Statewide Education News
- Number of homeless children on the rise in Athens, across Ohio (Athens Post)
The number of homeless students attending Ohio public schools climbed to 21,000 during the 2010-11 school year, according to a report by the Ohio Department of Education, an increase of more than 2,000 students from the previous school year. As homelessness rates in Ohio and Athens County continue to climb, particularly among school-age children, its traditional criteria no longer apply, said Patrick Gallaway, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education. Read More…
Local Issues
- New methods sought for student discipline (Toledo Blade)
- Columbus schools might need $555 million (Dispatch)
- Liberty ends summer school (Vindicator)
- Schools to cash in on casinos (Dispatch)
- CPS takes out $26.8 million loan for green renovations (Enquirer)
- Tallmadge elementary school to reopen after meningitis scare (Akron Beacon Journal)
- Students test the waters (Vindicator)
- Cleveland teachers, supporters rally for rainy day fund (Plain Dealer)
Fighting, turning over desks, and otherwise disrupting classes at Toledo Public Schools are not acceptable to Toledoans United for Social Action. But neither is arresting students for such behavior instead of finding ways to address discipline problems and motivate them in classrooms, Robert Birt, minister of Glass City Church of Christ, said during the group's annual meeting Monday. Read More…
Columbus City Schools might need to raise more than a half-billion dollars in additional property taxes and borrowing over the next four school years to continue current programs, add programs to boost student performance and fund the next phase of its school-rebuilding program. Superintendent Gene Harris said today that the $355 million in operating money and nearly $200 million in bonds for school construction are just a place to begin the conversation with a citizen millage committee. Members are reviewing whether the district should put a tax request before voters this fall. Read More…
The school district’s fiscal commission approved Monday the closure of Liberty’s summer-school program as part of a plan that would save an additional $49,500 going into fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1. Superintendent Stan Watson said the summer school was used mostly for remedial courses and cost the district $13,920 each year, according to district records. Read More…
Franklin County schools could share about $7.2million in casino revenue next fiscal year, and more than double that amount in following years. The money may help ease state budget cuts and stop the steady drumbeat of cutbacks. Wagers at Ohio’s four new casinos are estimated to total $1.42 billion once the casinos are fully operational, according to estimates from the Ohio Department of Taxation and largely confirmed by a 2011 analysis by Moelis & Co., the governor’s gambling consultant. That haul would yield an estimated $470 million in tax revenue, based on the 33 percent rate set in the Constitution. Read More…
Cincinnati Public Schools board of education Monday approved 5-1 taking out a $26.8 million low-interest loan for energy-saving renovations at 28 schools. The seventh board member Vanessa White was absent. About $5.5 million of the money will be spent renovating the old Hyde Park school which will re-open next year as a neighborhood school with a district-wide gifted program. The re-opening has been long-lobbied for by a group of Hyde Park residents. They collected hundreds of signatures from neighbors saying they’d send their kids there if the district re-opened it. Read More…
A Tallmadge elementary school is reopening today after district officials canceled classes Monday because of a possible case of meningitis. Summit County health department officials assured the school district the unidentified student from Dunbar Elementary does not have a form of meningitis that requires preventive treatment for others who have had contact, Superintendent Jeff Ferguson said. Read More…
Seventh- graders were excited to get in the water and learn a few environmental lessons.
“This gives me a chance to do hands-on activities,” said Isaiah Donley, one of the participating students from Volney Rogers Middle School. The students participated in the sampling and testing of water quality Monday in the Ax Factory Run, a small stream that flows over a rocky bottom in a wooded ravine on the city’s West Side alongside the school. Read More…
Umbrellas served a dual purpose on Monday evening as the Cleveland Teachers Union rallied to urge Governor John Kasich to release rainy day funds to help Cleveland Schools. Outside the Cleveland Board of Eduction, Annette Chase, a second and third grade teacher at Louis Agassiz school, attached raindrops to her umbrella, each drop carrying the name of one of her students. Read More…
Editorial & Opinion
- Guaranteed improvement (Dispatch)
- Secure plan for teacher retirement (Warren Tribune Chronicle)
As Ohio lawmakers consider instituting a “third-grade reading guarantee” — a law that says kids who can’t read at grade level by the end of third grade must be held back a year — Florida’s experience with the idea offers some guidance: Give schools some time to prepare, but not to needlessly delay; provide the help for kids who are behind so they can catch up; and make provisions as mandatory as possible, so that schools can’t evade the unpleasant remedy. Read More…
Virtually everyone agrees something needs to be done about the $13.3 billion in unfunded liabilities burdening the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System. And - as has not always been true in other states - there seems to be a consensus on how to accomplish that. Read More…