Statewide Education News

Youngstown academic distress panel gains Cleveland member (Vindicator)

Youngstown - The commission overseeing the city school district’s academics has a new member — again. Stan Heffner, state superintendent of public instruction, announced Tuesday that Paul Williams, retired superintendent of Beachwood City Schools and a professor at Cleveland State University, is the academic-distress commission’s newest member. Williams moves into the seat formerly occupied by Adrienne O’Neill. Read More…

Ohio receives ‘B’ in report on teaching science in K-12 (Dayton Daily News)

Ohio does a better job of teaching science to students in grades K-12 compared to most other states that “remain mediocre to awful,” according to a new report released Tuesday. Teaching science well is crucial to improving the nation’s ability to compete globally, remain prosperous and scientifically-advanced, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. While the news is good for Ohio, which received a “B” grade, the report’s overall findings are troubling because 27 states either earned “Ds” or “Fs” for their standards in a subject many experts said will play a critical role in future high-tech jobs. Read More…

Terry Johnson introduces teacher appeals bill (Daily Times)

State Reps. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, and Casey Kozlowski, R-Pierpoint, announced Monday they have introduced legislation to create a formal appeals process for school teachers who receive a letter of admonishment in their files from the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). Currently, when a complaint is filed and investigated, a letter of admonishment may be placed in his or her file as disciplinary action. Read More…

Schools link smarts, phones (Dispatch)

Teachers in some classrooms confiscate smartphones from students caught texting or surfing social-media websites. Damon Mollenkopf doesn’t bother. The teacher at Westerville North High School actually encourages students to chat with one another on social-networking websites, with the hope that they’re talking about history. Read More…

Local Issues

Massillon City Schools treasurer abruptly resigns (Repository)

MASSILLON — City School District Treasurer Teresa Emmerling abruptly resigned Tuesday, saying the school board and superintendent are attempting to make her the scapegoat for the district’s financial problems. “I cannot and will not continue to put myself in a situation where the board and superintendent have now started their ‘paper trail’ to corrupt my credibility, integrity and work ethic,” she said, reading a three-page resignation letter at the start of a special board meeting. Read More…

Cincinnati School Lunches Setting Example With Healthy Makeover (WKRC 12 CBS)

A healthy change is coming which impacts millions of school children. For the first time in fifteen years, nutritional guidelines for school lunches have been revised. Local 12 News Reporter Jeff Hirsh tells us about the change for less junk and more quality. Kids today are getting less tater tots and more produce as part of the new Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. The guidelines just announced last week by First Lady Michelle Obama ... things like more whole grains, low fat milk and cheese, and vending machines minus junk. Read More…

School? There’s an MCCTC app for that (Vindicator)

Canfield - Mahoning County Career and Technical Center senior Elizabeth Blythe scrolled through the center’s new mobile application on her iPhone. “You can check grades on here?” she asked. “Yep, on Progress Book,” said Jacqueline Kuffel, career development supervisor at the school. The app, simply called MCCTC app, launched after the first of the year, allows students, parents and others from the community to check out what goes on at the center. Read More…

District details $2.5M in cuts if levy fails (Dayton Daily News)

BEAVERCREEK — Elementary students’ art, music and physical education programs will be chopped in half while middle school and high school students will face higher pay-to-participate fees and fewer elective classes if Beavercreek City Schools’ 6.7-mill levy fails on March 6. The district announced $2.5 million in cuts to address the projected budget deficit if voters turn down an emergency operating levy request for a third time. Read More…

Evans under fire from Canton teachers' union (Repository)

CANTON — The superintendent of City Schools is defending her record as the leader of Stark County’s largest school district as the teacher’s union demands a closed-door meeting with the Board of Education to air its concerns. The Canton Professional Educators’ Association has sent a letter to the school board seeking an executive session meeting with the board. If it doesn’t get the meeting, the union says it will make a public statement saying it has no confidence in Superintendent Michele Evans. Read More…

Bedford schools offered $10,000 for ad-sign contract (Toledo Blade)

TEMPERANCE - The Bedford Public Schools could be in line for additional money for Bedford Community Stadium, the board of education was told at its committee of the whole meeting last week. Superintendent Ted Magrum said a Bedford business has offered to pay $10,000 a year for 10 years in return for being allowed to place ad signs at the press box and baseball and softball fields. The superintendent did not identify the business but said negotiations were under way. The Bedford High School Alumni Association has been the contact with the business, he said. Read More…

Editorial

Bus stop (Dispatch) Kids who ride school buses operated by First Student Inc. to charter and private schools in Columbus should thank the State Highway Patrol trooper who showed recently that he’s looking out for their well-being. The Columbus City Schools should do the same, by keeping constant vigilance on this private transportation provider. A trooper who stopped a First Student bus for running a red light, which is alarming enough, was so shocked by the condition of the bus that he followed it to the company’s garage to perform some spot-checks on it and other buses. Read More…
From the Statehouse to Steubenville (Beacon Journal)

If you haven’t noticed yet, John Kasich likes to do things a bit differently. The governor appeared to take pride a year ago in delivering the State of the State address with little in the way of a prepared text. No matter, evidently, that the speech turned into something closer to what you expect at a fund-raiser, complete with the umpteenth rendition of how Kasich once worked with the liberal Ron Dellums during their days in Congress. Read More…

Cincinnati public schools are experiencing the full impact of the recently passed budget and it's provisions. The district reduced its general fund budget by $8.6 million to $458.6 million this year due to state funding cuts, and the end of 2012-13, the state will have reduced its funding to CPS by $55 million.

Naturally this is causing serious budget problems for a well performing large urban district, including lay-offs that were announced earlier in the year

Cincinnati’s School Superintendent announced Friday more than 200 staff positions will be cut next year to help the district balance its budget.

Mary Ronan said in a release the reductions include 158 teachers, 33 central office employees and 17 additional school-based workers.

According to the same article, CPS has been closing schools and reducing staff for the past decade. Since 2001-2002, more than 1,100 positions have been eliminated and 17 schools have been closed.

To alleviate some of this pressure, CPS has a permanent levy on the ballot this November. Polling shows this levy to be neck and neck.

But another provision in the state's budget is also rearing its head. Teach for America (TFA).

Teach for America wants to put its teachers in Cincinnati Public Schools, possibly as early next year.

But both parties must agree. So far, the district has remained non-committal.

"We're really just looking to see if districts are interested in partnering," said Ben Lindy, who is on Teach for America's site development team.

Lindy made a pitch to CPS board Wednesday. It was the first such outreach in Ohio since Gov. John Kasich signed a law in April allowing TFA to locate here.

It might raise some eyebrows, that at a time when the district is having to lay off highly qualified and experienced educators and their support professionals, TFA is circling with promises to fill classrooms with their under prepared, inexperienced amateurs. As we wrote a short time ago, it is literally harder to become a casino card dealer in Ohio than it is to be a TFA recruit.

Cincinnati would be better served passing their levy and ensuring that they continue to have classrooms staffed with experienced professionals that have helped guide CPS to its current creditable performance levels.

Education News for 02-01-2012

Despite lay offs TFA circling in Cincinnati