Lakota Cuts

As I have explained several times before on this forum, Mr. Ison was not hired into a new position, the position was renamed when he was hired.  Two years ago, there were 8 Director positions in central administration. Last year, two Directors were eliminated (Community Relations and Technology) and their duties reassigned to existing staff. The Director of Pupil Services (Mrs. Combs) retired.  Mr. Ison was hired in her place, but with the restructuring the responsibilities had shifted to emphasize instructional leadership--he is responsible (among many other things) for training the principals to be instructional leaders for their buildings, not just managers. Raising expectations. Dr. Carter continues to be in charge of Curriculum, among other things. JSmith is just wrong when she/he says that one person was performing both of these duties.

The point about Mr. Ison's position I think is mainly that the position was created in the past few years. At one time, there was one administrator who performed the duties or both Mr. Ison and Ms. Carter.

I did notice today that Middletown City Schools has an announcement on their website for ANOTHER ADMINISTRATOR POSITION.....Dean of Students?!?

What the hell?

rshaffer wrote: VV: according to middletowncityschools.com, Mr. Ison's position is listed as Sr. Director of INSTRUCTIONAL Leadership. His duties include discipline, suspensions/expulsions, Special Education (IEPs), attendance, and "bullying." This department is different from the Department of Learning (which is curriculum-based). All of the school districts comparable in size to Middletown that I am aware of have a designated Assistant---or Associate---Superintendent in this position, and not a "Director." Respectfully, Rick Shaffer

Thank you for the info. Mr. Shaffer.

Borrowing from Abraham Maslow's theory on self actualization and needs,

VV: according to middletowncityschools.com, Mr. Ison's position is listed as Sr. Director of INSTRUCTIONAL Leadership. His duties include discipline, suspensions/expulsions, Special Education (IEPs), attendance, and "bullying." This department is different from the Department of Learning (which is curriculum-based). All of the school districts comparable in size to Middletown that I am aware of have a designated Assistant---or Associate---Superintendent in this position, and not a "Director." Respectfully, Rick Shaffer

Yes, there are a few school board members quite keen on closing Vail, while Cincinnati State is moving downtown, but the school board thinks it is an "unseemly" area. Go figure. So, they waste money to build. What a disappointment the school board and city council are in Middletown.

jsmith2011 wrote: Due to the fact that the school district made the decision to close Highview as an elementary school and then farm out those students to other elementaries, the school district has created another bigger problem for themselves. Elementary schools are now overcrowded. Some schools are going to need to add additional classes next year in some grade levels and do not have room for them. One school is considering putting students on the stage?!? What type of learning environment is that? It doesn't matter if it is English or Art, it isn't right. New schools were built, with our money, they weren't large enough to begin with. One school, Highview, was open several years and then was remodeled for older students. Then they wanted to argue that the cost was not extreme. Whatever the cost, it was a waste of money. Now they want to build more schools which will make Highview obsolete AGAIN and it will be remodeled AGAIN for younger students.

I don't remember reading anywhere that the musical chair usage was occuring at Highview. Not in the Journal that I recall. Who is in charge of the building student alignment- IE, capacity, grades occupying the building, and usage? Milt Thompson is the Manager of the buildings as to maintenance but not occupancy, right? If this was the decision of the Super and the School Board, they certainly have a cluster going on at Highview, don't they? This info. needs to be broadcasted to the public when they get ready to go for their Phase 2 building fiasco. If this is the result of Phase I, we don't need to see Phase 2, do we? May we have an explanation concerning this Ms. Andrew? Reasons for this activity at Highview?

Acclaro: seriously? chmoore

Bill I can only say that in some ways it is getting better but when the principals take a hit on their yearly evaluations for suspensions then what do you think happens? Would you be motivated to boot out the serial offenders? They are still there, all the way down to the elementary level, with their parents who have to take zero responsibility.   That is why Highview is getting an assistant principal, she has her hands full. The elementary loaded up to almost full capacity, with an ED unit full of runners isn't going to get any help though, just more of the ED students. As long as they are handled and no one else has to do it right? There is a lot going on in the district that public just does not know.

Sooo... the question is the same as getting the message out to the community about the city's unannounced agenda.......how do we go about stirring enough anger in the community about this for the school board (and council) to take notice that the people are fed up? We all know the Journal is the city's journalistic prostitute, told what to report on by the city leaders. We also know that there is no organized resistance to what is going on in the town as well as the schools. A community newsletter to actually report the truth would be a starting point. Need stories from the posts of those in the know about "behind the scenes" activities such as this, need them placed in newsletter form, printed, titled "What They Don't Want You To Know" and distributed to all areas of town (or pay the post office bulk mail rates to deliver them on the routes) Not enough people read this forum to attract the numbers needed to make the city and schools stand up and take notice. Now, how do we get the ball rolling on this, assuming there is enough interest? Someone know a printer? Good on the computer to organize the information and place it in newsletter form? How about postage for bulk mailing? Is it worth it?

