlake schools prepare to make cuts (Sun Newspapers)

School officials will face some tough decisions on nearly $1 million in proposed cuts when they meet…Read more...

• Brookfield schools cautiously happy (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

A member of the Brookfield Board of Education said she was on "pins and needles"…Read more...

• Libraries may return (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

Voters in the Champion school district supported a 5.95-mill, 10-year additional operating levy for emergency requirements of the district…Read more...

• Columbus City Schools To Hire 300 For Transportation Positions (WBNS)

Columbus City Schools announced on Tuesday that it is hiring 300 people to drive buses for the district…Read more...

Education News for 05-07-2013

Local Education News

• Urban League might lose Head Start grant (Columbus Dispatch)

Two nonprofit groups have been offered federal Head Start grants to serve needy preschool children in central Ohio, but not the Columbus Urban League…Read more...

• Argument over access (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

Parents who are unhappy with the Champion School District's refusal to provide access for their special-needs son to attend Central Elementary School have filed a complaint with the Department of Justice…Read more...

Editorial

• Bus money (Akron Beacon Journal)

Since 2005, Ohioans have enjoyed a 21 percent reduction in individual income tax rates. The Ohio House has proposed an additional 7 percent…Read more...

• Hospital study is timely for parents (Columbus Dispatch)

Probably every parent wishes at some point that he or she could just bubble-wrap their little one. But guarding kids so closely for fear of injury…Read more...

• Another blow to city schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Thursday’s records seizures at 20 Columbus high schools by the state auditor ought to prove convincing to those who have blindly defended…Read more...

Education News for 05-06-2013

State Education News

• Transportation costs squeezing school districts (Akron Beacon Journal)

Mogadore, Cuyahoga Falls, Akron and Barberton schools have more in common than interconnecting county highways…Read more...

• Auditor’s focus in records seizure was mostly grade changes (Columbus Dispatch)

State Auditor Dave Yost seized records of grade and attendance changes for more than 870 students for his data-tampering…Read more...

• Ohio's education standards debated (Columbus Dispatch)

New math and English standards known as the Common Core are already in Ohio classrooms, even as opposition mounts from groups that include those affiliated…Read more...

• School funding plan improving (Findlay Courier)

Legislators don't often change their minds on important policy issues, but state Rep. Robert Sprague said he did when he learned the details of Gov. John Kasich's school funding plan…Read more...

• Early start, better finish? (Newark Advocate)

As a single mother working full-time, Jessica Dyer doesn’t have much time to work with her 2-year-old daughter, Annabelle…Read more...

• Health department, school monitor MRSA (Springfield News-Sun)

The Ohio Department of Health and the Clark County Combined Health District are working with Springfield school officials to address recent cases of the staph infection…Read more...

Local Education News

• Transportation disparities put many students walking to school on dangerous path (Akron Beacon Journal)

Anise Moore had mixed feelings about safety in the rough neighborhood where her kids walk to school…Read more...

• School levies asking for new money on rise (Akron Beacon Journal)

All but two of the 15 school districts in the five-county Akron-Canton area with an issue on the May 7 ballot are proposing tax hikes for homeowners — a request that’s increasingly frequent…Read more...

• Gay Catholic-school teacher’s firing raises questions (Columbus Dispatch)

The firing of a gay Catholic-school teacher by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus raises competing constitutional questions about religious freedoms and civil liberties…Read more...

• BYOD lets NHS students to bring their own technology to school (Newark Advocate)

For the past few years, Brian Stepanic had a sign in his classroom instructing students not to use wireless devices such as cellphones and tablets during school…Read more...

• State calls East Portsmouth Elementary a “School of Honor” (Portsmouth Daily Times)

The Portsmouth City School Board rewarded faculty and staff of East Portsmouth Elementary School with a special luncheon…Read more...

• Campbell schools receives grant from state (Youngstown Vindicator)

The Ohio Department of Education has awarded the Campbell school district almost $120,000 for a 2013-14 elementary school reading program…Read more...

