Sunday, June 19, 2011  03:14 AM   By Charlie Boss and Jim Siegel  THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/06/19/schools-study-merit-pay-options.html

-----------------------------------------------------------Dirty Politics 101 

This course is offered to your child and will teach your child how to steal the opponent’s signs and replace it with one of their own in the exact same public spot!  Your child will learn how to break the law by stealing signs from people’s private property! (a FELONY according to Delaware County Sheriff).  Most importantly, your child will learn to how to play dirty politics and disregard the true democratic process.

Instructors:  members of Olentangy For “KIDS”, the official Teacher’s union PAC


See the story from NBC 4 News @
http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2011/apr/23/3/political-signs-reported-stolen-ar-463752/

RESPONSIBLE OLENTANGY CITIZENS SPEAK OUT !

[The following communications were received by ROC from concerned Taxpayers who have analyzed the Levy Issue FACTS]

Who pays for the education of Olentangy's students?  
Did you know that 58% of OLSD residents do NOT have children in the district?    

Assume a family of four resides in a $260,000 house for a 20 yr. period while their two children attend 13 yrs each (K-12) of schooling.  This assumed family will pay approximately $3,500 per year in school district tax for 20 yrs. or $70,000 total.  But the cost for two students to attend OLSD will be 2 x 13 x $9,600 per yr. = $249,600.  This family then pays only 28% of the actual cost to attend OLSD.  No wonder families with school age children are moving to the OLSD.  Who pays the rest?  The State of Ohio pays some but is reducing its contribution.  Commercial property owners (businesses) pay a significant amount but do not get to vote for levies or bond issues.  The final group that pays is all of the residents who own property but do not participate in the school system.  This would be individuals and families without school age children, families that home school or use religious schools.  This is a sizable group of residents who often feel their property tax burden is challenging.  It is challenging because there has been a lot of program expansion over the years.  They are paying for much more than a basic state mandated education.  All of the threatened cuts that will be made if the proposed levy and the bond issue do not pass are extras not mandated by the state.  Not every family in the OLSD fits this example but going forward a solution needs to be implemented where there is a better funding model which may include parents of students attending OLSD sharing in a much larger portion of the actual educational costs and all of the extras they want for their children.

A School Board meeting observation from a parent in the district…. 

My first board meeting was last Wednesday (4/13/11).  This is the first time I laid eyes on the Superintendent.  I could see his "holier than thou" attitude.  I am anxious to see the outcome of this election.  I was once a member of a School Board where the Superintendent was arrogant and led the Board in the same direction.  After tearing the district apart, the Superintendent was gone and it took several years to bring the community back together.  This situation seems like Dejavu to me.  The wedge that they are creating, will last for a long time. The difference here is that in my case, it was the board and Superintendent against the teachers.  Here it appears to be them against the community.  Misleading information, arrogance and poor communication; the results will be the same.

A Concerned taxpayer analyzes more elements of the levy and reasons to Vote NO....

Busing Budget Cut Detail

OLSD’s state funding consists of two parts: Basic Aid & Transportation Allocation.  OLSD projects to receive a Transportation Allocation of $2.0 million, $2.0 million & $2.1 million in school years 12-14, respectively.  It also appears that OLSD would be required to return a portion of state funds if busing services are cut.  In reality, the $1.57 million in busing cuts (if levy fails) is a net number; meaning that the busing expenses to be cut are higher than $1.57 million because OLSD would be required to give back state busing funding.  OHIO CURRENTLY RANKS 303 (OUT OF 611) IN BUS ROUTE EFFICIENCY! 

OLSD Debt and other Delaware County Levies on the ballot

I was very surprised to learn of the magnitude of the current OLSD bond debt and interest expense and the information was hiding in plain sight on the OLSD website.  If the 7.9 mill levy passes, OLSD will go over $400 million in bond debt (Dublin is roughly have of this amount) and will approach $20 million in annual interest expense (Again, Dublin is roughly half of this amount).  What's worse is that a majority of the bond debt maturity dates are after 2027, which means that we will be paying off debt long after our children have graduated.  In taking these facts into consideration, I cannot in good conscience, vote for the 7.9 mill levy because it would mean adding another $20+ million in bond debt.  If this levy is defeated, I think that the taxpayers should insist on removing the bond component for the November levy.  I think that we need to find a creative way to avoid building another elementary school.  At some point in the near future, pupil growth will have to slow or decline. 

In thinking of the greater good, Delaware County 911 levy, Delaware County Disability levy & other local township/city levies are just as important as the school levy.  Taxpayers may not be able to fund other levies and the school levy.

Check your TAX BURDEN (under Tax Estimator) @: 
http://ohdelawareauditor.governmax.org/propertymax/rover30.aspsid=0112C584FDF34B71BF5A052138ADBC3B

ROC taxpayers answer questions about District growth....

Growth is a complex issue.

 

On one hand, growth adds new students and associated costs (of course, the cost per student is not a given, it can be less than it currently is).

 

On the other hand, growth means more tax revenue and more state funding (additional property tax allocation, at the very least).

 

Finally, growth means that the district hires a large number of new teachers yearly. This keeps the average salary depressed. As soon as growth stops, district expenses will rise. In fact, since Olentangy offers more programs than Bexley, and has a higher salary scale (it used to be, anyway), district taxes will exceed Bexley when growth stops and the average years of employment increases. That is the proverbial pig in the python.

