State Education News
- Schools air funding beefs during Ohio House hearings (Dispatch)
The spending-per-pupil statistic is often used to measure efficiency of school districts across Ohio, so when Chris Pfister saw that his small, low-income, rural district’s number was higher than those of other nearby schools, he scratched his head. Read more...
Local Issues
- Attendance-record manager reassigned amid mess (Dispatch)
The man who was in charge of gathering and reporting Columbus City Schools’ state report-card data is being reassigned from the district’s data center to another job as the state moves in to investigate allegations of rigging student attendance numbers. There was no documentation to show that attendance changes were legitimate in 80 of 81 cases the district’s internal auditor reviewed. Steve Tankovich, the executive director of the Office of Accountability Systems, will be out of the district’s Kingswood Data Center by Thursday, Superintendent Gene Harris said yesterday. Read more...
- Lorain Schools likely to face fiscal emergency even if levy passes (Elyria Chronicle)
The school district is expected to become insolvent and declare fiscal emergency this spring, triggering a state financial takeover even if a levy passes in November. “I won’t have the cash to finish out the year,” School Treasurer Dale Weber said after Thursday’s Board of Education meeting where board members closed out the 2011-12 school year. The district closed out the year with a nearly $91.8 million general fund budget. The 2012-13 budget is about $89.6 million. Read more...
- Licking Heights, Southwest Licking districts plan to share food-service director (Newark Advocate)
Two local school districts plan on sharing a supervisor to drive down costs, starting this school year. Officials at one of the districts said the move could be the first of several partnerships aimed at saving money. Licking Heights Board of Education on June 26 approved a shared-services agreement with neighboring Southwest Licking Local Schools. The agreement, if approved tonight by the SWL board, will allow both districts to share Heights’ food service director, Ginger Parsons. Read more...
- Ohio Legal Rights Service Drops Lawsuit Against Columbus City Schools (State Impact Ohio)
A state agency that advocates for the rights of disabled people has dropped its lawsuit against the Columbus school district in connection with the use of seclusion rooms. Seclusion rooms are small, often padded rooms where violent or aggressive students can be taken to calm down. Read more...
- Ohio Schools Battling A Crisis (Wheeling News Register)
The blue-and-gold mascot of the Monroe Fighting Hornets was depicted on the school room wall, hovering over lists instructing children how to behave in the hallways, bathrooms and on the school bus. The hornet looked mad. Read more...
- Harris supports delaying Columbus school levy vote (Dispatch)
With the Columbus school board set to vote on Monday on whether to seek a levy in November, Superintendent Gene Harris now says she supports waiting until 2013, she told board members by memo this afternoon. The decision threw Harris’ weight firmly behind a 14-member citizen millage committee, which has been meeting for months to decide whether the district should put a property-tax issue on the fall ballot. That panel voted 8-2 on Tuesday to delay a levy until next year. Read more...
- Franklin County changes plan for disabled students (Dispatch)
The two schools operated by the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities will start the 2014-15 school year with a new curriculum designed to help students ages 14 to 22 transition to adult services and jobs. Board members approved the restructuring plan last night. It effectively phases out school services for children 6 to 13 at both Northeast and West Central schools. Read more...
- City schools avoid suit, hand over ‘seclusion room’ files (Dispatch)
A federal lawsuit to force Columbus schools to hand over records about its use of seclusion rooms has been dismissed because the district provided them. The Ohio Legal Rights Service, a state agency that works to protect people with disabilities, sued Columbus City Schools in March. The agency said the district was blocking its attempt to investigate whether children had been abused in the closetlike rooms. The agency sought the names and contact information of students who had been placed in seclusion rooms and records related to incidents that occurred in the rooms dating back to Jan. 1, 2011. Read more...
- Closed Tallmadge school to find new life as private school (Beacon Journal)
TALLMADGE: Overdale Primary School, which closed in the spring of 2011 as part of budget cuts made by the Tallmadge school district, will hear little footsteps echoing in its halls again this fall. Stow-based Cornerstone Community School placed a top bid of $320,000 on the property last week, and the school board approved the sale. Read more...
- Sponsor pulls plug on Academy of Excellence (Beacon Journal)
Former Akron Councilman Ernie Tarle’s Academy of Excellence charter school has lost its sponsor and won’t open this fall in Akron. Charters are publicly funded, privately operated schools that must have a state-approved sponsor to operate. Read more...
