music

Education News for 03-25-2013

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State Education News

  • Before high school, students hearing value of college planning (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Several seventh- and eighth-graders at Ridgeview Junior High School in Pickerington already have started to map out their college plans, which include the University of Florida…Read more...

  • Stomachs growled, so lunch-food limits eased (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Some schools are beefing up cafeteria meals after the federal government ended limits on the amount of meat and grain on their menus…Read more...

  • Schools scrambling to ready for online testing (Lima News)

    • Like others in the region, Delphos schools will be ready when state online testing begins in the 2014-15 school year, but also like many, getting there won’t be easy…Read more...

  • How we got to 612 schools (Newark Advocate)

    • Public education in Ohio dates back to before it was a state, with the Northwest Ordinance putting an emphasis on creating schools to educate children…Read more...

  • Voucher plan concerns some area officials (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

    • School officials from Trumbull, Mahoning and Ashtabula counties on Friday met with state lawmakers about Gov. John Kasich's school funding plan and its potential impact on local districts…Read more...

  • Frustrated state lawmakers discuss school funding with Valley superintendents (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Area school superintendents complained in a meeting with state legislators Friday about the proposed cutback of $600 million in public-school funding and the money they have to pay to charter schools…Read more...

Local Education News

  • School bus fleet ages and grows more costly to maintain as state shifts burden to local taxpayers (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • That school bus you see hauling kids down the road might look nice and yellow, but chances are good it’s old, costly and one of the reasons educators are making sacrifices in the education they provide…Read more...

  • Strengthening school security; Sheriff’s office proposes plan to place deputies in county districts (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • The Lorain County Sheriff’s Office wants to work with school districts in townships to periodically station deputies in school buildings…Read more...

  • Licking County schools wary of adding more shared services (Newark Advocate)

    • Every day, students attending Flying Colors Public Preschool learn a variety of lessons, including how to share…Read more...

  • Big districts can lead to bus issues (Newark Advocate)

    • Amanda King has an hour bus ride to and from Philo High School. This senior uses the morning trip to get the remainder of sleep out of her eyes, and the way home is spent in anticipation of getting something to eat before chores and homework…Read more...

  • Perrysburg Schools named Best Community for Music Education (Toledo Blade)

    • Perrysburg School District has, for the seventh year in a row, been selected as on of the Best Communities for Music Education by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation…Read more...

  • Kenston, teachers union without contract, working with federal mediator (Willoughby News Herald)

    • A federal mediator is working with the Kenston Education Association and district administrators to help iron out differences arising in contract negotiations…Read more...

  • Columbiana school board clarifies use of bond funds (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • During a special meeting, the Columbiana school board unanimously adopted a resolution clarifying how the proceeds would be spent if…Read more...

Editorial

    A new leader for Ohio schools (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    The swearing-in Monday of Richard Ross as Ohio's new state school superintendent comes at a critical time for state education policy. Pending reforms put a premium on stability and integrity at the top…Read more...

  • Kasich's funding formula fails traditional schools; redrafting by the General Assembly is imperative (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • The Ohio legislature ought to rewrite Gov. John Kasich's flawed school-funding formula to reflect the state's higher priority -- adequate funding of the state's traditional public schools…Read more...

  • Mayor Coleman: Let us help (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Over the past several months, we’ve seen our community come together like never before behind the cause of educating our children…Read more...

  • Promising minds are overlooked (Columbus Dispatch)

    • It’s unfortunate that most of the top high-school achievers who are poor don’t apply to the nation’s most-selective colleges and universities…Read more...

  • Settle on system for measurement of Ohio school performance (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • The problem with labels is they rarely tell the whole story. In the case of the Ohio Department of Education’s newest label, the story of school performance has become muddled…Read more...

Deep Red Opposition to Kasich Funding Plan

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As the 130th General assembly gets underway and begins its hearings on the Budget, questions from law makers and superintendents are already starting to heat up - and not from your typical quarters.

the most eye opening example is Superintendent of Franklin City Schools, in deep red Warren county who sent out a letter to residents calling John Kasich a liar, and asking for citizens to join him in removing him from office.

Governor John Kasich was untruthful last week, and in doing so, finally clarified that kids in poor school districts don't count.
[...]
As parents and friends of our district, I hope you will do two things: First, please join me in an active campaign to ensure that Gov. Kasich and any legislator who supports him are not re-elected. Second, I hope you will contact our state officials and urge them to ask Gov. Kasich to return to the drawing board on his school funding proposal.

