LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS
MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2006
BOARD OF EDUCATION OFFICE 9190 CO. RD. 9, FINDLAY OHIO
REGULAR BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING 6:00 PM
STRATEGIC PLANNING WORK SESSION 7:30 PM

I. Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance……………………………………………………Jeff Shadle, Board President

II. Recognition of Visitors

Approval of minutes from the Monday, May 15, 2006 regular and special board of education meetings.

III. Communications and Discussion

Second Reading – NEOLA Policies

Use of medications

Wellness

IV. Principals’ Reports

Brian Burkett, Steve Gfell, Brenda Frankart

V. Treasurer’s Report………………………………………………………………………Lisa Dobbins

VI. Superintendent’s Report ……………………………………………………………Dennis L. Recker

VII. New Business

A. Approve Consent Agenda, to include:

1. Listing of Bills, Expenditures and Investments through 5/31/06, and monthly financial report of the Treasurer.

2. Approve appropriation modifications for June 2006

3. Approve creating a High School Quiz Bowl Fund 200-9701 beginning FY07.

4. Accept $450 from the Ohio Department of Health for Buckeye Best Program.

5. Accept $500 additional Professional Development Grant funds from ETech Ohio

6. Accept $2000 FY2006 EMIS subsidy payment

7. Approve listing of obsolete/disposed of inventory items

8. Approve advance back of $30,000 from the cafeteria fund to general fund

9. Approve seeking bids for a 72 passenger diesel conventional style school bus.

10. Approve a resolution to participate in the Hancock County Alternative Opportunity Center for the 2006-07 school year

11. Approve an agreement with the Northwest Ohio Educational Research Council, Inc. for the 2006-07 school year.

12. Approve a “Statement of Agreement for use of Liberty-Benton High School as Mass Care Shelter” with the American Red Cross

13. Approve the middle school handbook changes for 2006-07

14. Approve the sixth graders to Camp Storer October 9-13, 2006

15. Approve continuing contract status for Mary Jo McFarlane.

16. Approve Carol Waldman, Title I Summer Family and Community Program

17. Approve Nancy Cramer, 2006 Summer Ohio Reads Program

18. Approve Alida Hause, 2006 Summer Ohio Reads Program

19. Approve the following resignations:

Steve Gfell, Middle School Principal, effective June 30, 2006

Ann Thieman, Middle School Art Teacher effective June 15, 2006

Joy Toth, cook, effective June 9, 2006

Brandon Cupples, MS Athletic Supervisor, effective May 18, 2006

Deb Morella, MS Girls Track Coach, effective June 1, 2006

Heather Murray, Sophomore Class Advisor, effective June 6, 2006

20. Approve Lennie Walters, HS Aide

21. Approve the following summer secretarial staff:

Erma Metzger, Mary Garcia

22. Approve the following teachers for summer intervention:

Dawn Blankenship, Kelley Foltz, Ben Gerken, Kelly Hunter as high school intervention teachers for 20 hours @ $25 per hour.

23. Approve the following certified personnel:

Carrie McMillen, long term substitute teacher for 2006-07

Denise Lytle, teacher, one year contract, 2006-07 Title 2A funded

Christy Cramner, MS Math Teacher, effective 2006-07 school year

Melissa Stanton, MS Intervention Specialist, effective 2006-07 school year

Kimberly Machi, HS Intervention Specialist, effective 2006-07 school year

24. Approve the following extra-curricular personnel for the 2006-07 school year:

Scott Snider, Assistant Boys Football Coach

Andrew Shafer, Assistant Boys Football Coach

Aaron Dietsch, .50 Assistant Boys Football Coach

Craig McMillan, Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Lance Stevens, Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Mike Greer, Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Jason Elchert, Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Jim Spier, Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Andrew Eckhart, Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Don York, MS Boys Football Coach

Brandon Cupples, Assistant MS Boys Football Coach

Chase Becker, MS Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Jim Keller, MS Volunteer Assistant Boys Football Coach

