Michael Dansack, Jr. Appointed to Fill Board Vacancy

At a special meeting of the board on January 28th, Michael Dansack, Jr., an attorney and former Mayor of the City of Oregon, was appointed to the vacancy on the LCESC Board. Dansack will be sworn in at the regular meeting of the board on February 9th, at 5:30 PM at the ALCC. Dansack is a resident of Anthony Wayne Local School District, and the father of a student at Monclova Elementary. The board agreed that the quality of the applicant pool was truly outstanding.

Organizational Meeting; Special Meeting Dates Set

Tonight was the organizational meeting for the governing board of the LCESC. The following is the governance structure for the year: President - Angela Zimmann, VP - Karen Krause, Penta Board Rep - Joe Rutherford. Committee appointments remained unchanged from last year, although there are a few vacancies due to the lack of a 5th board member. The special meetings to appoint a new member are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19th (1:30 PM) and Thursday, Jan. 21 (4 PM). There are seven highly-qualified applicants for the position. It is encumbant upon the board to appoint a new member prior to the end of the month, and I will post as soon as a decision has been reached.
I will travel to Columbus on Jan 22/23 to be installed as a Trustee for OSBA, and to Findlay on Jan 30 for a Board Presidents' Workshop. Updates to follow!

OPEN SEAT ON THE BOARD; Fond Farewell to Judy Hansen

Last night's meeting, at 5 PM at the Collingwood Center, included a number of significant highlights: first, we dedicated the pool at the Collingwood Center to retiring Board Member Judy Hansen. Judy has served for twelve years, in a number of capacities, and she has overseen advancement in the LSESC, including the growth of the Challenger Center; it was fitting, then, that we enjoyed a presentation about the Challenger Center by Reed Steele (if you aren't aware of the Challenger Center, check out this link: http://www.lucas.k12.oh.us/index.php?section=107)

With Judy's term ending, we have an opening on the board. In order to qualify, an individual must reside in the Anthony Wayne, Ottawa Hills, Springfield or Washington Local school districts. An appointment can be made no EARLIER than Jan. 11 and no later than Jan. 30th. If you are interested, please send a letter of interest and a current resume to LSESC, 2275 Collingwood Blvd., Toledo, OH 43620, Attn: Joe Rutherford, Board President. If you would like to further discuss this opportunity, feel free to contact me directly at angelaz@bgsu.edu.
We will be holding a *special meeting* at 11:30 on Friday, December 18th at the Collingwood Center, so if you are interested in finding out more about how the organization operates, feel free to attend.

We are proud that one of our gifted teachers, Laura Amburgey from the Anthony Wayne district, received the Ohio Gifted Teacher of the Year award. This is an impressive honor and we are lucky to have such qualified professionals working at the ESC.

We continue to work on improving and monitoring the progress of our charter schools. Last night we moved to send a notice of intention to suspend New City School in Dayton, Ohio. We will wait to hear back from them (they have 5 business days to submit a corrective action plan). We will deal with their response at the special meeting on Dec. 18.

Superintendent Deb Delisle Goes to the Moon; 94 Students Graduate w/GREs;Thanksgiving to be Celebrated at ALCC

State Superintendent Deb Delisle visited Lucas County ESC today; her first visit to an ESC, and she had the opportunity to visit the Collingwood Center which hosts the State Support Team for Region 1, as well as the Shuer Center... where Dr. Delisle traveled to the moon on our Challenger simulator. Lunch was served, and Superintendent Delisle was joined by the superintendents from our member districts, as well as the LCESC administrative staff and the board of the ESC. She spoke eloquently about the Race to the Top in education, and the big plans that the federal and state governments have in mind. She explained that Ohio was anticipating about 165 million in federal funds, but it looks as though we will be the recipients of somewhere between 200-400 million... good news.
In other news, we had our board meeting tonight at the ALCC, where we honored over fifty students from local districts, and it was announced that 94 students recently graduated from our GRE program. The ALCC will be host of their annual Thanksgiving dinner, prepared and served by the students on Wednesday, November 25th. I attended last year and it was a delicious meal complete with delightful company - the students did a great job.
The next regular board meeting is December 8th. The December date will be the last board meeting for Judy Hansen, who has served for twelve years, and opted not to run for re-election this year. The other two incumbants, Joseph Rutherford (current president) and Joan Kuchcinski, were re-elected. The remaining vacant seat will be filled by the board in January.