Here's the full letter

Letter to Residents-Mr. Elam

Further difficult questions were posed to the Governor's education advisors during a House education committee hearing. Plunderbund captures on such exchange by Rep Smith (a Republican who won his district with over 65% of the vote in 2012)

During the hearings [video available here at 137:53] Smith asked a very moving question of Richard A. Ross, head the Governor’s Office of 21st Century Education. He simply wanted to know what, if anything, this budget would do to help the severely underfunded schools in his district, schools that are laying off teachers and other vital staff and can’t afford to provide simple classes in art of music. Ross compared his schools to the fast growing Olentangy school district in Central Ohio.

“Olentangy schools have German 1,2 and 3, Jewelry 1, Ceramics 1, Sculpture 1, Stage Craft 1, Concert Orchestra,” said Smith. ”These are things that children of Appalachia don’t get exposed to.”

“I’m not asking for synchronized swimming or a swimming pool or anything extra. I’m not asking for violin lessons or cello lessons. What I want for is my kids is music. And art… just give them a basic education,” pleaded Smith.

State Rep Smith also tells the story of Symmes Valley School District where the Superintendent had to layoff his board secretary, transportation director and curriculum director and is now doing all of those jobs himself. Another school district in Smith’s area has lost 40 teachers and the rest have had no raises in four years.

Smith ends by asking Ross asking if there is any “special sauce” in this budget that will help superintendents just provided a basic education to the kids in his district?

the Governor's advisors told Rep Smith that perhaps students in his poor district could learn music online. Then they laughed. They may not be laughing much longer, as opposition to the second worst school funding plan (The worst being their previous plan that cut almost $2 billion from school budgets) is increasing and hardening even in red corners of the state.

Stephen Dyer notes that Governor Kasich ought to be worried. We agree.

A Teacher's Open Letter to John Kasich

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Elementary music teacher Kelly Riley asked us to publish her letter to the Governor and his response. Great letter, not so great response.

Dear Mr. Kasich,

I do not teach a tested subject area. I am an elementary music teacher with nearly 350 students that I work with once every 3 days for 50 minutes. I recommend that I be assessed on how I benefit my school community. My students present musical performances at least once per year for their families and the entire student body. My fourth grade students are successful recorder players, my fifth grade students produce a CD of their original compositions each year, nearly all of my students sing tunefully and beautifully, and every single one of them is an appreciative consumer of many different musical genres and a respectful audience member. I serve as a staff liaison to my building PTO, I am my school’s technology coordinator, I sit on our Intervention Assistance Team, I coordinate the afternoon car pickup, I monitor the cafeteria for 30 minutes each day, I volunteered on my district’s levy committee, I have mentored student teachers, and I regularly present professional development for my colleagues. I also hold master’s degree in literacy and a license to teach reading, and I frequently integrate other subjects and technology into my music curriculum, which helps my students perform to the best of their abilities on standardized tests.

How would you quantify all that I do for my school community? I would love to use all of the above information to negotiate my salary. I could certainly argue that I’m worth quite a lot because of my education, experience, and the myriad of essential roles I play. I was going to begin my “Idea” with stating that the average salary for an American with a master’s degree is about $65,000 (with eight years of experience and an MA I make $57,113), but that really isn’t the point. I didn’t choose a teaching career for the money; I just want to be respected for all that I do for my kids.

I’ve been teaching elementary music in central Ohio for eight years, and since January, I have been extremely disheartened by the way my colleagues and I have been treated by many of the legislators of Ohio, including you, Mr. Kasich. You say in the YouTube video that you’d like to see teachers paid $100,000 and that what we do “is so critically important.” I laughed out loud at those comments, because that is in direct opposition to all of the news coming out of the Statehouse since you’ve taken office.

SB5 is disrespectful in that teachers must be evaluated on their students’ achievement on standardized tests. Teachers have very little control over a child’s life outside the 7 hours they spend at school 180 days a year. What is a teacher to do if a child is hungry or tired or sick on the single day of the test? And when the teachers and other union members banded together to attempt to put SB5 to a referendum vote, you added the pieces on teacher evaluation to the budget bill. That’s not only disrespectful to teachers, that is disrespectful to the democratic process. I demand that my students be respectful and thoughtful to others. You’re setting a terrible example for Ohio’s youth. Effectively taking away the teachers’ collective bargaining rights undermines the hard work we put into obtaining advanced degrees and countless hours of professional development required to maintain our teaching licenses. Teachers are not stupid; in fact, many teachers are more educated than our elected officials. How is it that you can run a state with only a bachelor’s degree, but teachers are required to obtain a master’s degree by their twelfth year of teaching (ORC 3301-24-08 B)?

