Monroe Schools

JSmith,

Ms. Andrews- Cold day out there, came home to veggy soup and got warmed up by your post. Don't worry, love my wife but your interest in this site is quite fascinating to me.  Stay the course, leaders are hard to find these days.

Vet, MCSD sadly, is NOT Phillips Academy Andover, where I attended. My father didn't mind his all male education at Wabash. Take note: EdChoice had only schools in Middletown in the entire Butler Cty, participating in the voucher program. I'd definately recommend John XXIII, maybe not quite as strong as when Sister Namcy was there, but still a good prep. Ohio school systems don't focus upon the individual, they focus upon the school rating. Any teacher in the system will openly tell you the number 1 priority is elevating the annual scorecard, the grades, the person as a whole, not even a distant 3rd in prioritzation. With 4 times the vouchers by Kasisch, will that correlate to > 400 students leaving MCSD for JXXIII, others? Probably. 

Middletown scouter,

JSmith, since you are so knowledgeable about public school libraries, maybe you should volunteer to help the district devise a  plan for managing the school libraries with volunteers. Or, if federal law does in fact require college education to help a child pick a book, the classroom teachers could supervise their own students while they are in the library.

Tony B, the school district has no present plans for those properties, due to state of the real estate market. If you want to make an offer, contact Milt Thompson, business manager.

Marcia Andrew wrote: Middletown scouter, As a school board member, I do not micromanage the process of covering the functions of the library managers. I can tell you that you are correct, the plan is to handle this with volunteers. Each building may have a different approach. All volunteers with the potential to have one to one contact with kids must pass a criminal background check. It will not be easy but it is do-able. John 23 has had an all-volunteer library for years. You are also correct about the difficulty of the task we face. Everyone wants us to reduce our expenses, but the minute we suggest cutting a position, someone wants to say, no not them!

Thank you for the response. I am somewhat confused though. I realize that the school board doesn't micromanage all jobs in the district, but if you are voting on whether or not to approve a change that include eliminating a paid position, wouldn't you want to understand the process behind why that position can be eliminated and how those job duties will be handled effectively going forward? Also, wouldn't the process for ensuring that volunteers managing the library are selected and trained properly be best handled by central administration rather than the individual buildings? You posted earlier about the need to standardize curriculum amongst all the same grade level classrooms around the district to ensure that they are teaching the same things at the same time, why would administration of our school libraries and the tens of thousands of dollars in inventory (or more) not be something that should also be standardized?

Ms Andrew states...."Vet, you imply that the elimination of corporal punishment was a choice by the school district. It was not. The courts have decided that it is illegal. I have posted that information several times here and you keep bringing it up. Suggesting remedies that are illegal and therefore unavailable is simply not helpful".

My original statement was....

"Perhaps you could tell us why the district didn't develop an alternative program (after being intimidated through the legal system by parents of the thugs and removing corporal punishment) to combat the behavior of the new type of "rogue" student the schools must try to educate nowadays".

Perhaps taking a page out of the military methods of motivation of proper behavior would work for a district that has so many behavioral issues. Ever think about contacting the military element for some suggestions? Not necessarily corporal punishment and certainly a "no touch" method to motivate, but amazingly has everyone on the same page and functioning under rules and guidelines.


I asked if the schools developed an alternate program to combat the behavior of the "rogue" student and mentioning the removal of corporal punishment, making it clear that I was aware that corporal punishment was bannished. Ms. Andrew, is it not true that at least part of reason why the schools dissolved corporal punishment is because of the potential lawsuits from parents who didn't want the schools touching their little angels, as well as the courts deeming it illegal?

Ms. Andrew - thanks for your posts here. I have a question about property that the school board might own. I'm thinking specifically of the Roosevelt property and the old Jefferson Elementary property. What plans are there for these properties?

Middletown scouter, each school's PTO is a separate nonprofit organization, and they are independent of the school system so I can't speak for them. But, consider that the money raised by the Highview PTO was raised with the belief and intent that it be spent for the benefit of that K-5 building. Not for the 6th graders of the whole district.

JSmith--

I am not going to explain the job function of every non-teacher in the district. I will address the changes and cuts in administration> You are correct, there are currently 8 directors in charge of 8 departments. 2 directors (technology and communications) are being RIF'd and will not be replaced. 1 (Susan Combs, director of student services) is retiring. The new position that you saw advertised will replace her, but will have different functions. Central office will be restructured to have a total of 6 departments. Student services will not be a separate department, but those responsibilities will be covered by others, primarily the dept of learning. (btw, one of the main functions of student services is special ed). So, next school year, there will be 6 directors in charge of 6 depts.

it is true that the Sr Dir of Learning was hired to cover the responsibilities of the prior Asst Superintendent, who retired. Lesser title and lower pay range, but the work still needed to be done.

Data specialists and data managers are required by -- and paid by -- restricted grant money. They don't "crunch numbers to make the data look good." High stakes testing has led to multiple benchmark tests throughout the year to track how well the students are learning. It makes sense to find out while we can still fix it, what has been learned and what has not. Data managers analyze all the test answers to help teachers figure out what interventions are needed. For example, if 5% of the kids in one 4th grade class missed all the questions about multiplying fractions, the teacher would want to help those few kids with the concept. If 90% missed it, however, the teacher needs to figure out a different way to reteach it to the whole class. If 80% of all 4th graders in the whole school missed multiplying fractions, then perhaps there is a larger issue that needs to be addressed. If the data managers were not doing this work, it would fall on the teachers, who are already being asked to do more than ever before. plus, cutting them wouldn't save any money, as the grant money they are paid with would go away.

The football coach is not an attendance "clerk" (there is a clerk and it is an hourly position). His job is not to record tardies and absences, but to actively intervene with the students and their families to solve the problem and get the kids in class. This is an administrative function, and a football coach is ideally suited to provide the level of authority and intimidation often required.

The district engaged in a thorough, thoughtful budget process to identifying positions to cut, starting with each department re-examining each position and other opportunities for cost savings. Input was requested and received from teachers, staff and community members to help set priorities. Particular attention was paid to the views of the principals. There was quite a bit of information presented at school board meetings over several months about the budget deficit we are facing and the process we went through to decide how to solve the problem.

The following positions have been cut (as of the end of this school year): 2 directors, 4 assistant principals, 1 principal, 1 student facilitator, 1 librarian, 5 library managers, 1 counselor, 4 attendants, 4 custodians, 8 secretaries, 1 print shop and 5 monitors. There will be teacher positions cut, but we are waiting until we know how many teachers take the early retirement option. We are hopeful these will balance out and we won't have to fire any teachers.

groundswat - you make an interesting point. The decisions of our city government do have negative effect on the school system and the taxpayers who support both. The economic downturns and inefficient use of resources have put the school system in a position that few other systems face. It looks as if every municipality around us is growing and we are not. We have a disproportionate Section 8 population and property values are declining at an alarming rate. That is a challenge for the city government to solve. Until then, the school system will have to do the best they can.