 

So our growth is kicking the can of expense down the road (so to speak) a few more years.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One avenue is simple: Does the increases in district expenses match the increase in student growth?  No, growth in district expenses has far exceeded growth in our student population.

 

If they were the same, one could potentially find a justifiable reason for voting yes.  BUT, that would assume that the actual cost of one student is the same as the cost of 1K additional students and that zero quantity of scales and efficiencies can be gained by massive scale.
 

For example, districts half our size have half as many administrators.  In fact, our district touts our number as "in line" because if you scale the student growth, you would find the number of adminstrators equal OLSD's. I think that is sad.  Our size should yield significant spending advantages, leveraging fewer administrators /student than smaller districts, etc...  WE SHOULD have a lower cost / pupil because we are HUGE compared to other districts.  To use that as a selling point to tax our citizens more is void of common sense.

An Olentangy School Concerned Taxpayer reports:
Do you know, that we could save cumulatively $29 million over 3 years just by simply asking OLSD staff and teachers to share sacrifices with the financially wounded community?

Do you know, that Teachers and Staff continue to get annual salary increments of 6% through the years of world financial crisis and Great Recession?

Do you know, that even the largest union Ohio state workers would take (1) no wage increment; (2) no step increment; (3) 10 days unpaid leaves; (4) cut 4 days personal leaves; (5) increase employee insurance premium share to 15%?

Do you know, that the adjusted average salary of Teachers would  exceed a typical manager salary in private industry within 1 year, considering 5% annual increment? Do you know who is the sucker paying for that?

 

Let’s take a look at a humble suggestion to roll back OLSD all staff (staff and teacher) salary to FY2008, when we were right in the eye of the world financial storm. Following table outline the potential savings based on staff average salary of FY2008. Please note that the savings is two-fold – (1) Existing staff would not get any annual increment in both category of base wage, and step increment ; (2) New staff would not get any increment in base wage. Multiply by OLSD growth in staff, this would amount to huge savings. Note that these data is pulled from ODE (Ohio Department of Education) at http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/ 

Based on the 5 year forecast presentation of OLSD, the FY2011 total staff is about 1745, and assuming 5% average salary growth, this year staff total salary payout would be 1745 x ($50,950 x 1.05) = $93,353,137. If we baseline the salary to 2008, this year FY2011 alone would amount to cost saving of ($93.35 m - $78.58 m) = $14.7 million, and cumulative 3 years saving would be over $29.6 million! WOW!
source: http://www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/district/finance/docs/5yrPresentationOct2010.pdf

Asking a salary rollback to FY2008 is reasonable as many OLSD neighbors had since lost their jobs, or saw their work hours cut, or benefits reduced or even struggling still to find a job. Nothing in the school is sacred, except the children. Therefore, all staff including teachers should be subjected to the natural laws of economy expansion and contraction.
Not 1 single staff would lose their job, if they just cut back the salary and benefits according to the cost cutting examples above set by State of Ohio workers. 
Currently, the FY2010 average teacher salary in OLSD is $53.6K. However, since they work 9 months or less every year, we need to adjust their annual pay by multiplying 1.33 to perform a salarycomparison. The pay turned out to be a high $78.3K!  
  

By 2012 or 2013, the adjusted average pay of teacher would either match or exceed the median salary $85.7K of an account manager in Columbus, according to Salary.com. What a SWEET deal, isn’t it? By the way, today many workers would beg for a job instead of demanding compounded salary increment. And by 2020, adjusted average Teacher salary would be $127.6K and $105.3K based on 5% and 3% compounded growth respectively.
 

See the EXPONENTIAL growth of the black and red lines in chart, which is NOT SUSTAINABLE! Either the district would be forced to declare bankruptcy, or the staff compensation must be reworked.

  

   

A father of 3 from Liberty Township, Powell points out these facts from the Ohio Dept. of Education report...
1)     Olentangy Local School District has almost twice the number of Administrators than other similar districts and approximately 4 times the number of the statewide average for ALL districts

    Line 21: FTE # of Administrators (FY10) 

        OLSD = 76.00   Similar Dist. Avg. = 38.91 Statewide Dist. Avg.= 18.06

2)    Total Property Tax Per Pupil shows Olentangy as above the average for similar districts and far above the    average for all districts in the State

Line 31:  Total property tax per pupil (TY09 FY11)

OLSD = $8,038.57    Similar Dist. = $7,385.93   Statewide Dist. Avg. = $4,724.91 

Source: Ohio Dept. of Education Office of School Options & Finance FY11, District Profile for City, Exempted Village & Local School District for Olentangy Local (Delaware)

Another concerned OLSD parent refers to The Greater Ohio Report on Education when asking for Education Reform:
"Ohio ranks 47th in the nation in the share of elementary and secondary education spending that goes to instruction and ninth in the share that goes to administration. More pointedly, Ohio’s share of spending on school district administration (rather than school administration such as principals) is 49 percent higher than the national average. It appears from projections in other states and from actual experience in Ohio that school district consolidation, or at the very least more aggressive shared services agreements between existing districts, could free up money for classrooms.
So this report urges the state to:
• Make the costs of school district administration transparent to Ohioans
• Push school districts to enter aggressive shared services agreements
• Create a BRAC-like commission to mandate best practices in administration and cut the number of Ohio’s school districts by at least one-third "
[http://www.greaterohio.org/files/quick-downloads/restoring-prosperity-report.pdf; p.12]

 

Another Concerned Taxpayer from Liberty Township writes…..