Jack Quisno, Boys Track Coach

Pat Wagner, Girls Track Coach

Tony England, Assistant Boys Track Coach

Marshall Headley, Assistant Baseball Coach

Mike Scoles, Sophomore Class Advisor

Dawn Blankenship, Fall Junior Class Advisor

Denise Matson, MS Athletic Supervisor

Sarah Santilli, Director of Productions for the Musical

Sarah Santilliti/Zach Thomas, Co-Vocal Directors for the Musical

Zach Thomas, Musical Conductor

Brenda Hoyt-Brackman, Choreographer for the Musical

Carrie McMillen, HS Cheerleading Advisor

Stephanie Miller, Volunteer Assistant for High School Cheerleading

B. Approve Jeffrey James Tichenor, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Tichenor, as a tuition student for 2006-07 school year.

C. Approve for classified, non-bargaining unit members, the same base increase (20 cents per hour) and accompanying benefits offered the OAPSE group.

D. Resolution to accept the low bid of $59,924.00 from All Temp Refrigeration, Inc., Delphos, Ohio as the contractor for the project of furnishing and installing a new chiller at Liberty-Benton Middle School effective July 1, 2006.

E. Motion to rescind acceptance of ECLIPSE Learn and Serve Grant – Beautification Project

motion 12 60 05, dated December 19, 2005 in the amount of $1231.

VIII. Other Business

IX. Executive Session

X. Adjournment

LIBERTY-BENTON LOCAL SCHOOLS

JUNE DISTRICT BOARD REPORT

DENNIS L. RECKER, SUPERINTENDENT

June 16, 2006

Enclosed are copies of “The Board”. (Item A)
With the legislature keeping state aid increases below 2% per year, we need to realize that when the DeRolph case was being heard, we received annual state aid increase between 5-10% annually. That is when we established our cash balance. The last four years of state increases have been 3.5%, 3.5%, 1.8%, and 1.3%. Because of the dire straits schools are facing, there is the possibility of a constitutional amendment being sought which would declare public education a fundamental right, provide a phase in of state aid increases of 7.2% and 7.2% over the first two years, and a methodology to determine the cost of an adequate education. This would be funded by a 1% earmarked sales tax for schools and local government and be accompanied by property tax relief by eliminating the first $40,000 of class I value from taxation, with another $20,000 reduction for those 65 and older, plus another $20,000 for those defined as living in poverty. The 20 mil floor would be increased to 22 mils as a floor, and this would generate the needed revenue for public school funding. This provides property tax relief for all, plus a financial safety net for the elderly and impoverished. The definition of adequate would be designed by a panel of 18 specialists, 9 of which would be board of education members. I found it interesting that every 50 years in Ohio has a constitutional amendment addressing public education, the last amendment being in 1953, and prior to that, 1912. This seems to be a historical cycle. Enclosed is a draft copy of the components of such a future amendment. (Item B)
You as board members received a copy of a study from the Education Tax Policy Institute. This is well worth reading because it shows what might happen to school systems in the future. I’ve asked Lisa to attend a workshop to see how we would have been impacted, had this amendment been in place. (Item C)
I spoke to Red Cross official, Judy Cantwell, and she will provide an addendum to the agreement for L-B use as a mass care shelter to be used for local (Hancock County) emergencies only and possible pandemic use. I also asked for evidence that the Red Cross would pay for any physical damage that might occur during their occupation of our facility. This has been provided. (Item D)
Attached is our annual resolution to participate in the Hancock County Alternative Opportunity Center. (Item E)
Enclosed is a copy of my Senate testimony regarding SB311. This was well received and I was informed that officials wish to talk to us more in-depth about our performance and the initiatives we are attempting. (Item F)
Looking at our future with Millstream Vocational School, there will shortly (within 1-2 years) be a huge demographic change. Current 210 of Millstream students are special needs. At L-B, we will graduate three special needs children and enroll 14 new special needs freshmen this fall of 2006. Findlay is now seeing one in six of their students on IEP’s and expecting more. While we see the implications of this locally by needing more teachers and support staff, with the local community needing to pay more of the costs, we have to face the fact of needing to design or expand vocational training programs for these students, as well as making sure they can pass the Ohio Graduation Tests. The Millstream staff is monitoring this and looking at creating employment opportunities for these children, but realize this will be an additional financial obligation on our part. (Item G)
I had the opportunity to address 160 of Ohio’s top sophomores at a Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Conference held at the University of Findlay. I received some feedback from the students on the future of Ohio’s educational system which I felt was enlightening. (Item H)
Enclosed is a copy of School Income Tax rates in Ohio. This provides a perspective of how we compare to other districts, especially when we operate at a 20 mil floor with 4.6 emergency mils. (Item I)
One of our teacher’s has requested a continuing contract. I recommended a one year contract last month, but the teacher believes she’s entitled to continuing. We had our attorney review case law, and if a part time teacher works a state defined minimum student day (5 hours), they are, according to a 1984 Ohio Supreme Court ruling, able to obtain one year of credited service toward a continuing contract status. For that reason, our staff member with 4 years part time status, and two years full time, is entitled to continuing contract status, based on this ruling. Therefore, I’m obligated to recommend continuing contract status. She is a very good teacher.
We have a couple of annual “renewals” which we normally conduct. One is our participation in the Hancock County Alternative School and the other is our participation in the Northwestern Ohio Educational Research Council. These are our alternative school commitment and 4 regional staff development programs available to our administrators and teachers at no cost, other than our $175 annual fee. (Item J)
We have a student moving into Findlay from Indianapolis. His parents are requesting tuition status for the 2006-07 school year. I’ll recommend board approval permitting his attendance. (Item K)
One of the reasons we’ve been “lucky” in how we’ve been able to sustain our operations and not be in the fiscal turmoil other schools have faced, is our ability to make changes that protect the students and school. This is done by making the needed changes in expenditures and, sorry to say, reducing in those areas that, while nice to have, that do not make the needed educational impact in a cost effective manner. The difficulty in managing this scenario is understandably what will probably happen at the state level. For this reason, note the following predicted annual balances as to actual, based on September 2002 information and May of 2006:

