September 26th

GOVERNOR SIGNS HOUSE BILL 190

What began as a bill simply to establish specific administration dates for the state’s elementary achievement tests has grown into one of major significance to teachers. Governor Strickland recently signed the bill into law.

It is not uncommon for a bill to be introduced, but to look nothing like the original legislation by the time it is enacted. That’s the case with Ohio HB 190. As introduced, the bill set a two-week window period for administering the tests and revised the earliest allowable start date for testing. By the time the House and Senate, and all their respective committees were finished with the bill, it included provisions:

•permitting districts that are not eligible for state payments for all-day kindergarten to charge tuition for all-day k;

•requiring districts to get background checks on all employees, not just those whose duties entail the care of children;

•requiring initial and periodic criminal records checks (five years), including FBI checks, for all school employees, even if they are not subject to such checks, as when applying for a new or subsequent license;

•directing the Department of Education to recommend by December 31, 2007, penalties for districts that fail to report to the Department or the State Board of Education information about educators who have committed an act unbecoming to the teaching profession or that makes them a threat to students’ safety, and;

•requiring the Standards Board to make recommendations for a code of conduct for educators.

Employee Discipline Plan “On Hold”

In the last edition of the Notes, we reported on the employee discipline plan adopted by the Board in August. As of today, the plan remains “on hold.”

AEA filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the Board the day after the plan was approved. The union representing the district’s secretaries (AACP) followed suit. SERB has yet to act on either complaint, in part because of a request by the Board’s attorney for a time extension on the deadline to file the Board’s response to the complaints. In his request, the attorney suggested that the Board would attempt to meet with the two unions in an effort to resolve the dispute.

On November 5, union reps met with the Superintendent, the Executive Director of Human Resources and the Board’s attorney. Nothing was resolved, although the administration is in the process of revising certain aspects of the plan in the hopes that such changes will resolve our differences. We do not expect that they will and anticipate the ULP process moving forward.

The ULP was filed because we believe the Board had an obligation to negotiate the discipline plan under Ohio’s Collective Bargaining Bill, rather than adopting the plan unilaterally.

Charter Schools: Ohio Cracking Down, Traditional Schools Continue to Outperform

During a decade spanning the 90’s and early 2000’s, the Republican monopoly in Columbus fostered an incredible expansion in the number of charter schools operating in the state. Virtually anyone could open a school, be lavished with piles of start up money from the public trough and stay in business in spite of success stories scarcer than Yeti sightings in downtown Akron. Even those charters whose accounting practices make Enron look like a subsidiary of PricewaterhouseCoopers were allowed to continue to operate with a ~~slap~~ pat on the wrist and a wink of an eye.

Now, though, as reported in a recent New York Times article, Governor Strickland and AG Marc Dann are cracking down on low performing charters. Charters were initially supposed to be experimental, providing competition to traditional public schools that would result in both getting better. There were promises galore of abandoning the project if charters failed. The promises were never kept. Now, Dann is investigating several schools and has taken legal steps to close some of them. Strickland was quoted in the Times as saying, “Perhaps somewhere, charter schools have been implemented in a defensible manner, where they have provided quality. But the way they’ve been implemented in Ohio has been shameful. I think they have been harmful, very harmful, to Ohio students.”

(See “Charter Schools” below)

Charter Schools

To no one’s surprise, after ten years, traditional schools continue to outperform charters by a healthy margin. On all 28 state achievement tests, traditional

schools beat charters by an average difference in proficiency levels of 26 percentage points. The results were similar for specific sub-groups, where traditional public schools bested charters on all 28 tests by the following average differences:

•among economically disadvantaged students, 15 percentage points

•among students with disabilities, 19 percentage points

•among students categorized as both economically disadvantaged and disabled, 15 percentage points.

Ohio’s big city districts, including Akron, outperformed competing charters on all but one of the 28 tests with an average difference in proficiency levels of 10 percentage points.

Strides Walk Another Smashing Success

For the fourth year in a row, Akron teachers came out in force for the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in October in downtown Akron. We don’t yet have a total for the amount of money raised, but it’s safe to say that once again our contribution is in the thousands. Donations were collected through walking pledges and raffle ticket sales. Our success would not be possible without the effort of the building captains below:

Melissa Powers, Buchtel; Reggie Warner, East; Michelle Whitehurst and Jo Dickey, Ellet; Susanne Grywalski, Firestone; Diane Zupke, Garfield; Mick Papp, Kenmore; Nicole Delahanty, Rich Cola and Suzanne Nixon, North; Charlene Panovich and Sandy Cline, Goodrich; Alisa Dann, Goodyear; Deb Firtha, Hyre; Melissa Finefrock, Innes; Steve Culp, Jennings; Lynn Fickes, Kent; Nancy Camburn, Litchfield; Susan Yingling, Miller-South; Diane May, Riedinger; Jim Perge, Crosby Alternative; Jeff Moats, Guinther/ABLE; Barb Dawson, Leg-

get Practical Nursing; Stacey Ambrose, Psychologists; Anne Griffith, Helen Arnold; Kelly Goodpasture, Barrett; Kathy Rodgers, Bettes; Laura Jatich, Betty Jane; Maria Meeker, BJLC at Hotchkiss; Sandy Wells, Case; Denice Pantuso, Crouse; Janell Brown, Erie Island; Paula Christensen, Essex; Kathleen Shippy, Findley; Ann Gruska, Firestone Park; Cindy Rochford, Glover; Sharon Frounfelker, Harris; Radonna Mair, Hatton; Char Tabata, King; Chris Mathews, Lawndale; Lisa O’Rourke, Leggett; Harry Cameron, Lincoln; Judy Lalli, Mason; Sally Hodge, McEbright; Ranay Hatherill, Pfeiffer; Stephanie Barnhill, Rankin; Stacy Winer, Resnick; Diane Ely and Sherry Fogarty, Rimer; Sue Hinson, Ritzman; Dawne Blackburn, Robinson; Dan Bartel, Sam Salem; Kim Joseph, Schumacher; Megan Stefanik, Seiberling; Lorine Napoli and Suzanne Leyerle, Smith; Georgene Kalapodis, Voris; Julia Sues and Dee Williams, Windemere.

Our sincere thanks to these captains for their volunteer efforts to make this year’s Walk just as successful as our first two years!