On the “Olentangy for Kids” website (under the “my taxes seem high” Q & A), which is linked to the Olentangy Local Schools website, there is a chart comparing the tax burden of Olentangy to other school districts.  The chart takes income taxes that are levied in other districts and converts them to millage in order to compare the total tax burden in each district to Olentangy.  The problem is that the some of these school districts do not levy a school district income tax but the municipalities in these areas may, in which case the school districts do not actually receive the tax revenue. 

 

In Ohio, there is also an unvoted or “inside millage,” which can be up to 10 mills but must be split between the county, school district and municipalities of each taxing district.  It appears to me that the taxes included in these charts for other school districts include tax revenue the school districts do not actually receive and are not entitled to.  This appears to be an attempt to exaggerate the tax burden in these other districts so Olentangy’s tax burden looks more favorable by comparison. 

 

Aside from the exaggerated tax numbers for other school districts, some of these tax burdens (which are not actually revenue for the school districts used in the comparison) are paying for services which we do not have.  For example, in Liberty Township, we do not have our own police force.  Yet the tax burden for other school districts includes taxes levied and revenue received for services which we do not have or may pay for separately.  Another example is that some municipalities handle trash collection.   Again, in Liberty Township, we pay our garbage collection directly to the trash collector. 

 

http://www.olentangyforkids.org/index.php/questions

 

Concerned citizens’ testimony at the Feb. 23, 2011 OSB meeting:
Korey Brown of Powell, spoke at the Feb. 23^rd OSB meeting and suggested alternate cost-reduction solutions to those of Dr. Lucas, OLSD Superintendent.  Brown spoke that ALL proposed budget cuts by OLSD should the 2011 levy fail could be spared if the District: 1)Freeze base wages for three years.  No step increases, no pay increases of any kind for any district employee.  This move would save an average of $16 million each year over the next three fiscal years. 2) Take the wage freeze a step further.  Reduce all base wages by 3% then freeze them for the next three years.  This move would save an average of $18.5 million in each of the next three fiscal years. 3)Decrease employer pension payments from the current 14% of payroll to 10% of payroll and require employees to pay the difference.  This move would save $11-$15 over each of the next 3 fiscal years.  4)Finally, require employees to contribute an additional 5% towards health insurance premium, thereby reducing the school district’s financial liability.  He summarized his speech by stating that the OLSD Budget is “out of control and unsustainable” as evidenced by 2007 Personnel expenses = $78 Million dollars compared to the forecasted 2015 expenditures = $161 Million.   

Karl Salmon, another homeowner from Powell, spoke at the 02/23/11 OSB meeting as well.  Karl has 25 yrs.+  in Human Resources, specifically in union contract negotiation.  He questioned why Dr. Lucas and the OSB members agreed to a 1 year OTA Union contract extention for FY12 that included ~3.8% step raises for all union member in this economic climate.  He reported that this was a “Cadillac plan” that also included low health care premiums and low drug co-pays ($10.00 for 3-4^th tier drugs with no out-of-pocket health care deductibles, etc..)  He also stated that the Union contract should reflect the same contributions as non-union  employees.  He summarized his presentation with an example of a recent Union contract he negotiated in Wisconsin that included a 5.9% increase in salary and benefits over 3 years to show that workers will negotiate in extreme economic Recession times.  

 Audio can be heard @ http://www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/district/board/mtgs.html  

If you have further suggestions for Dr. Lucas and the OSB, please forward them to repsonibleolentangy@gmail.com and Dr. Lucas: superintendent_blog@olentangy.k12.oh.us    

Another thing to consider before passing the upcoming OLSD levy and adding to your tax burden - Ask Dr. Lucas if the OLSD administration did everything possible to prevent a levy from the ballot...  The governor of Indiana published this checklist on the State of Indiana's web-site in 2009 and it is quite relevant to their neigboring state, OHIO.

Indiana State Board of Education Citizens' Checklist
Use this checklist to determine if your school corporation has taken these actions to increase savings and efficiency. 

Refrained from ALL salary and benefits increases for ALL school employees
Reduced insurance costs by changing plans, including joining the state health plan 
Reduced school administration and school board compensation packages 
Suspended 403(b), 401(a) and 457(b) matches for all employees 
Initiated a corporation hiring freeze
Eliminated memberships in professional associations and reduce travel expenses
Effectively outsourced transportation and custodial services and directed saving to the Rainy Day Fund

Sold, leased or closed underutilized buildings
Reduced or rolled back operational and programmatic budgets to precious year levels Reviewed school consolidation options both within the corporation and between corporations

Source:  http://www.in.gov/gov/files/2009_isbe_checklist.pdf  

Articles of Interest to help stay informed and listen the other side of the story that the local papers do not publish....

Olentangy teachers skip base pay hikes for a year
Thursday, October 28, 2010  01:50 PM                 By TOM SHEEHAN        ThisWeek Community Newspapers

The Olentangy school board on Oct. 27 unanimously approved a one-year contract extension with the Olentangy Teachers Association that is expected to save the district about $1.3-million because it includes no base pay increases.

The estimated savings are based on what would have been a projected 2-percent salary increase, officials said. Earlier this year, administrators earlier unionized and non-unionized classified workers also agreed to work without any base pay increases saving the district an estimated $706,000 for the 2010-11 school year.
Step increases for teachers and others staff members remain in effect.