September 2002 Projected 2005-06 Actuals to Date

FY05 ($217,897) $522,026

FY06 ($564,156) $327,347

FY07 ($1,007,914) $($196,158) projected

The newspapers have been carrying stories all month about 5 year forecasts, the impact on schools, and how terrible the financial “fall-out” will be by FY10. For that reason, in FY08 we currently have a deficit in annual income of ($963,156). This is the equivalent of 6.3 mils. In FY09 the deficit jumps to ($1,454,551), which equates to nearly 9.5 mils. In FY10, we’re at ($2,530,327), which is 16.5 mils. Most schools ask for additional revenues every third year, per the news releases. We’ve gone 10 years without having additional local funding approval. That is why, even in FY08, when we should be requesting an additional 6-7 mils, we will have an unencumbered balance of 3 million dollars. With the “doubling effect” of deficits, this is why we requested 3.5 mils last year. Bear in mind that when you read the “horror stories” in other schools, they tend not to respond to this financial crunch until its too late and have to implement huge cuts and still ask for huge levels of funding. We’ve made our “cuts” over time, keeping us afloat, and thus allowing us to keep our request for additional revenues at a reasonable level. We just need to be alert to state funding changes, our need to take action for appropriate actions, and realize the importance always in keeping a cash balance that will allow us to provide the high level of education our children deserve. Looking ahead, what does the end of FY09 look like for Hancock County Schools when studying the 5 year forecasts:

School Annual spending projected +/- End of FY09 balance

Arcadia ($609,972) +.69M

Arlington ($468,529) +2.3M

Cory Rawson ($539,107) ($862,676)

Findlay ($1,359,783) +4.6M

L-B ($1,454,552) +3.0M

McComb ($955,945) ($810,202)

Van Buren ($647,713) +1.9M

Vanlue ($414,866) ($582,445)

