liberty

Education News for 01-22-2013

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State Education News

  • Ohio now restricts school’s use of seclusion rooms, physical restraint (Athens Messenger)

    • For the first time, Ohio has a policy that limits a school’s use of seclusion and restraint for difficult students. Schools must now adopt positive behavior interventions and support…Read more…

  • School rules guide whistle-blowers (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Amid a statewide investigation into data manipulation in schools, districts are creating rules to guide employees if they want to report workers who violate laws or ethics.…Read more…

  • Schools await Kasich’s funding model (Lima News)

    • They want more money and a school-funding system that is fair. But area school officials also just hope for a little honesty.…Read more…

  • Turning the page (Mason HS Chronicle)

    • More third graders than ever before could be held back next year. Due to recent legislation that alters current reading level standards for the 2013-14 school year.…Read more…

  • Ranking brings school funding model under scrutiny (Middletown Journal)

    • Ohio recently was ranked 17th in the nation for its school finance, despite the fact that Ohio’s school funding model has been declared unconstitutional three times since 1997.…Read more…

Local Education News

  • Could shared services save Ohio districts $1B a year? (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • State leaders are urging school districts, like other local government agencies, to share services and costs, operate more efficiently and reserve more tax dollars for core purposes.…Read more…

  • Board, referee clash over teacher firing (Findlay Courier)

    • A Liberty-Benton veteran teacher, fired this week by the school board, should not have been terminated because the board failed to provide documented evidence for its claim that he had a history of classroom management problems…Read more…

  • School patrols increase (Lisbon Morning Journal)

    • Ever since last month's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., sheriff's deputies have been performing security checks during the school day at five school districts.…Read more…

  • Safer schools start with information (New Philadelphia Times)

    • School districts in Tuscarawas, Carroll, Harrison and Belmont counties are being offered free technology that would assist first responders dealing with emergencies at area schools.…Read more…

  • Kiwanis takes stand against bullying (Portsmouth Daily Times)

    • The Kiwanis Club of Portsmouth has taken a stand against bullying and did so with a recent presentation by club president John Johnson.…Read more…

  • Deputies could be added to help with Clark schools (Springfield News-Sun)

    • New Clark County sheriff’s deputies could be hired as part of a program to boost security in schools, a local response to the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shootings.…Read more…

  • Boosters, PTO slate reception for new superintendent (This Week News)

    • The Northridge Academic Boosters and Northridge PTO invite the community to a "Welcome to Northridge" for new Superintendent Dr. Chris Briggs.…Read more…

  • Chardon Schools' installation of security cameras now almost complete (Willoughby News Herald)

    • Chardon School District’s goal of installing technologically advanced security cameras in and around all of its buildings is nearing completion.…Read more…

  • Liberty schools expecting another audit (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Liberty schools are awaiting another report from Ohio Auditor David Yost, after a 2011 financial audit was released earlier this week, schools Superintendent Stan Watson said.…Read more…

Editorial

  • Alert to danger (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Last week, at the first of five regional training sessions, educators and law enforcement officers received graphic and sometimes emotional lessons about how to respond to the kind of shooting incidents that have gripped the nation’s attention.…Read more…

  • Alone in school (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Think of isolation rooms and physical restraints, and the mind goes not to schools but to prison cells for violent criminals or to efforts to prevent mentally unstable patients from hurting themselves or others.…Read more…

  • Right direction (Columbus Dispatch)

    • With a new State Board of Education policy limiting the use of “seclusion rooms” for students whose behavior is out of control, Ohio schools and students will be better off than they were before.…Read more…

  • Good start (Findlay Courier)

    • Limiting access to Findlay's elementary buildings won't stop all unwelcome visitors. But it should help. …Read more…

Education News for 04-25-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • At-risk students hard to grade (Dispatch)

    • Advocates for charter schools serving students at risk of dropping out say they shouldn’t be held to the same standards as traditional schools. Lawmakers studying a plan to impose a tougher rating system on schools and school districts agree, but they aren’t sure how best to judge dropout-recovery schools. “You just can’t lump them in with every other school,” Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said yesterday after hearing testimony from supporters of the schools. Read More…

  • Ohio schools: Achievement tests can bring on stress (WKYC)

    • This time of year, teachers and students often get stressed out over testing. So what advice are schools and doctors giving families to make sure students are at their best for the testing that started this week? Here are some tips from Dr. Ellen Rome, a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Breathalyzer Now In Use In Central Ohio School District (NBC-4)

    • One central Ohio school district is taking a unique approach to better identify students who drink before school or school functions. Thanks to a grant, Pickerington Local Schools has an alcohol testing device, or a breathalyzer that can be used at anytime. “There's always been rumors, 'Oh, they've got a breathalyzer,’” said Pickerington High School North Principal Cindi Goldhaber. Read More…

  • School district says privacy cloaks seclusion-room data (Dispatch)

    • The Columbus school district denied yesterday that it is blocking a state agency’s attempts to investigate the district’s use of seclusion rooms for special-needs students. In an answer to a federal lawsuit filed in early March, the district said it turned over documents that were pertinent to a mother’s allegation that her autistic son was so terrified when placed in a cell-like room that he stripped naked and urinated. Read More…

  • YEA chief to teachers: Expect layoffs (Vindicator)