The contract extension for the 1,058 teachers in the district runs from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012. The current three-year contract was approved in 2008 and was to expire on June 30, 2011.
http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/olentangy/stories/2010/10/27/olentangy-teachers-skip.html

OLSD College Remediation Rates go up!  Getting WORSE not better!

Remediation rates in the Olentangy Local School District have been getting worse over the last few years instead of improving.  What this means is that our High School graduates are having to take remedial classes when they enter their Freshman year of college.  Educators are going in the WRONG direction when it comes to preparing our teenagers for college.  THIS SHOULD NOT BE OCCURING in an EXCELLENT rated district.   Why hasn't OLSD identified a solution to the problem yet (as this is not a new problem)??  At the rate the OLSD is going with regard to College Freshman - one could see remediation rates hit 45% in just a couple of short years.  The Columbus Dispatch investigated how school districts are reporting their successes with regard to education...

Numbers aren't adding up to success

Sunday, August 22, 2010  By Charlie Boss   THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

These days, a C is no longer average.

In many area high schools, Bs or even As are the norm.

Last spring, 62 percent of the graduates from 38 central Ohio schools received at least a B average, according to a Dispatch analysis. Nearly 20 percent got As. The numbers rise at particular schools.

At Dublin Jerome, 34 percent of graduates had an A average. And that doesn't include the extra boost that students get for taking challenging courses such as Advanced Placement classes. Accounting for those classes, percent earned As.

Olentangy Liberty, another highly rated school, looks stronger, or weaker, depending on which number you use. More than 36 percent of graduates had at least a 3.5 based on unweighted GPAs, but college-prep classes didn't provide as big a boost. Nearly 44 percent of Liberty graduates had As based on weighted GPAs.

So which school has better students? Experts say grades won't give the answer, that they tell only part of the story.

Intense competition to get into college has influenced the marks given by today's high schools. Many have adjusted grading scales so students have a better chance of getting an A, gotten rid of class rank and recognized multiple students as valedictorians.

Winning the GPA race can bring rewards beyond admission to a college of choice. Doing well can mean scholarships and better car-insurance rates, for example.

The dark side is that some students graduate from high school with good grades, then find out they are not ready for college.

Half the graduating seniors at Licking Heights High School had a 2.9 or better in 2008, putting the median GPA in the B range. And yet that class had an average ACT score below the state average of 20, and only a quarter of students who took Advanced Placement tests scored well enough to receive credit at most colleges.

Of those Licking Heights graduates who later attended a public college or university in Ohio, 58 percent had to take remedial math courses.

Preparing for college

Do good grades mean a high-school graduate has mastered the material and is ready for the next level?

That's hard to determine, experts say. One place to look for clues is in college-entrance exams, such as the ACT.

Ohio's seniors outperformed their peers nationally this year on the ACT's English, math, reading and science tests.

Yet, 52 percent were not ready for college-level math, based on ACT benchmarks.

About 66 percent were unprepared for college-level biology, 42 percent were ill-equipped for social studies and 28 percent were not ready for college English.

Many of those students most likely received As and Bs in high school, college counselors say.

Mabel Freeman, who oversees undergraduate admissions at Ohio State University, said she has noticed fewer Cs and Ds on applicants' records.

"C is viewed as a truly disturbing grade by many parents and students," Freeman said. "I talk to my colleagues around the country and they say the same thing: You don't see the same percentage of average grades than what you saw 20 years ago."

In Dublin, half the graduates from the three high schools had a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or better last school year. That's right at the B-plus line.

The grade-point average is high because teachers encourage students to master the material before moving on, said Tracey Miller, who oversees secondary education in the district.

Dublin students also can retake classes to improve their grades. So if a student who received an F repeated the class and earned a B, the higher grade replaces the F in the GPA.

"If a student learned a B's worth of material, the grade should reflect what is learned," Miller said.

The survey says

Although there are variations, schools with the highest grade-point averages tend to have students who also do well on state achievement tests and in college, according to a Dispatch analysis.

Among 37 schools that provided unweighted GPAs for the Class of 2008, the median ranged from a 3.33, or B-plus, to a 2.25, a C . Seven of those high schools had median GPAs higher than a 3.0: all three Dublin schools, Gahanna Lincoln, Granville, Olentangy Liberty and Pickerington North.

The schools have common characteristics:
• All were rated excellent by the state.

• Their mean ACT scores all were above average for the state (21.7) and nation (21.1) - Gahanna Lincoln had the lowest, at 22, and Dublin Jerome topped the list at 25.

• Among students who took Advanced Placement exams, passing rates varied from 67.1 percent (Dublin Scioto) to 78.9 percent (Pickerington North). Most colleges that give credit require a 3 or better on the tests.

It makes sense that students who did well in class also had high scores on standardized exams, said Jay McTighe, an educational consultant and former director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, a state collaboration of school districts.

"In some cases, No Child Left Behind and the national standards movement has placed a heavy emphasis on state testing and scores," he said.

Conversely, high schools with lower median GPAs tend to have lower scores on state achievement tests and college-entrance exams.

The 10 high schools at the bottom of the Dispatch GPA survey, which had medians in the C-range for the Class of 2008, reflect that.

The state rated all but one school at "continuous improvement," the equivalent of a C grade. Mean ACT scores were below the state average by as much as 6 points. None of the AP test-takers in seven schools earned a passing rate on an exam.