Only L-B and Arlington have not voted additional taxes the past two years. It appears that Cory-Rawson, McComb, and Vanlue will have had to pass issues by FY09 to remain solvent, with Arcadia “on the bubble”, and L-B facing the choice of nearly a ten mill levy or waiting the extra year and needing in excess of 16 mills. Of course we could ask one year sooner, FY08, for the equivalent of 6.5 mills. To the board’s credit, I recommended the 3.5 mill increase last year, (2004) and the board was unanimous in its support, but the community said no. I said we’d need to double our request with two if we continued as usual, but significant cuts were made and we bought a year of time. However, the reality is that we have to face the responsibility of how great a magnitude of a levy do we want? I faced this when I came in 1990, and we needed 12 mils from day one. I don’t believe we want that scenario to re-develop. A “reasonable” 6.5 mils would provide a FY10 balance of 6 million, versus an ending balance of $491,893, and we’d be solvent (almost identical to today) until 2013. Wait a year, and a 10 mil issue would provide a FY10 balance of 4.4 million. Also, given the fact that the legislature has gone on record that they will maintain a 3.5% spending cap in state government, schools could feasibly get reductions in state aid, further magnifying our own problem.

School revenues come from different sources, and eventually there is a “total” amount derived at for doing our business. One factor sometimes overlooked is constituent support based upon their ability to pay, sometimes referred to as a “local effort threshold”. Note the following chart, which provides local effort, total effort, and finally, our actual expenditures as compared to income from all sources. This was the status of the schools in Hancock County as of November. This also does not take into account any levies passed in November, which would increase the value of the first column:

Mil Value School Local Income All Sources of Income Expenditures FY06

(R Estate, Personal Tangible

School Income tax)

67,550 Arcadia $2,427,250=35.9 mils $5,149,066=76.2 mils $4,817,690=71.3 mils

59,734 Arlington $1,875,300=31.4 mils $5,144,693=86.1 mils $5,139,351=86.0 mils

76,098 Cory Rawson $2,477,416=32.6 mils $5,441,247=71.5 mils $5,510,781=72.4 mils

857,618 Findlay $29,050,204=33.9 mils $52,675,023=61.4 mils $53,565,087=62.5 mils

155,184 L-B $4,761,288=30.7 mils (7^th) $10,520,627=67.7 mils (6^th) $10,667,124=68.7 mils (6^th)

80,073 McComb $2,523,266=31.5 mils $6,063,679=75.73 mils $6,300,998=78.7 mils

232,244 Van Buren $6,043,655=26.0 mils $7,561,455=32.5 mils $7,522,031=32.4 mils

21,156 Vanlue $918,603=33.8 mils $2,733,849=100.67 mils $2,768,387=101.9 mils

L-B is second to last in local maintenance of effort, third last in total income from all sources, and third last in actual cost as a maintenance of effort. We have extremely high performance for the most reasonable cost.

15. Over the past year, we have had conversations regarding communication, being able to touch our community,

and doing our best in presenting our message. As luck would have it, I received this article from OSBA this

week, and thought “Wow”. This addresses our concerns, is something we can look at throughout our

strategic planning process, and shows how we’ve been “doing it right”, at least from OSBA’s perspective.

As with many of our initiatives, we’ve been utilizing this methodology years before this publication was

printed. (Item L)

