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State Board of Ed 2012 Results

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In the 7 races for State Board of education, 4 pro-public education candidates won.

Ann Jacobs defeat former OSU QB and Kasich appointee Stanley Jackson handily 65-35. Both Mary Rose Oakar and Stephanie Dodd also handily beat their opponents 63-37 and 60-24-15 respectively, with Michael Collins narrowly defeated his 2 opponents to be reelected.

Bryan Williams, Jeff Hardin, both incumbents defeated their pro-public education opponents. To round out the results, Sarah Fowler, a home-school graduate was also elected.

The State board of education has a lot of work to do, as the Dispatch notes

The new board has some heavy lifting to do in the coming year, starting with the hiring of a state superintendent. The post has been vacant since early August, when Stan Heffner resigned after an ethics probe.

The board also must fix state-issued report cards that have been manipulated by false data submitted by school districts, and oversee implementation of Ohio’s third-grade reading guarantee and more-rigorous curriculum standards.

Let's hope the pro public education voices are listened to. We'll be watching closely.

Education News for 08-07-2012

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State Education News

  • Heffner lost job over bill's provision (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Tucked in the 3,262 pages of last year’s state budget bill is a provision that cost state schools Superintendent Stan W. Heffner his job...Read more...

  • Ohio Superintendent Resigns Following Ethics Report (Education Week)

    • Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner has announced his resignation following a report that identified his apparent conflict of interest...Read more...

  • Voters To Decide On School Issues (ONN)

    • On Tuesday, more than 30 school districts will be asking voters to pass levies. Special elections are being held in 31 counties across the state...Read more...

  • Ohio Dems decry lack of charges in scandal (Toledo Blade)

    • Democrats said Monday that Ohio's top education official should not be allowed to simply walk away from his job...Read more...

  • Back to School: New rules for lunch (WKYC)

    • For the first time in 15 years, school lunches are going to look and taste differently. New federal guidelines are now in effect for schools across the country...Read more...

  • Attendance data not likely to be rigged (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • While a statewide investigation examines data rigging in school attendance reporting, Mahoning Valley school officials believe safeguards are in place...Read more...

Local Education News

  • Dragonfly director resigns following release of ODE review (Canton Repository)

    • Brianne Bixby-Nightingale resigned Monday as executive director of Dragonfly Academy. The school’s board of directors accepted her resignation effective immediately, according to Ben Weisbuch, Dragonfly’s attorney...read more...

  • Getting the school year off to a healthy start (Springfield News-Sun)

    • Summer is winding down, and the school year is quickly approaching...Read more...

  • 11 Rossford school officials make concessions (Toledo Blade)

    • Administrators in the Rossford school district have volunteered to freeze their wages, pay more of the cost of their medical insurance, and forfeit a personal day for savings...Read more...

Editorial

  • Departure time (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Stan Heffner quickly apologized “for my lack of judgment.” His words came in response to a report delivered Thursday by the state inspector general...Read more...

  • Youngstown schools district not off hook with resignation (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Youngstown city schools of- ficials should not take comfort from the resignation of the state’s education chief, Stan Heffner, because the future of district ultimately rests with Republican Gov. John Kasich...Read more...

Education News for 08-06-2012

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State Education News

  • Official Seeks Meeting About Ohio Schools Chief (Associated Press)

    • A member of the Ohio Board of Education called Friday for an emergency meeting to be set for the panel to address findings of wrongdoing against Superintendent Stan Heffner by the state watchdog. Read more...

  • Leader of Ohio schools resigns (Associated Press)

    • Ohio's top education official resigned Saturday amid ethics questions about his work for an educational testing contractor. Read more...

  • Ohio school chief quits (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Ohio’s top education leader announced his resignation Saturday, just two days after facing accusations of misconduct and ethics violations in office. Read more...

  • Ohio schools chief Stan Heffner resigns under fire for conflict (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Ohio Schools Superintendent Stan Heffner resigned on Saturday, under fire after the state inspector general found he lobbied improperly for a private education company he planned to work for. Read more...

  • State schools superintendent resigns amid ethics fallout (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner announced his resignation this afternoon amid the fallout accompanying an ethics scandal. Read more...

  • Schools’ rigging was on the wall (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Although the state auditor’s office and the Department of Education launched investigations this summer into potential data-rigging at school districts across Ohio, the warning lights have been flashing red for years. Read more...

  • School attendance manipulation called ‘unfathomable’ (Lima News)

    • LIMA — When Jill Ackerman found out about public schools throughout the state likely manipulating attendance records to boost standardized test score averages, she was shocked. Read more...

  • Locked Away: How Ohio Schools Misuse Seclusion Rooms (State Impact Ohio and Columbus Dispatch)

    • Some Ohio children with disabilities are regularly isolated in cell-like rooms, closets or old offices when they behave badly. Read more...

