The Ohio Department of Education's communications & Outreach team began compiling and sending out daily Ohio Education related newsclips. We'd like to thank them for this to be very useful free service. We're going to experiment with sharing this on JTF as a daily feature in the hope that our readers find it useful too. You can follow ODe on Twitter at www.twitter.com/oheducation.

Statewide Education News

Money problems force school district to shrink school days and eliminate lunch (WOIO 19 CBS)

A special board meeting was held Wednesday evening to address the dire financial situation at the Garfield Heights City Schools. According to the district, the financial situation remains bleak due to another failed levy. Over the past several years, the district has eliminated more than $4 million from the district's operating budget resulting in the loss of many teachers and educational opportunities for students. A recent Ohio Department of Education report has listed the Garfield Heights School District's performance index as one of the lowest in the state. Read More…

Higher fees mean fewer student-athletes at Lakota schools (Journal-News)

LIBERTY TWP. — With an increase in pay-to-participate fees, the Lakota Local School District has seen a decline in athletic participation numbers. The winter numbers are out, and all six schools — the two high schools (East and West) and four junior highs — all have declining athletic participation numbers. Pay-to-play is $550 per sport at the high school and $350 per sport at the junior high. There is no family cap. Last year’s pay-to-play fees were $300 and $200 for the high school and junior high, respectively, but continued budget cuts led Lakota to nearly double those fees for the 2011-12 school year. Read More…

Local Issues

Groveport Madison floats school-uniforms plan (Dispatch)

Groveport Madison schools pitched a plan to families yesterday that would require uniforms for middle- and high-school students starting next fall, but many parents and students were adamantly opposed. Families will have another chance to learn about the proposal at a second forum at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 5 at Groveport Middle School South. District officials have been mulling the idea for the past two years, but the effort gained momentum in the spring, after high-school administrators presented benefits of uniforms at a school board meeting. Read More…

Lorain schools look at cutbacks, borrowing to handle deficit (Morning Journal)

LORAIN — Facing a $12 million deficit, interim Lorain Schools Superintendent Ed Branham last night detailed options that include borrowing $6 million from the Ohio Department of Education, plus cutting an additional $6 million in spending. His final proposal is to be ready for the school board at the Jan. 11 meeting. After making $1.5 million in cuts in October, the school district still has a $10.5 million deficit to address. Under Ohio law, schools are not allowed to operate in the red. Read More…

Olmsted Falls schools revamp talk from cuts to improvements (Sun News)

Olmsted Falls school leaders have turned their talk to fixing, rather than eliminating, items in their buildings. That is due to the district’s 2.8-mill, 5-year, permanent improvement levy of Nov. 8 passing by seven votes, following recounts in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties where its boundaries extend. "For the last three years, our conversations dealt with what can we cut, eliminate and squeeze," said school Superintendent Todd F. Hoadley. Read More…

Editorial

Revamping education (Dispatch)

The U.S. economy has shifted so dramatically that education must shift accordingly. But a couple of statistics hint that that shift has yet to fully occur. State Superintendent Stan W. Heffner points out a glaring disconnect between high-school standards and college expectations. If more than half of Ohio’s school districts are rated excellent or better by the state, Heffner asked during a speech last week before charter-school administrators, why do 41 percent of high-school students need remedial classes when they get to college? Read More…

Applause for proposed Cleveland teacher concession clauses (Plain Dealer)

Children are worth concessions. That's the positive lesson expressed in a tentative agreement Cleveland teachers will be voting on beginning today (Wednesday, Dec. 15) and continuing until Dec. 21. There is reason for optimism. In an interview, David Quolke, Cleveland Teachers Union president, described the proposed settlement as "good for kids and fair to our members." The $7 million in teacher concessions would be achieved primarily by giving up some teacher calamity and professional days this school year along with higher health co-pays for the next two years. Read More…

Two birds, one stone (Dispatch)

Budget crunches have left many schools with little choice but to cut funding for things state law doesn’t require them to provide, and that has left arts and physical-education instruction in the lurch in many Ohio elementary and middle schools. Pickerington City Schools officials and teachers deserve credit for adapting to harsh budget realities and finding a way to continue arts and phys-ed instruction with less than half the staff of a year ago. Read More…