Jeff streamlined our bus routes at the beginning of the school year, but we needed to add on a handicapped pre-school route to Cory-Rawson. The net effect was a near “wash” in gallons of fuel used compared to last year, but our dollar costs increased 33% from $44,961 to $59,590.
Enclosed is a flier that was created by another county school superintendent that might be something for us to consider in the future to generate some income for the school. Thank goodness that we now have defibulators. (Item M)
We’ll be needing high school summer intervention teachers and will be hiring them for 20 hours of instruction at $25 per hour. They include Dawn Blankenship for Reading and Writing, Kelley Foltz for Social Studies, Ben Gerken for Mathematics, and Kelly Hunter for Science. (Item N)
Enclosed is a letter from our architect providing us a recommendation for a chiller bid. On a related issue, we still have yet to hear from potential contractors for our fire alarm system upgrade in the elementary. (Item O)
Enclosed are a number of resignations. (Item P)
Enclosed is a letter from OHSAA’s Commissioner. (Item Q)
A question was asked as to whether I would make a recommendation regarding an additional restroom/concession area. I’d sent this out last December, but we “held back” to see if our strategic planning process would give us more direction and clarity as to what action we might want to take. This enclosure provides an “old” estimate to an addition to our current weight room facility. This would be 1800 square feet, of which 300 square feet in storage, 600 square feet would be restrooms, and approximately 750 square feet would be concession area. The cost estimate of $131,750 is probably a bit low now, but this a fair estimate. If we decide to go “free standing” however, look for greater costs due to additional metal, more sewer lines, and a lift station (approximately another 75-100K). (Item R)
Ann Thieman has submitted her resignation for the 2006-07 school year. (Item S)
Brenda Frankart is recommending staff for co-curricular positions. (Item T)
Will ask that motion 12 60 05, Findlay-Hancock County ECLIPSE Partnership Grant be rescinded. (Item U)
Mr. Gfell is requesting approval of changes in the middle school handbook as stated in his report. Upon approval, he can get these published and back for students this fall.
We provide reading services over the summer through our Title I Ohio Reads program. We’re asking approval for Carol Waldman, Nancy Cramer, and Alida Hause to conduct this again. I’ve been pleased by the positive response from community members regarding these ladies efforts.
With our increase in special needs students district wide this year, not only do we need additional teachers, Melissa Stanton at the middle school and Kimberly Machi at high school, but we need aide support at the high school. Lennie Walters will help us here and “double up” as high school luncheon cashier. Other staff we need to employ are Denise Lytle for Title 2A class reduction, Christy Cramner as middle school math, and Carrie McMillan as a long term substitute.
We need to approve salary increases for our non-bargaining unit classified staff for the upcoming school year.

Middle School Board Report

June 19, 2006

Dear Board Members:

As all of you by now know, I have resigned my position as principal of Liberty-Benton Middle School to be the associate principal at Swanton High School. I do not have much new to report to you at this time as I have not pursued any new initiatives that I will be unable to finish. However, I have created a short list of things that I feel must be done before I depart for Swanton High School. They are as follows:

1) Schedule the building and all its students

2) Get the handbook approved

3) Complete all hiring

4) Pass the Camp Storer project on

The status of these issues is as follows:

1) At this point, the building is scheduled, and all of the students have been placed in classes. There are a few minor issues regarding classroom assignments and teacher name changes that need to be resolved. Those issues will be addressed shortly.

2) Hopefully the handbook will be approved, and I will be able to send it to print tomorrow.

3) This is still in a state of flux. I am waiting for an answer from an individual who I offered a job to. Depending on her answer, I may or may not be done hiring.

4) I have spoken to the sixth grade teachers. They are content to take over the program as they want it to be a success.

There is some good news that you should be aware of as well. LBMS met six of seven indicators on the state report card with 6^th grade Mathematics being the only indicator not met. I am still waiting for our official Performance Index (PI) score from the Ohio Department of Education. This will determine whether our school is “Excellent” or “Effective”. I have calculated our score to be anywhere from 99.5 to 100. Scoring a PI of 100 makes a school “Excellent”; obviously, we are very close. Regardless, I feel good knowing that our PI has moved from 89.9 to its current position in my three years. I am convinced that the school building will be ranked “Excellent” next year if it is not already this year.

One last item needs to be clarified. After additional conferring with a sage board member, I propose a change in language to my earlier grading proposal. It is as follows:

GRADE AVERAGING PLAN (NINE WEEKS PLAN)

A. In computing the semester averages and the final average, a twelve point scale will be used:

12 = A+ 9 = B+ 6 = C+ 3 = D+

11 = A 8 = B 5 = C 2 = D

10 = A- 7 = B- 4 = C- 1 = D-

B. We are using a nine week grading plan in order to give our students more of an opportunity to raise grades after the interim period. Also, the nine weeks plan puts more value on classroom performance rather than the exam grade.

C. Anything less than a 1.0 average (without rounding) is a failure for any course.

D. Semester grades will be computed by averaging the two quarter grades. Final grades will be computed by averaging the four quarter grades.