Why we grade

Experts caution not to put too much stock in GPAs.

Students can pad their GPAs by signing up for easier courses or weighted classes, said Ken O'Connor, a grading consultant and author of How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards. He also noted that grades can be adjusted because of behavior, effort and extra credit, which can misrepresent how much students have learned.

"There are students that often fall on their face at the next level because of it," he said.

Grades have multiple purposes, said Thomas Guskey, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Kentucky and author of several books about grading.

They can tell students how they are doing in school, identify those who deserve honors or need academic help, and serve as an incentive to encourage kids to study.

"We have this wide variation of practices that teachers employ, and that inconsistency leads to confusion for students," Guskey said. "A lot of kids see this as a huge game. They become strategists and learn how to play it."

Teachers also face mounting pressure to make sure students get good grades.

"As you go through the generational change to the millennial student - students who've grown up getting a trophy every time they've played a sport - parents want to protect their kids from failing," said Jim Jump, board president at the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

"With all the attention on how selective college admissions are, there is pressure not to give low grades," said Jump, who also is director of guidance at St. Christopher's School in Virginia.

Schools are also under pressure because they are judged by standards that insist that kids be taught to the highest level possible, said Mark Raiff, executive director of secondary learning at Olentangy schools.

"We have to teach until a student has mastered the material," he said. "If you are showing me you're not progressing, I'm going to reteach, reteach, reteach until you learn."

That is why 10 percent of Olentangy Liberty students receive Ds or Fs , he said.

"The kids don't have the option to choose to fail," he said. "They can (retake the class and) replace the lower grade with the higher grade."

Still, an A at one high school is different from one at another. Colleges have become savvier at interpreting what grades mean, including tracking students' performance in college, to better-understand the grades they earned in high school.

Freeman said there are a handful of high schools - such as Catholic boys high schools - that have consistently maintained strict grading standards, based on how the students performed at Ohio State.

"We know students with a B in those high schools have worked hard for them," she said. "You're not going to see a third of the class with a 4.0 GPA. They have their own rigor and standards, and we haven't seen them change that much."

Parents and prospective students, however, might not realize that colleges are attuned to the meaning behind grades.

Freeman recalled a recent conversation with a parent who wanted to know why her honor-roll child was not admitted to Ohio State despite earning a 3.4 GPA.

After prolonged back-and-forth with the parent, Freeman called the student's high-school counselor to discuss the situation. She noted that more than two-thirds of the school's senior class had a 3.4 GPA or higher.

The counselor agreed.

"I know that and you know that. But that's the reality and I have to live in this community," the counselor told her. "There's a lot of pressure in our community for students to get good grades. At some point, probably when they apply to college, they'll realize they are not  as good as they thought."


http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/22/numbers-arent-adding-up-to-success.html?sid=101
please read the graph table found in the article for OLSD schools.


When an A isn't enough  Sunday, August 22, 2010  02:58 AM     By Charlie Boss  Columbus Dispatch

Despite earning good grades and taking honors courses in high school, many students find themselves ill-prepared for college. Some blame grade inflation or unrealistic expectations at the next level.  How students do in high school is the best way to gauge whether they'll succeed in college, many admissions counselors say.   But state statistics show that many college freshmen weren't prepared for the coursework - even those from high-performing high schools.  More than half of the Class of 2008 from Gahanna Lincoln High School graduated with a B or higher. More than one-quarter of those students took at least one honors or Advanced Placement course.   Yet, 39 percent of those graduates who attended a public college or university in Ohio had to take a remedial math class. Thirteen percent needed developmental English.   Statewide, 39 percent of about 52,000 first-year public college students took at least one remedial course in 2008, according to a state report released this year. Among all Ohio high-school graduates that year, more than two-thirds had taken a college-preparatory class.    Community colleges bear the brunt of getting underprepared students ready for college work. Some of those students don't want to pay the cost for remedial classes at four-year institutions.  At Columbus State Community College, 32 percent of recent high-school graduates were not ready for college-level math, reading or writing last school year.     "We get a lot of offended students."    Remedial classes - which cost as much as other college classes but don't provide credit toward a degree - make the road to a college degree more of an uphill climb. Students can drain their financial aid to pay for developmental classes. It takes them longer to earn a degree. And they are more likely to drop out.  

Read more @:  http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/22/when-an-a-isnt-enough.html

From the ROC Archive:

By now you have probably received many OLSD glossy oversized postcards in the mail highlighting OLSD budget cuts.  Although these cuts are in the right direction - keep in mind that the $budget savings are over 4 years not 'per year'.  ROC believes that with a more aggressive approach, $$$$millions more can be saved for FY11 alone - preventing levy for at least another year.. 