If you cut and paste the link at the bottom of my last post, you will be taken to the article in the Enquirer. There is an interactive link where you are able to put in the school district you want the information about and select the information by county. This information came from the Ohio Department of Education. They do not fudge the numbers and beat around the bush like Middletown City Schools.

Thank you Tracyl for bringing all those questions forth, although I doubt you will ever get a straight answer. If anything is ever questioned, the answer usually is, "That/they are paid through grant money". That makes it unquestionable by taxpayers in the school board eyes.

Kathy Jonas is also in charge of the libraries, heard she was paid an additional $5,000.00 a year to be the "library coordinator" and never contacted one person who worked in the library, never held a meeting, etc. but at the end of the year recommended that all those positions be cut and now the libraries are a mess. I have heard that one school actually has a certified teacher taking a class to the library when the library staff that was cut made 1/3 of a teachers pay. How is that saving money? This year Jonas is in charge of the one librarian who is left but I bet she is still getting that $5,000.00 stipend at the end of the school year. So now, the school district is going to fill those library positions again next year?!?

Jonas is also in charge of professional development for the certified staff. Being paid as much as she is, you would think she would have the knowledge to hold these sessions herself but instead, the school district HIRES outside people to come and teach the information.

She's not the only employee the taxpaying public should question. How about Ms. Grome (may be incorrectly spelled)? She was hired several years ago by Lisa Lowery for a position at an elementary school but she was hired when an employee who was laid off should have been called back. When that employee filed a grievance with the union, sure enough, it was her right to have the job but they had already signed a contract with Grome so she was put in the admin building and given a title. Of course, she has been given another contract and is making the big bucks but she isn't listed anywhere on the school website. What does she do? A better question, who does she know?

Is it true that the new Mayfield principal hired one of her friends from Cincinnati to be the "academic coach" at Mayfield? That's the way it works in this district.

And please don't get me started about the football coach WHO DOESN'T EVEN TEACH and makes $80,0000.00 a year. He's checking tardy students, a job a classified person had at one time who made $25,000.00 a year but the job was given to the last football coach who was hired and didn't have a certificate to teach high school. I guess we should overlook all of that since the team did so well.....

The waste goes on and on in this school district and they have enough nerve to think about asking us for more money? Either the school board is being snowed by the administrators who tell them what they want to hear or the board is just turning a blind eye to all the issues.

I don't think it's "internal turmoil" vet, I think that the school district employees/administrators have found out, years ago, what they can get away with, and have/are taking advantage of us, the taxpayers.

Ah Vietvet you are only but scratching the surface here.  Let us ask Ms. Andrews a few more questions shall we?  Questions like, why is Race to the Top money being used for, you guessed it, ADMINiSTRATORS? I guess one could be thankful it isn't being used as Lisa Lowery wanted, to pay for the high school coach.  You cut assistant principals out one year, bring em back the next.  Speaking of administrators, is it not true that Debbie Sanders left MIddletown ina  tizzy awhile back, pulling her children and heading for Monroe (trash talking MIddletown the entire time), only to be cut because she doesn't have her principal's license and then, you guessed it, is the new principal at Central next year? Speaking of no license, is it true some of your overpaid "academic coaches" don't even hold a teaching license?  What's up with that?  And what about TItle 1 funds?  How many of your administrators are paid out of that?  Aren't those funds supposed to be for the students in some fashion?  How does Kathy Jonas help support students? Isn't she one of the ones paid from this fund?  Teachers order supplies for the students from this fund every year and guess what?  This year they didn't get them all.  When you contact her, no response.  Where did that money go?  Why do you have a reading program that we tax payers paid for, one that is research based and aligned to the standards, yet teachers are not allowed to use it and school fee money is not used to reorder supplies for it.  That money is used to order other workbooks.  One last question, I see teacher salaries in the paper.  One of which is a teacher who left the district to go to Butler Tech as an adminstrator of some kind, with the pay to go with it.  She got cut and MCSD hired her back, matching her previous salary from Butler Tech, not in alignment with the schedule.  How is this possible? In my opinion, MCSD has too many chiefs and not enough indians yet it's the indians that are going to get you the scores you so desperately need. You handicap teachers with cuts and minimal supplies, principals are dinged in their evaluations if they suspend the hoodlums, how on earth to you expect things to get better?