G. Semester and final grades above .5 will be rounded up (e.g. 7.5 becomes 8).

H. Students failing three of four quarters automatically receive a grade of “F” for the final average.

Also, I would like to add the following to avoid scheduling and grading dilemmas:

ADD/DROP POLICY

Students may not drop any class during the course of the school year. Students may only add elective classes upon receipt of permission from that course’s instructor.

Last, I would like to thank all of your for your support and insight. Liberty-Benton is a great place, and I have had a wonderful experience here. My change is for family reasons and nothing more.

Sincerely,

HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Board of Education Meeting

June 19, 2006

7:00 P.M.

1.) Grade Cards - Final grade cards were mailed home for the 2005-2006 school year on June 16, 2006.

2.) Scholarship Money For The Class of 2006 - As I mentioned at graduation, the Class of 2006 did a great job of bringing in a lot of scholarship money for college. 84% of the graduating class is heading off to college, and over 55% of the class received some scholarship money. For their first year of college, they will receive $306,637 in scholarship money, and over the next four years, they will receive $1,133,781 in ACCEPTED scholarships. Our kids turn down so many more from various colleges, and the figures we report are strictly the amounts they have accepted and will be using. Keep that in mind when you look at the amounts from surrounding schools.

3.) Orientation Night - All freshmen and new students should attend Orientation Night with parents on August 23, 2006, at 7:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium. During the orientation, high school requirements, procedures, rules, and available extra-curricular activities will be discussed followed by a tour of the building. Students will meet their Welcome Crew partner, follow their class schedule through the building, and locate their assigned locker.

4.) Schedule Pick-Up - Schedule pick-up for next school year will run August 23-25, 2006. All freshmen and new students will receive their schedules during the Orientation Night.

5.) New Student Registration - The high school enrollment day for new student registration has been set for August 3^rd from 8:00-3:00.

6.) OGT Intervention - We have arranged for summer intervention to be held in June for students still needing to pass sections of the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). We are offering one week of reading, writing, or social studies intervention during June 19-23, and we are offering one week of intervention in mathematics or science during the week of June 26-30. Students may participate in up to two areas during the summer testing time if they have successfully completed the intervention requirements. Our teachers covering the intervention include Kelley Foltz in social studies, Dawn Blankenship in reading and writing, Ben Gerken in math, and Kelly Hunter in science.

7.) March OGT Results - I was completely thrilled with our outstanding OGT results from the March test! I have attached a copy of my summary of these results. Our results across the board were incredible, but I especially want to point out three special areas. First, having 63% of our sophomores receiving an “ADVANCED” rating in mathematics is truly phenomenal, and besides that, another 18% was rated as accelerated. In math, this is usually unheard of, and I congratulate our entire math department for working so hard on this! Secondly, I especially want to congratulate science teacher, Kelly Hunter, who just so happened to work with this class two years in a row. As freshmen, she had the students for physical science, and she has now moved up to work with them as sophomores in biology. To have 105 out of 110 sophomores pass science, and to have 74% of them pass with “Advanced” or “Accelerated” ratings is terrific! Congratulations also to Mrs. Kelly Hunter! Third, I continue to be overwhelmingly pleased with the progress from our special education department. Out of 10 IEP sophomore students, 9 of them passed 35 out of their 45 tests on the first try, and only one student failed to pass any of the five. I am continuously pleased if we can even get the IEP students to pass one or two tests at each attempt to make significant progress, and they have been doing far better than that! Congratulations to Lauree Miller and Scott Garlock on their progress with these students!

8.) State Track Success – I would like to congratulate both our girls’ and boys’ high school track teams on such successful seasons. To have so many events and athletes participating in the state track meet is impressive, but they also went on to win a great deal of honors and medals. I especially congratulate the girls’ state championship 4X800 meter relay team and the boys’ state championship 4X800 meter relay team. They had incredible races on Friday in the pouring rain to win state championship titles in these events that were not even predicted titles for either of them. This made it a very exciting meet even from the start. The boys’ team went on to capture the State Runners Up Title in Division III after winning the State Championship Title last year. Making it back to the medals stand is quite an impressive accomplishment! Congratulations to the girls’ and boys’ track teams and their coaches, Pat Wagner and Jack Quisno.