    • The president of the city teachers’ union cautioned members to prepare for layoffs and advised some to begin looking for new jobs. “The board will be changing the posting dates and the method of posting” for positions, Will Bagnola, president of the Youngstown Education Association, wrote in an email last week to the membership. “The board will not be honoring seniority in filling vacancies and assigning YEA members; board-action on a RIF [reduction in force] will not be done by April 30th; and, our class sizes will be increasing.” Read More…

  • Superintendent roundtable discussion (13 ABC WTVG)

    • Three northwest Ohio superintendents sit down with 13 ABC regarding the new state ranking system. Read More…

  • Hamilton charter school finds new campus (Hamilton Journal News)

    • The Richard Allen Academy, a private charter school located on the city’s East Side, has found a new home in the former St. Julie Billiart School on Shuler Avenue. Academy officials hope the move will help attract more students. The charter school needed to find a new home after its current campus at 299 Knightsbridge Drive was purchased last fall by Miami University Hamilton. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

  • Another glimpse into Ohio’s lax oversight of charter schools (Vindicator)

    • The Liberty Board of Education’s experience with two “conversion schools,” essentially charter schools that were operated by a public school district, provide an insight into an inherent lack of oversight that has plagued far too many of Ohio’s experiments in alternative education. This week, the first good news about what had been the Liberty Early Academic Resource Nest and Liberty Exemplary Academic Design schools came from the Portage County Educational Services Center, the current sponsor of the schools. Read More…

Education News for 01-31-2012

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Statewide Education News

  • Standard tests will be done online (News-Sun)

    • SPRINGFIELD — Online testing would be cheaper and more efficient than the current tests, making it worth the cost to prepare schools for the change in coming years, said state Superintendent Stan Heffner. “The new test should actually cost less,” Heffner said. “They’ll get instant feedback and at a cheaper cost.” Heffner, the Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction, was the featured speaker at the Springfield Rotary Club on Monday. Read More…

  • Officials look for ways to boost student use of free summer meal plans (Dispatch)

    • Kids get hungry in the summer, too. But when school lets out, the number of youngsters taking advantage of government-paid free-meal programs drops by about 80 percent. Federal, state and community officials gathered in a summit at a Mid-Ohio Foodbank location in Grove City yesterday to brainstorm about ways to boost the number of kids from low-income neighborhoods enrolled in free breakfast and lunch programs in the summer months. Read More…

  • Cleveland schools' New Tech program to be featured on national webcast (Plain Dealer)

    • CLEVELAND - Cleveland's New Tech high school serving the West Side will be one of the schools featured in a national Internet broadcast Wednesday celebrating Digital Learning Day with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. New Tech West will be one of several schools showcased in short videos during a morning webcast. Then New Tech Principal Erin Frew, Spanish teacher Marixa Marriero and 11th-grader Britany Dickens will talk about the school live via Skype in a "Town Hall" discussion that afternoon. Read More…

Local Issues

  • Local businesses, organizations work to promote science and tech learning (Newark Advocate)

    • NEWARK - Two actresses from the Licking County Players pondered aloud last week how they could use six simple machines to knock over 10 bowling pins without using their hands. On the stage of the Midland Theatre, they rode a bike over a homemade ramp -- er, wedge -- and sat on a seesaw -- make that lever -- while they considered the possibilities with the help of a robot named Hal, voiced by fellow local actor Dennis Kohler. The actresses asked questions of the students in the audience. Read More…

  • Panel OKs Liberty cutbacks (Tribune Chronicle)

    • LIBERTY - Contentions popped up Monday between the Financial Planning and Supervision Committee appointed by the State Auditor's Office and the Liberty Local School District over staff cuts the school board approved last week. The board eliminated or reduced to part-time status 16.5 employees next school year, which would save the district $1.2 million. "There's no other plan you think would be better?" committee member and Liberty parent Kristen Rock asked Superintendent Stan Watson. Read More…

  • Westerville school board to vote on support-staff pay freeze (Dispatch)

    • The Westerville school board will vote today on a deal that would freeze pay for the district’s support-staff workers for the next two years. Union members also would shoulder the full burden of their health-care deductibles under the deal, but only if the district’s other employee unions follow suit. Board members called the 4 p.m. meeting after being briefed by the district’s bargaining team yesterday morning. District officials said the support-staff union came to them with the proposal. Read More…

  • Northridge principals' salaries, duties increase (Newark Advocate)

    • JOHNSTOWN - Northridge Local School District administrators are earning a little bit more money this year to go along with their new and expanded duties. The district removed its high school principal position this past summer, bumping middle school principal Amy Anderson to principal of grades six through 12, Robin Elliot up to assistant principal for grades 6-8 and Marisa Knopp to intermediate school principal and special education director. Read More…

Editorial

  • Giving dropouts reasons to return (Plain Dealer)

    • Forget about the GED certificate, the usual alternative for high-school dropouts. An innovative program being introduced at Owens Community College near Toledo this fall aims to help dropouts drop back into high school and move on to college. The combination of intensive counseling, flexible schedules and free tuition and books has worked elsewhere in the country, but this will be the first time it's tried in Ohio. Read More…

  • How to grade a teacher (L.A. Times)

    • We're teachers who believe that teacher evaluation, including the use of reliable test data, can be good for students and for teachers. Yes, yes, we know we're not supposed to exist. But we do, and there are a lot more of us. In February the membership of United Teachers Los Angeles will vote on a teacher-led initiative urging union leaders to negotiate a new teacher evaluation system for L.A. Unified. The vote will allow teachers' voices to be heard above the din of warring political figures. Read More…