How do you have a successful parent-teacher conference?

By Megan Gildow | Friday, November 21, 2008, 09:07 AM

Parent-teacher conferences are cropping up on almost every school calendar I have this month.

The National Education Association, familyeducation.com and Discovery’s Parent Channel all have tips to help you make the most of these meetings.

I believe we have a few educators reading out there; maybe they will offer up their own tips as well?

Here are a few of each organization’s suggestions with links to the rest of the article.

Do your homework: Prepare for your conference by making a list of things you may need to notify your child’s teacher about (changes at home or problems you are noticing, for example). Also come up with questions prior to the conference so you know what you want to ask and discuss.

Ask your child: Talk to your child before the conference to get ideas about what you might hear during the conference and what concerns you might raise.

Ask about the school: Find out the teacher’s and school’s policies in the classroom, for evaluating your child and what your child will be expected to learn over the year. Also ask the teacher what you can do at home to help your child be more successful.

Looking for more? Here’s a list of how to handle a few different specific circumstances and an article on continuing effective communication after the conference is over.

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Central Academy: A closer look

By Megan Gildow | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 12:54 PM

About 50 community members attended Tuesday’s forum about Central Academy, a public school of choice in Middletown, hosted by a local parent’s group.

Springfield Partnership for Academic Challenge and Enrichment hosted the presentation by Dr. Dianne Suiter, principal of Central Academy at Middletown City Schools. They are hoping a similar program could be a fit for Springfield.

There’s a pretty generous amount of information about Central on it’s Web site if you are interested in learning more. Here’s information about democratic schools, the curriculum style Central adopted as its philosophy and model.

Parents with the group told me Tuesday they would like to organize a visit to Central Academy and keep the conversation going about whether a similar school could fit in Springfield City Schools and a relatively diverse population.

All five board members attended the meeting and I spoke to board member Don Reed afterward. He acknowledged that Central is an interesting concept, but the district does have finances to consider and there would have to be much more consideration before jumping into a project like that. He also mentioned that Suiter said the best way to start such a program is to have kindergarten and first grade classrooms and build up as the students get older.

We’ll see what happens from here.

There were a few big elements to Central that were part of the presentation and discussion Tuesday night. I went into most of them a little in Wednesday’s article but I’m going to delve into them a little more now.

Continue reading "Central Academy: A closer look"...

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Catholic Central “Bucks” up to raise funds for cystic fibrosis

By Megan Gildow | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 11:05 AM

Catholic Central students were able to trade their uniforms for red and gray (or blue and yellow) in exchange for a $1 donation to cystic fibrosis research Wednesday, Nov. 19.

The fundraiser was a campus-wide event and honored Athletic Director Dan Shay, who had cystic fibrosis, said Kathy Sahle, coordinator for the school.

The Catholic Central PTO organized the event.

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Board interviewing for superintendent search

By Megan Gildow | Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 09:02 AM

Springfield board members will begin interviewing search firms tonight to find a new superintendent and a permanent high school campus director for the 2009-10 school year.

The board will hold a special board meeting this evening, Nov. 19, and Nov. 25 and will interview firms in executive session.

Both positions are currently filled by interim appointees: Don Thompson will serve as interim superintendent through the summer and JoEtta Cooper is the interim campus director.

Thompson came to the district this summer after retired superintendent Jean Harper announced her resignation in the spring. Cooper was the project consolidation manager for the high school and took over on a temporary basis after Hubert Watson, originally hired to be the high school campus director, was moved to a central office position overseeing middle school academics in the district. He has since resigned to take a job as a principal at a South-Western City Schools high school.

The board plans to launch a national search to fill these positions.

I’ll have more on the process from here after the board chooses a firm and lays out a plan. But for now, what qualities do you think are most important in Springfield’s next superintendent?

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District facilities recommendations coming soon

By Megan Gildow | Friday, November 14, 2008, 11:51 AM

A Springfield board committee will make facilities recommendations in December and January to move central offices out of South High School and possibly to close one school, board Vice President and committee chairman Ed Leventhal said Thursday.

The district’s central offices are the only remaining operations in South High School and the short-term committee has been looking at options for moving those employees out of the school over the last several months.