9.) OSBA Presentations - I had submitted applications for two presentations at next Fall’s OSBA conference, and we have been selected to do both. The first is presenting a break-out session on Monday, November 13, 2006, at 9:00 a.m., titled, “Developing a Sense of Belonging Through Leadership and Service.” Joyce Jackson and Mike Scoles will assist me in presenting this session on student issues. Secondly, we will be taking a couple of students with us to operate a booth during the student achievement fair on our high school STRIDES program at the conference on Tuesday, November 14^th, from 8:00-3:30. Hope to see you there!

10.) Relay For Life - Our school-wide service project of operating and conducting the Relay For Life went extremely well. We raised over $18,000 and some money has still been rolling in after the event. I just received an e-mail that we will be receiving some more corporate sponsorship money, and we may meet our goal of $21,000. I would like to thank all of our students who were STRIDES leaders as well as our high school staff for making this event so fun and successful.

11.) Strategic Planning Info - Since our last strategic planning session, two areas have been on my mind. One area relates to us preparing our students for the world of work, and the other area relates to the communication and trust between the staff and administration. I received some information in a recent e-mail about a new center for math and science education. I thought you would be interested in this information as well. Battelle/OSU announce new center for mathematics, science education policy - Addressing the country's global competitiveness and its clear link to math and science education, Ohio State President Karen A. Holbrook and Battelle President and CEO Carl F. Kohrt announced the formation of the Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy to be housed at Ohio State's John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

If the United States continues to educate people in science and

engineering at its current pace, the country will have a shortage of 12 million prepared workers by 2020, according to the National Science Foundation.

A $4 million gift from Battelle will establish the center, one of the few of its kind in the country. The university will initiate a national search for a director with unique experiences who will work in the John Glenn School to leverage expertise and resources from across Ohio State,Battelle and the country.

Ohio State, with strengths in basic research in the sciences and

engineering, has a successful and long-standing partnership with its

neighbor, Battelle, a world leader in science and technology. Most

recently the two institutions partnered with a consortium of local

school districts to announce the formation of the Metro High School, a model public school emphasizing math, science and technology that opens in the fall on the Ohio State campus.

Holbrook said the work of this new center connects with the Metro

School, providing the public policy link for what goes on in the

classroom. She added that specific strategies the center will undertake will be developed through the leadership of its director who should come to the position with national visibility and stature.

For more information, click here

<http://www.osu.edu/news/lvl2_news_story.php?id=1357> .

For the second topic on communication and trust between the staff and administration, I surveyed my staff regarding their opinions on these topics. The results and comments are attached for your consideration. As you can read, the staff ratings pretty well match my feelings on the topics of discussion as we discussed in our last strategic planning session. Clearly, it is easier for my building staff to be much more familiar and comfortable with me within my building, than with the board members or superintendent on most of these items. I am available to them daily, and some teachers do not really know some of the current board members. I just wanted you to be reassured on what a great year we experienced at the high school this school year.

11.) Calendar on the Web for 2006-2007 - Andrew Eckhart, our technology coordinator, and Gary Altman, our web-page operator, have designed a format for an online calendar to be used by each school building. A secretary in our office will maintain this calendar with updates each day as they are announced, and Andrew and Gary will train the staff on accessing and adding additional information that they may want to add to this online calendar. In addition, when each Eagle Update issue is prepared, a more complete calendar of events will be pulled from the site online and included in the hard copy printing as well. Hopefully, this will strengthen our communication and advertisement of events even better than what we do already.

12.) Buckeye Best Healthy School Award - We received a $450 stipend from the Ohio Department of Health for the application we submitted explaining our STRIDES program, our Relay For Life event, our lessons on nutrition and healthy lifestyles, and the cancer control education information we have presented through the year. We received a bronze award for our efforts in physical education, tobacco education, and nutrition education. This is our first year of receiving this award.

Have a great summer! I’ll see you in August!