Changes coming in Ohio (02/14/06)

FORT RECOVERY — Changes may be in store for the curriculum at Fort Recovery High School, following Ohio governor Bob Taft’s State of the State Address last month.

“Reform at the high school level is very much what the governor thinks we need,” Fort Recovery High School principal Ed Snyder said Monday at a meeting of the Fort Recovery School Board. “This is something we need to start planning for immediately.”

In his speech, Taft called for a more strenuous core curriculum at the high school level, and for that core to be a requirement for admission to an Ohio state college.

Taft cited in his speech that one in four college freshmen don’t come back for a second year, and that about 40 percent of college freshmen never earn a degree.

“We are graduating a lot of kids, but are we truly preparing them?” said Snyder.

The proposed changes would be effective starting with the class of 2011 — this year’s seventh graders.

Future requirements could include four units of math for each student, including algebra II; biology, chemistry and physical science for all students; and two units of foreign language.

Currently, Fort Schools requires students to take three units of science, but students can fulfill those requirements through general science courses and AgriScience. In addition, students are currently not required to proceed past algebra I, though more advanced classes are available, and they only need three units of math to graduate.

Taft did not include in his speech any plans for additional funding at the high school level.

“The personnel ramifications of this are huge,” said Snyder. “We are going to have to tighten our belts with the funding we have.”

While the curriculum changes have not been passed into law, Snyder said he considers modifications, at least in some form, “pretty much a done deal.”

Changes at the high school level were proposed in tandem with modifications at the collegiate level. Under Taft’s plan, all remedial work in state colleges would be moved to two year campuses where it can be done with less cost to the state.

Taft estimates that four in ten students entering college straight from high school require remediation, which costs the state about $29 million.

In addition, high school students would be required to take a new diagnostic test during their junior year to assess readiness for graduation.

Passing the test would not be a graduation requirement, but rather an indicator of areas that need improvement before college.

“It’s not being done in isolation,” said Snyder. “It’s being done in cooperation with what [the kids] are going to face in secondary education.”

Snyder said he and high school administrators will begin to plan for these changes immediately.

“This is probably going to be something we will be talking about for a lot of meetings to come,” he said.

Also Monday, superintendent David Riel presented to the board his first draft of a schedule that will involve the community in the board’s possible association with the Ohio Schools Facility Commission.

The board decided in a special session two weeks ago to opt out of a deal with OSFC that would supplement building costs on the construction and renovation of a new high school building, citing a lack of input from taxpayers about the project.

The board will have the opportunity to take advantage of OSFC funding again next year.

Riel said that the board will discuss the overall vision of a construction or renovation project at a work session in April, and will work to form a facility planning committee by June.

The committee will meet several times between August and December, including two community forums before presenting a recommendation to the board at a work session in January of 2007.

Riel said he would include more steps in the second draft regarding a possible timeline if the board again opts out of OSFC funding.

“Doing nothing is certainly not an option, but we do need to include some steps about what we’ll do if we don’t go with OSFC,” he said.

Riel said the he has been in contact with architects and OSFC members and received their input on the timeline. He plans to submit a completed timeline for board approval at the March meeting.

Dan Jutte also offered a legislative report regarding the State Teachers Retirement System.

According to the Ohio School Board Association, STRS has announced that it is unable to cover health care costs for retired educators and is proposing that employers and educators increase their contributions to pension benefits by 2.5 percent each.

OSBA has stated that it opposes this increase and has urged local school board members to write letters to state officials expressing their opposition to the proposal.

In other business, board members voted to offer a three-year contract to Gary St. Myer of Fort Recovery to mow an estimated 24 acres surrounding school property.

The board reviewed quotes ranging from $550 to $795 per mow from six different mowers. St. Myer offered the lowest quote.

Riel said that while they were generally satisfied with the work done by CA Industries, their current contractor, the increase from $375 three years ago to $600 next year caused some concern.

“I thought I owed it to our public to do some research before I signed a $600 contract,” he said.

“He’s a taxpayer,” said board member Dan Jutte of St. Myer, “so why not give him a chance at it?”

The grounds generally require about twenty or twenty-one mows a year, resulting in a yearly cost of roughly $12,000.

The mowing price will be adjusted each year of the contract according to the consumer pricing index, but Fort Schools treasurer Lori Koch said that probably would not amount to more than about 5 percent a year.

The board also heard a report for Fort Recovery Middle School principal Ted Shuttleworth about the new Wellness Committee formed as a result of the federal Child Nutrition Act of 2004.

Under the act, all schools districts were to establish a “wellness policy.”

The committee, comprised of parents, teachers, students, school board members, food service director Becki Rammel and middle school secretary Nancy Reinhard, who has a background in nursing, will gather data about the average weight of all K-9 Fort students and the body mass index of all sixth through ninth graders.

This data will be compared to other schools and goals regarding nutrition and nutrition education will be set.

The committee’s first meeting will be Tuesday, Feb. 21.

At the end of the public meeting, the board held an executive session to discuss personnel matters.[[In-content Ad]]