At January’s OSB meeting, Superintendent Wade Lucas continued to highlight the district’s budget savings in his report. 
He stated that no OLSD administrator would be getting a raise for FY2010 as a show of good faith to the taxpayer in
hard economic times.  What he didn’t tell you is that his contract includes $dollar increases in all benefits that the
average public employee does not receive.  In addition, the new OLSD treasurer contract was not supposed to give a
base salary raise either but it essentially does.  Rebecca Jenkins received a new 4 year contract that included yearly 
raises with the educational stipend rolled into her salary free and clear.  The educational stipend $dollars no longer go
to furthering her education. The treasurer contract still includes a benefit for paid educational tuition, time and materials. 
In addition, Mr. Lucas continues to re-allocate instead of decrease staff.  Reallocation does not really save the district a
huge dollar amount; however this is a baby step in the right direction. The problem is, baby steps are NOT enough,
staffing numbers are the same and expensive.   Where is the 15:1 teacher-student ratio for all schools in the district? 
Sue Mahler, former Finance Comm. chair reported that the sooner we get to this number, the sooner OLSD can save millions.
Also – if foregoing a raise is good enough for the OLSD administration, why not everyone?  In 2008, teachers union members were given a windfall 3 yr-contract that gives each teacher a 5.8% raise per year with above average benefits.  Each teacher receives an annual raise 4-5 times as much as the average taxpayer- funded employee.  In a district where several people have lost their jobs, why doesn’t OLSD re-negotiate the union contract for the remaining year of the contract? If both sides agree, this can be done.  Where is the show of good faith?  OLSD needs to make bigger budget cuts now for FY11!   Per 2008 OSB (pre-levy) estimates, cut backs in administrative staff, drug-testing, staff insurance benefits, and increasing classroom ratios can lead to millions of dollars in savings to the taxpayer.    

Superintendent Contract (03/23/09-07/31/13)

 

o        Base Salary $160,000 per year with yearly increases

o        ~$10,000 per year in car / phone allowances with yearly increases; not a state employee benefit

o        28 days vacation AND 11 paid holidays (worth ~ $17,231+ per yr)

o        ALL $retirement contributions paid to STRS with NO contribution made by employee (Avg. worth ~ $40,000+ per year)  Avg. state employee pays ~8% and state covers ~13%.

o        10%+ tax sheltered annuity per year (worth ~ $16,000); not a state employee benefit

o        ALL Medicare Tax (worth ~ $2320.00+ per yr.); not a state employee benefit

o        $6000.00 + Educational stipend per year for education already received with NO time commitment payback; Avg. state employee gets reimbursement for courses applicable to job performance and employee must pay back in time commitment

o        ALL expenses for continuing education including materials and time off; materials usually not reimbursed

o        Bonus for completing contract; not a benefit

o        Pay-out for unused sick time; not a benefit

 [Source: www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/district/board/pdf/exhibits09/012009Exhibit.pdf]

 

Treasurer Contract (8/01/10-07/31/14)

o        $116,787.00 base salary with yearly raises

o        28 days vacation AND 11 paid holidays

o        ALL Medicare Tax (worth ~$1693.00+ per year); not a benefit

o        ALL $retirement contributions paid to STRS with NO contribution made by employee (Avg. worth ~ $24,525.+ per year); not a benefit

o        6% Tax sheltered annuity (worth ~$~7000.00+ per year); not a benefit

o        PAID OUT Sick time; not a benefit

o        ALL expenses for continuing education including materials and time off. 

Source:www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/district/board/pdf/2010/exhibits/0223Exhibits.pdf]

 

 
[The following was approved by the Olentangy Local School District , BOE, 11.13.07]

     2008  Office of the Superintendent Operational Cost Reductions if a Levy Fails

 

o        Eliminate Middle School drug testing & HS pre-season drug testing              $87,610.00

o        Eliminate certified extended service contracts                                           $226,637.00

o        Administrative Staff reductions – 13 total                                                  $944,245.00

o        Certified Staff reductions (12%)                                                            $4,957,834.00

o        Increase Elementary School classes to 23-27 students

o        Increase Middle School classes to 24-29 students

o        Increase High School classes to 24-29 students

o        Classified Support Staff reductions                                                           $628,878.00

 
http://www.olentangy.k12.oh.us/district/comm/C116646788/E20071114134137/

Please contact Superintendent Lucas and ask the OLSD for more aggressive cuts NOW? 
The OLSD knew that the state funding structure would change when Governor Strickland was elected in 2006 and that the OLSD would probably lose funding related to higher priced property of the above-average income of the OLSD taxpayer.  The OLSD chose to ignore its REAL potential impact.  Everything has focused on the district's growth, but spending continued at a rapid pace not taking this into consideration; specifically dollars given to OLSD Administration and OLSD staff at above average WAGE INCREASES.    Whatever happened to "saving for a rainy day?" The OLSD knew that if they were not proactive with conserving dollars (doing more with less, increasing class sizes, decreasing adminstration, etc...) that they would need another levy soon!    That levy in coming.  The OSB reported at its meeting on November 23, 2009 that they will be getting the School Funding Committee up and running in early 2010 (in other words, that is the LEVY COMMITTEE.)    Wages and benefits are a HUGE expenditure that can be reduced and save the district MILLIONS!  Did you know if you increase the student ratio to 15:1 that the OLSD would SAVE even more MILLIONS?  The 5 year forecast doesn't even get to this ratio until after 2014 (14.75:1 reported)! 

[Forget the FACT that it was reported at the 08/26/09 OSB meeting that the levy was NOT needed on the ballot until 2009 (1 year later).]

Bottom Line -- responsible budget cuts can occur without impacting the child.  OLSD had no trouble changing the Strings Program to after school despite the input of the parents - which does impact the child's ability to participate (and actually discriminates against the working parent's child. $dollars and kept the program running during the day.)  Please check out: www.saveolentangystrings.org/ for more information

MORE Relevant Articles...


Schools can do better with less money

Budget cuts and demands for improved student achievement test public-school administrators more than ever – but, undaunted, some scrappy innovators are passing that test with an 'A.'