Not only am I an angry teacher, I am also a taxpayer and voter. I choose to live in the community where I work so that I can support the school issues that affect my students and my working conditions. I am HAPPY to pay more in taxes to create a strong and desirable community. I have always felt that PAYING TAXES IS A PRIVILEGE because it benefits everyone in the community, especially those who may not have the means to help themselves. And yet, you propose cutting taxes when Ohio is in the red, and cater to business interests. I have yet to see data that validates these policies.

I am looking forward to the opportunity to perform my civic duty and exercise my right to vote you out of office.

Sincerely,

Kelly Riley

A Canned Response

As you know, a couple of months ago I asked Ohio’s teachers for their help in building a better system for rewarding educators for the difficult and important work they do. You’re getting this e-mail today because you were one of more than 1,200 people who joined in this process and shared with me an idea, suggestion or concern. Thank you for taking the time to do that and helping to shape this important effort.

As part of this process, I tasked my staff and Ohio’s Teacher Liaison, Sarah Dove, a 4th grade teacher from the Gahanna-Jefferson school district, to collect information, conduct listening roundtables across the state, and learn more directly from teachers about how to create a system of teacher evaluation and compensation that enhances our ability to increase achievement among Ohio’s students.

More recently, this week I had the opportunity to sit down myself with a small group of teachers who sent me e-mails and showed interest in getting involved in the process to determine how teacher evaluations will be shaped in Ohio. I learned a lot. For example, there are some great school districts that have already created innovative systems of teacher evaluation that work for both educators and the kids we all want to help succeed. Additionally, I learned just how very important it is to communicate our intention to assess teachers by using a wide variety of measures. One idea that particularly interested me provided teachers a choice as to which measures best evaluate their abilities as an educator. These substantive contributions, and yours, will help all involved as we work to develop a more fair and effective system of evaluation.

The Ohio Department of Education has created a website that includes information about the benefits of teacher evaluation, a blog from Ohio’s Teacher Liaison that will keep you up to date on our progress and, most importantly, a link where you can continue to submit your ideas and encourage your fellow teachers to get involved in the process. You can visit that website by clicking here: http://teachers.ohio.gov

As we work toward creating a manageable system for evaluating, rewarding and encouraging teachers, I feel it’s important that you recognize my firm belief in developing an evaluation process fair to educators and best for those we all are here to help – our children.

Please continue to stay involved, encourage your colleagues to participate by submitting their own ideas, and together, we can continue our work to make Ohio great again.

Sincerely,

John R. Kasich

Governor of Ohio

An Open Letter to Gov. John Kasich

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A great letter from an Ohio teacher to Governor Kasich in response to his request for merit pay feedback (brought to our attention by another teacher).

Dear Mr. Kasich,

I do not teach a tested subject area. I am an elementary music teacher with nearly 350 students that I work with once every 3 days for 50 minutes. I recommend that I be assessed on how I benefit my school community. My students present musical performances at least once per year for their families and the entire student body. My fourth grade students are successful recorder players, my fifth grade students produce a CD of their original compositions each year, nearly all of my students sing tunefully and beautifully, and every single one of them is an appreciative consumer of many different musical genres and a respectful audience member. I serve as a staff liaison to my building PTO, I am my school’s technology coordinator, I sit on our Intervention Assistance Team, I coordinate the afternoon car pickup, I monitor the cafeteria for 30 minutes each day, I volunteered on my district’s levy committee, I have mentored student teachers, and I regularly present professional development for my colleagues. I also hold master’s degree in literacy and a license to teach reading, and I frequently integrate other subjects and technology into my music curriculum, which helps my students perform to the best of their abilities on standardized tests.

How would you quantify all that I do for my school community? I would love to use all of the above information to negotiate my salary. I could certainly argue that I’m worth quite a lot because of my education, experience, and the myriad of essential roles I play. I was going to begin my “Idea” with stating that the average salary for an American with a master’s degree is about $65,000 (with eight years of experience and an MA I make $57,113), but that really isn’t the point. I didn’t choose a teaching career for the money; I just want to be respected for all that I do for my kids.

[readon2 url="http://www.klsriley.com/2011/05/28/an-open-letter-to-gov-john-kasich/"]Continue reading...[/readon2]