State Superintendent to visit, Toledo charter school closing

Last night at the regular monthly meeting of the LCESC board, several items of real interest were raised: first of all, Deb DeLisle, Ohio Superintendent of Schools, will be spending the entire day with the LCESC staff - this is a wonderful opportunity for a member of the state administration to see what an ESC "really does" - and, like most people who aren't immersed in the world of the ESC, she might be pleasantly surprised at the diversity and strength of the programs here in Lucas County.
In other news, as a result of new legislation, Englewood Peace Academy (http://englewoodpeace.org/Site/EPA.html) will close its doors at the end of this school year. Two years of academic emergency put this k-8 charter school under fire from the state, and as a sponsor we are obligated to comply.
Overall, the community schools we sponsor have increased in performance over the past year: 11% are Excellent, 6% are Effective, 35% rate Continuous Improvement (the same category at Toledo Public Schools), 10% are Academic Watch, and 30% are Academic Emergency. As a sponsor, we comply with legislation from the state and will not hesitate to follow the protocol to close schools which don't meet the new minimum state standards, which can be found here: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3314.35.
October 1, 2009, is the date of the Northwest Region fall conference for school boards - this year it will be held at Penta County, with tours of the new facility provided, along with a dinner presented by Penta's culinary students.
November 8-11 is the Ohio School Board Association annual conference in Columbus.
I will attend both of these events and report back on interesting developments.
I hope to hear from readers, publicly or privately - I am here to serve you, and I thank you for that opportunity!

The Impact of the State Budget on Public Education

"I made the extremely difficult decision to cut many worthy programs in order to protect direct aid to our local schools..." Governor Ted Strickland.

Indeed, this is the case. Those of us involved in education (parents, kids, educators, staff) can be thankful that in these difficult economic times, we have been spared the worst ramifications.
Yesterday we gathered in Columbus and heard from Richard Levin, tax commissioner of Ohio, as well as Paolo DeMaria, the vice-chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, Richard Lewis, executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association, and several others, detailing the impact of the new state budget on our schools, as well as the myriad other alterations to the Ohio education system which we will encounter in the coming years. While there isn't time or space to go into extensive detail here, I can re-direct you to a complete link (http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=128_HB_1) and provide some bulleted highlights:

* State budgets MUST be balanced
* Our state budget faced a 3.2 billion deficit (even AFTER stimulus dollars)
* In order to balance, 2.4 billion in spending cuts were made; around 1 billion in income from Video Lottery Machines is hoped for (realistically, based on figures)
* What about the stimulus dollars? What will we do after this one-time money is gone?
- Several ways to think about this: this "one-time" money is actually replacing money which we normally do have, and likely will have again, in tax income once the recession is over (and there are signs that it is ending); also, in the state of Ohio, we have been dealing with a five-year tax cut plan, and the last cut is now taking place, so income from taxes will stabilize
* School funding has been reformed. Income to districts will be based on three components: college attainment (bachelor's degree) of the adults (over 25) in the district; district wealth per pupil; district poverty concentration. This is called the "Ohio Evidence Based Model," or OEBM
* The Ohio Graduation Test will disappear, and be replaced by a test such as the ACT, a senior project, and course-end exams.
* ESCs (like the Lucas County ESC) will receive the same funding for the next two years. A council has been formed to re-examine the role of ESCs and how to evaluate the services provided.
* The Ohio Department of Education has been charged to develop curricular changes which will include financial literacy, increased foreign language education, increased fine arts education, education in entrepreneurship and enhanced computer literacy (beginning with grade K).
* All day kindergarten everywhere across the state, with funding from the state.
* Charter schools will have increased oversight by the ODE, but the funding mechanism remains the same. This was not the Governor's intention, but the Senate made the change.
There are numerous other changes, but these are some highlights. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for the opportunity to serve!

Board Votes to Close Charter School, Seek out Bids for HVAC & Collingwood Renovation

Two of the largest items on the agenda on Tuesday, July 14th, at the regular board meeting included the closing of Pace Career Central and the approval to seek bids for renovating the ailing HVAC system at the Collingwood Center.
First, the charter school situation: Pace Career Central, also known as Main Street Automotive, located in Dayton, Ohio, has been suspended and did not open for the 2008-09 schoolyear. At the meeting, it was voted to permanently close the school for failure to meet standards of accountability. This means that the school cannot re-open with another sponsor; when we, as a sponsor, pull that sponsorship, the school is finished. Thankfully, Dayton has a number of other schools where these students, who were mostly involved in drop-out recovery, can continue their education. Closing charter schools is no easy task, and certain specific legal protocols must be followed in order to be fair to all parties involved. While closing this school is a drop in the bucket, and we yet maintain sponsorship of 70 schools, it serves as a warning and an example: levels of accountability must be maintained, for this board is determined to serve its constituents with integrity and the highest standard of professionalism.
On the same topic of integrity and professionalism, it has come to the attention of the Building and Grounds Committee (chaired by Judy Hansen) that significant renovations are needed in the ailing heating/venting/air conditioning system at the Collingwood Center. While costly in the short run, the time to take action is now, as we are in the midst of a renovation project already, which will require a portion of the building to acquire an HVAC system. Additionally, we are receiving over $100,000 in funding for the building renovations (not the HVAC), since the area will be used by the State Support Team - Region 1, located in our building. At the meeting, we voted to allow bids to be pursued for this project.
On another note, please remember that if you are interested in running for a seat on the board, your time is growing short... there are three seats up for grabs this time around, and two in two years (2011 election year).
I encourage you to message me or post comments - I always learn a great deal from my audience - thanks for taking the time to visit the blog!