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the August 25, 2009 edition

Miami - When Alberto Carvalho took charge of Miami-Dade County Public Schools last September, his first goal was to scour the district's nearly $5.5 billion budget to find money for teacher raises, which had been on hold because of state funding cuts.  He brought together a budget review team – including some outside experts – for a series of weekend number-crunching meetings fueled with buy-your-own-pizza lunches. They were able to cobble together the needed $45 million – in part by cutting overtime and changing food service delivery.   The superintendent recalls feeling "euphoric." But he didn't stop there. Maybe there were more savings to be had if they dug even deeper, he reasoned, so the search continued, line by line. 
The euphoria was short-lived: The leader of the 340,000-­student district, the nation's fourth largest, discovered he was on the precipice of a financial crisis that previous budget scenarios hadn't projected. Healthcare and other costs had been underestimated, revenues overestimated. It added up to $158 million of imminent deficits. And more state cuts were on the horizon. Raises would have to wait again.  
Educators across the country find themselves staring over the edge of some steep financial cliffs these days. As never before, they're squeezed between the twin pressures of budget cuts and calls for improved student achievement. The demand is to do more with less, and it's a daunting one.

But even in the darkest shadows of the recession, there are many – scrimpers, innovators, or just plain optimists – who are finding ways to do exactly that.

Mr. Carvalho saw the Miami-Dade crisis as an opportunity for a "budget transformation ... that would increase efficiency and force us to invest more in our core function."   His approach, colleagues say, boils down to a keen sense of frugality and common sense.  The plan he and his team came up with last fall redeployed administrators to classrooms, whittled down central-office expenses dramatically, and protected teachers' jobs.

The result of the leaner and meaner approach: a healthier budget – with reserves to offset future revenue drops – and impressive academic gains.   "The traumatic impacts of budget reductions and the economy have pushed us to do more with less, but also to do better with less," Carvalho says.

The district starts its new year Aug. 24 with state grades dramatically improved for many of its schools – including one "F" school earning an "A."

This kind of self-examination and reinvention is what US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is urging districts to do as they receive infusions of federal economic stimulus. The more they spend wisely and innovate, the more money he's likely to send their way. But traditional approaches – laying off teachers with least seniority, closing schools, and cutting back nonacademic classes – may prevail, observe scholars and advocates who follow education trends.

"There are [several] states, like California, where there's a supercrisis and a broad awareness that ... practices are going to have to be dramatically altered in order to cope," says Edward Kealy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, a coalition in Washington.

Still, while basic savings on everything from cafeteria food to transportation are widespread, many districts anticipating the federal stimulus aren't going beyond stopgap measures, perhaps in hope of maintaining the status quo until the good times roll again, Mr. Kealy observes.   "They're in a strange period of [wondering], 'How bad is it really, [and] is it going to turn around over the next year?' " he says.

In the meantime, school districts share a common quest to accomplish more with less. How successful will they be?

The Monitor took a closer look at Miami-Dade's transformation – and three examples of individual schools' approaches – to glean creative ways education leaders have been directing dollars in the hope of bringing out better results for kids.

While his colleagues cite Carvalho's methodical common sense, they also note that what he does is not common at all.

Out of seven superintendents that chief budget officer Judith Marte has worked for, Carvalho is the only one who has probed the budget line by line and vetoed hotel expenses for professional development or BlackBerrys for employees who didn't need them.

Chief financial officer Richard Hinds, who came out of retirement to work with the new superintendent, offers another anecdote: When Carvalho saw movers this summer clearing furniture out of a central-office space slated to become a new school, he canceled the $12,000 contract and rounded up school custodians, already on the payroll, to do the job.

Last fall, the budget team started at the top, eliminating about 350 positions in the central office (a 20 percent cut), including the seven with salaries over $200,000. More than half were reassigned to teaching jobs or other open positions.

By looking at average costs and best practices in other large districts, they found they could save millions on food and transportation and could cut dozens of assistant principal jobs. They froze hiring and all purchases of nonessential supplies. They trimmed overtime spending by more than $15 million.

Overall, the district cut 27 percent of central-office costs. Miami-Dade now spends less per pupil on those costs than any other school district in Florida, while before it ranked 27th, according to the district's analysis.

Input from principals and community groups was sought to help determine $55 million in cuts at the individual school level.

"It's like asking your kids to cut their allowance," Ms. Marte says, "but that's a good way to be innovative.... Let them decide what they can and can't live without."

A growing number of districts are placing such decisions in school leaders' hands.

"If [top administrators] say you have to fire all your librarians, but you happen to have this really great librarian who's doing more for reading instruction than anyone else ... it's not really useful," says Marguerite Roza, a senior scholar at the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education. The flexibility "allows the school to ... maybe even do things better."

Though crediting the superintendent with reducing a top-heavy administration, Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade union, says she's frustrated by claims that the cuts have not harmed the classroom.

Arts and vocational classes, for example, don't keep up with demand from students, she says, and often lack supplies. And new teachers were hired as temps last year, delaying their ability to build seniority and become vested in the pension.

"Our teachers and educational support professionals are really holding up [more than their share of] the system," Ms. Aronowitz says. A new contract is under negotiation.

Overall, the budget team says, there's been a spirit of cooperation throughout the district. But they also fielded accusations that they didn't care about kids.

After decades of growth in the district, enrollments have been declining in recent years, but "it finally took a new superintendent and a crisis to say, 'you do need to shrink, and ... it's time to start putting your money where kids get the most bang for their buck,' " says assistant chief budget officer Ron Steiger.