Editorial

• Cleveland schools leaders lay out broad transformation ideas (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

It's taken a while to get here, but there's a lot to like in the first draft of the Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools, which aims to turn around 13 failing schools…Read more...

• Is minimum OK with Elida voters? (Lima News)

Administrators at Elida Local Schools are running out of tricks when it comes to offering a quality educational experience on minimal funding…Read more...

Education News for 04-26-2013

State Education News

• Columbus schools auditor slows plan to expand office (Columbus Dispatch)

The Columbus City Schools’ internal auditor proposed a scaled-back plan last night to boost her staff and help protect the district against future problems like the data-rigging…Read more...

• Ramos balks at recording Academic Distress Commission meetings (Lorain Morning Journal)

Most bylaws of the Academic Distress Commission that will oversee Lorain’s school system were approved Monday, but commission member Raul Ramos…Read more...

Local Education News



• Cleveland names 'investment schools' slated for turnaround (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The Cleveland school district this afternoon named 13 low-performing schools to receive intensive help next school year…Read more...

• LCC will issue all students iPads (Lima News)

Lima Central Catholic High School students will be handed an iPad when they arrive to school next year. They will keep the devices all year, which school officials believe will improve their education…Read more...

• Lima schools promise free lunch for all (Lima News)

Come next school year, every pupil in the Lima schools will be eligible for free lunches…Read more...

• Hilliard officials rip schools deal to sell land for homes (This Week News)

Hilliard city officials say the Hilliard school board acted hypocritically when it approved selling 124 acres to Rockford Homes for almost $5 million, given the district’s past complaints…Read more...

Education News for 04-24-2013

State Education News

• Plan for Columbus schools includes fund, auditor outside board’s control (Columbus Dispatch)

A new panel led by the city, school leaders and the private sector would control an “innovation fund” that could spend up to $50 million annually on Columbus charter and district schools, according to a draft…Read more...

• State wants out of school-bus management (Columbus Dispatch)

The Ohio Department of Education wonders: Can someone else regulate busing…Read more...

• Local public high schools ranked in Ohio, nation (Lorain Morning Journal)

Three local schools were among the top 60 in the Ohio, but much farther down the list nationally, in the 2013 ranking of the best public high schools in the U.S., announced yesterday by U.S. News & World Report…Read more...

• New strategies emphasize OAA tests (Middletown Journal)

It’s testing season in Ohio schools, and for more than 7,100…Read more...

Local Education News

• Columbus school board OKs vehicle purchase to take over private busing (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus City Schools jumped headfirst into a major expansion of its busing operation last night by essentially firing its sole private contractor…Read more...

• School district to vote on cutting teachers (Dayton Daily News)

The members of the Vandalia-Butler City Schools Board of Education voted to cut 47 positions, including those of 33 teachers…Read more...

• Lorain City Schools board approves roughly $2.5 million in teaching contracts (Lorain Morning Journal)

Lorain City Schools board approved roughly $2.4 million in teaching contracts for the next school year…Read more...

• Cleveland Heights-University Heights school board approves teacher cuts (Sun Newspapers)

At its April 23 meeting, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school board approved a reduction in force of 42…Read more...

• North Ridgeville schools address overcrowding at elementary schools (Sun Newspapers)

The school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to reorganize two of the district’s elementary schools…Read more...

• Bay Village school board credits superintendent, union for agreement (Sun Newspapers)

School board members are crediting Superintendent Clint Keener and the teachers’ union for reaching a quick agreement in recent contract negotiations…Read more...

• Youngstown schools, diocese settle transportation issues (Youngstown Vindicator)

The city school board passed a resolution Tuesday settling transportation issues between the district and two Diocese of Youngstown schools…Read more...

• Liberty schools has positive financial future (Youngstown Vindicator)

School officials said they are “cautiously optimistic” about the district’s financial future…Read more...