The committee will make a recommendation at the Dec. 11 meeting, said Leventhal.

“We are trying to weight whether we move that to a current facility where we have room or to some place on the open market,” he said.

There will be some costs associated with either selection, either renovations to school space or rent for a new space, Leventhal said. The committee is also considering whether all of the offices in the central administration need to be together.

In January the committee will make its final recommendation on whether to close a school as suggested by a state auditor earlier this year, said Leventhal.

The auditor recommended closing a middle school immediately and an elementary in the future if enrollment declines persist. Clark Middle School and Fulton Elementary School are the two lowest capacity schools in the district, according to the audit.

Otis Williams, chair of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a member of the committee, urged board members not to close a school in the southwest corner of the city. He pointed to that area’s loss of South High School as a reason not to close another school there.

“I feel that the southwest quadrant has already suffered enough,” he said. “They should not even be considered. They’ve taken too many beatings. If we’re going to think about closing something down, let’s stay away from over there.”

There will be some costs with closing the school in the first years, said Leventhal.

“To close a school, the first year’s probably going to cost you about $100,00 to $110,000,” he said. The cost would decrease in the second and third year.

All of Springfield’s school buildings are new built in the last several years through a partnership with the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

If the board elects to close a school it would be part of a projected $1.4 million in budget cuts needed for next year, said Leventhal.

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Financial woes have affected district hiring

By Megan Gildow | Friday, November 14, 2008, 10:38 AM

Financial problems in the city schools have impacted Springfield’s hiring because of recalls and a perception of instability, Wendy Ford, Director of Human Resources, told board members Thursday night.

Ford made a presentation about the district’s hiring practices in response to questions raised by the Coalition for Justice and Equality in October that the district had “displaced” black leadership and does not have enough diversity on its staff.

Springfield schools has been under state oversight since 2005 because of financial difficulties and has laid off many employees because of finances and in an effort to “right size” the staff to a declining student population, said Ford.

The district’s hiring practices are governed by negotiated agreements with bargaining units, state law and the civil service test regulations.

The district’s contracts with bargaining units call for current employees to have the option to transfer to an open position first, said Ford. Then the position is offered to laid off employees on a recall list.

“We’ve had a number of people on our recall lists,” she said. Currently there are some classified staff members — aides, secretaries, custodians, etc. — still on recall lists, but no teachers, or certified staff members, remain on the list.

After current and recalled employees, the job is posted publicly for an open application process, said Ford.

For certified staff members, Ford and the building principal look over all applications and choose the candidates to interview based on certification, qualifications and experience. Then an interview team, typically made up of teachers, administrators and curriculum coaches, conduct interviews.

The team selects a candidate and Ford has final approval.

For administrators, the team recommends two or three finalists to the superintendent who makes the final selection.

Otis Williams, chair of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, asked why some recently vacated position had not been posted and some people had not been considered for those jobs.

“That was my main concern that all those wanting to be involved have the opportunity to be considered,” he said.

Interim Superintendent Don Thompson said time constraints had put some limitations on temporary hires this school year.

“Time some times is of the essence in order to get an individual and that may play a factor,” he said.

At least three of the district’s administrators are interim employees currently. The board will launch a national search later this month to replace Thompson and Interim Campus Director JoEtta Cooper with permanent selections.

Former district employee Tom Payton, another interim employee, is temporarily overseeing duties that had been handled by former Director of Student Services Mattie White, who left abruptly in August to take a principal position in a Dayton suburb.

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How does Springfield schools hire its employees?

By Megan Gildow | Thursday, November 13, 2008, 02:03 PM

District officials will answer the question posed last month about its hiring practices at tonight’s board meeting.

Wendy Ford, director of human resources for the district, will make a presentation on hiring procedures tonight, according to the district’s agenda.

Last month, representatives from the city’s Coalition for Justice and Equality approached board members about concerns with the district and hiring practices and what they called a “displacement” of black leadership in the district was a big part of that discussion.

The same topic came up at Monday’s CJE forum where the leaders of the group — pastors of several churches in town — asked residents what their concerns with the district were.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. tonight in the city forum at 76 East High Street.

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