A former business consultant, Mr. Steiger came to Miami-Dade in 2005 through the Broad Residency, which brings people with business experience into school district offices to help them run more efficiently.

Many districts have outdated systems and layers of personnel that are no longer providing value, say officials at the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in Los Angeles, which has placed 173 people in dozens of districts and attributes millions of dollars of savings to their initiatives.

Early on, Steiger's business-school friends who had gone on to work in private equity would ask, hypothetically, whether the district would make a good investment – was it using dollars wisely? At first, he couldn't give a ringing endorsement. Now, "we're becoming a good investment," he says, and as a leaner organization, it's easier to make that case to foundations and other would-be donors.

The $4.8 billion draft budget for 2009-10, approved last month by the school board, includes $56.5 million in the rainy-day reserve, an additional $50 million set aside to protect jobs in the event of future state cuts, and $10 million in case local property tax revenue declines further.

Unlike some neighboring districts, Miami-Dade has not laid off any teachers. And for this school year, it saved about 2,000 jobs, such as counselors and media specialists, with $125 million in federal stimulus funds distributed by the state. The district will also receive directly $180 million in stimulus to serve low-income and special-needs students over the next two years.

With that solid foundation, the superintendent is looking forward to implementing new initiatives, some of which could position the district well to compete for more stimulus dollars that the US Department of Education is leveraging to promote innovation. One is an expanded set of virtual learning opportunities called "Beyond the Bell," to supplement what's available during the regular school day.

Another – "Everybody Teaches" – expands what started last year by having more central-office staff spend time teaching. Carvalho hopes to break down the walls that often build up between school staff and higher-level administrators.

"Some of our struggling schools across America, they struggle because people stop believing.... We need adult witnesses to what happens in these schools," he says. He practices what he preaches: Not only does he go into the classroom to teach, but he regularly stops by school cafeterias to serve lunch.

Carvalho cut his teeth managing a tight budget when he immigrated to the United States from Portugal on his own at 17. After high school in his native country, he worked for a year to save up for his ticket to New York. In the US, he worked before and during college in jobs ranging from construction to hospitality. In the Miami-Dade schools he started as a science teacher and worked his way up.

Today, as absorbed as he can be in saving money, Carvalho says the drive for efficiency is all about doing better for the true bottom line: the students – like a third-grader at Liberty City Elementary School, in a predominantly poor, African-American neighborhood, who told Carvalho that he's never been to the beach less than 10 miles away.

Liberty City was an "F" school – based on state test scores and annual gains among low-scoring students.

When Tamme Williams, an experienced principal in the district, took over last fall, she scoured the data, met with teachers and students, and says she recalls thinking right away, "This school is not an 'F'.... These are bright kids."

The superintendent sent experts from the central office to develop teachers' skills and give students extra instruction at Liberty City and eight other "F" schools. He "volunteered" top managers from his own cabinet to work at Saturday sessions where kids could earn $10 for attending. The district sponsored parent academies, too, to explain the testing and give them tips on how to support their children's progress.

When Ms. Williams showed students how close they were to reaching the next level on tests, "some of their eyes just got so big because then they realized, 'I can do this,' " she says. Each time a group of students scored well on reading and math, she'd have a special lunch for them, using local donations for pizza or money from her own pocket for Happy Meals from McDonald's.

This summer, they had extra reason for singing their theme song – "The World's Greatest" by R. Kelly: They had earned an "A" from the state.

Another six of the nine "F" schools had improved by at least one letter grade. In total, 210 of the district's 364 schools scored an "A," 39 more than the year before.

Carvalho cautions that the district's success in doing more with less this past year doesn't justify further cuts in education funding, as some might suggest.

"There is a breaking point," he says. To him, that would be when he's done all he can and then finds he has to target areas essential to a comprehensive education, like the arts or physical education.

"Should economic conditions not improve, and should the nation as a whole not seek solutions beyond the sunsetting of the stimulus monies," he says, "we could very well reach that [breaking point]."   http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0825/p13s01-legn.html

Citizens watchdog groups going to school
Sunday,  October 18, 2009 8:53 AM   By Charlie Boss,  Columbus Dispatch

School watchdogs
Groups across central Ohio are scrutinizing school districts' finances and policies. Among them:

·         Hilliard: www.educatehilliard.org

·         Marysville: www.strongermarysville.org

·         New Albany: www.fiscalresponsibilitynow.com

·         Olentangy: www.responsibleolentangy.com

·         Reynoldsburg: www.tax46.com

·         South-Western: www.swatlevy.com

·         Westerville: www.levyfacts.com

·         Worthington: www.educateworthington.org 

 As Ohio school districts appeal to voters for additional operating dollars, a movement is growing among tax-weary residents hoping to slow or stop the continuous cycle of tax requests.

From Marysville to New Albany, watchdog groups have sprouted across central Ohio, calling on school districts to be more transparent and responsible with their finances and to consider alternatives to raising taxes.

The groups vary in approach and philosophy, but all are waging informational campaigns to make their point.

Groups in Hilliard, Westerville and Worthington have crunched budget numbers and posted their findings on their Web sites. Some have spread their message by hosting gatherings or speaking at board meetings. One group, Levyfacts.com, created an online tool where visitors can attempt to balance the Westerville school district's budget.

Read more @ http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/18/citizen-watchdogs.html