  • Locked Away: New Policy Would Limit Use of School Seclusion Rooms to Real Emergencies (State Impact Ohio and Columbus Dispatch)

    • A 17-year-old Ohio girl died in 2008 in a home for troubled children after her caretakers pinned her face-down on the floor. Read more...

Local Education News

  • CPS superintendent can stay in suburbs (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Cincinnati Public Schools superintendent Mary Ronan’s new three-year contract no longer requires that she live in the district… Read more...

  • Districts hope to cut cost by sharing subs (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • A newly formed partnership between Butler and Warren counties’ Educational Service Centers, will allow 13 school districts to draw from a central pool of substitute teachers. Read more...

  • Investing in Ohio Schools (Columbus Dispatch)

    • There will be no more classes in the parking lot, no more mysterious walled of hallways. When 1,500 Licking County students return to Newark High School this month, most construction on their once disjointed campus will be complete. Read more...

  • School facilities commission continues past halfway point (Dayton Daily News)

    • The Ohio School Facilities Commission has reached the halfway point of its mission to upgrade school buildings throughout the state at a cost of more than $10 billion, but faces a future in which its source of funding is no longer clear. Read more...

  • Skill training is 'win-win' (Marion Star)

    • ...To make sure they can find people who possess the talents needed to fulfill the responsibilities assigned to them, employers do what they can to foster such skills in the prospective workforce. Read more...

Editorial

  • Marrison: We'll keep on digging into school records case (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The developing scandal over school-attendance records is growing more odd. And disappointing… Read more...

  • Don’t allow schools to cover it up (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

    • It has been said that the coverup is worse than the crime. Well, what about a coverup of a coverup? That may well be happening in one of Ohio's largest school districts. Read more...

Kasich failed leadership test

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Leadership isn't deciding if everyone should have cake or ice-cream for dessert, it's making the right decision when the decision is tough, and especially when it needs to be made quickly. John Kasich failed that test.

When the scandal surrounding Stan Heffner, who the Inspector general accused of theft in office, pay to play and perjury, broke, the Governor failed to act.

Heffner had been under fire by some critics to resign, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich wasn't one of them. A spokesman for Gov. Kasich said Heffner should not lose his job. "He is doing a very good job as superintendent, but using official resources the way he did and demonstrating that kind of bad judgment is unacceptable," Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said in an email to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Certainly some action is warranted, but right now it's the governor's own opinion that dismissal seems too far."

The pressure from every other quarter however mounted, culminating in Stan Heffner resigning, Saturday 4th, August. Here's the Governor's response to this news

Kasich referred to the resignation as a "retirement" in a statement on Saturday, and called the decision "the right one." He said Heffner's "mistakes in judgment were unfortunate, but I respect him for always putting Ohio's students above everything else, including his own interests."

The Governor in just a matter of days, switches his position. On the 2nd August, removing Stan Heffner was "too far", just 2 days later it was "the right one".

Failures of leadership don't get easier to see than this.

Stan Heffner's Double Standards

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Stan Heffner seems to have a set of double standards when it comes to ethics

Stan Heffner last week, talking about the scrubbing scandal

“I will be asking our office of professional conduct to launch investigations along with the attorney general’s office if I find there is evidence of fraud so we have civil and criminal investigations at the same time,” Heffner said after speaking at the Columbus Metropolitan Club yesterday. “Those people have no business in our public schools.”

Stan Heffner today, in the wake of the Inspector General's detailing his serious ethics violations

Ohio schools Superintendent Stan Heffner quickly apologized for ethics allegations outlined in a state watchdog investigation released today but stopped short of stepping down from the post he has held for a year.

“I accept the findings of the Inspector General’s report. I was wrong and I’m sorry for my lack of judgment,” Heffner said in a statement released by the Ohio Department of Education.

“I’ve apologized to my staff, my friends and colleagues at the department, and the board. I have learned from my mistakes, and I will work with the board to take whatever steps they feel are necessary to resolve this matter and move forward.”

Stan Heffner's Double Standards

in

Stan Heffner seems to have a set of double standards when it comes to ethics

Stan Heffner last week, talking about the scrubbing scandal

“I will be asking our office of professional conduct to launch investigations along with the attorney general’s office if I find there is evidence of fraud so we have civil and criminal investigations at the same time,” Heffner said after speaking at the Columbus Metropolitan Club yesterday. “Those people have no business in our public schools.”

Stan Heffner today, in the wake of the Inspector General's detailing his serious ethics violations

Ohio schools Superintendent Stan Heffner quickly apologized for ethics allegations outlined in a state watchdog investigation released today but stopped short of stepping down from the post he has held for a year.

“I accept the findings of the Inspector General’s report. I was wrong and I’m sorry for my lack of judgment,” Heffner said in a statement released by the Ohio Department of Education.

“I’ve apologized to my staff, my friends and colleagues at the department, and the board. I have learned from my mistakes, and I will work with the board to take whatever steps they feel are necessary to resolve this matter and move forward.”