First Posted: 2/26/2015
LIMA — The Lima City School Board focused on efforts to improve at its meeting Thursday.
The initiative to do so was highlighted by a brief visit from Ohio Department of Education representatives, including Clairie Huff-Franklin, the department’s director of distress commissions and education reform.
In two weeks, the department will have a committee visit the district to asses data, observe schools and classrooms to pinpoint district strengths and challenges, and make recommendations.
With new standards and continuous changes in education standards, the department has developed a new review process for schools in the state. Beginning with the 2015-16 school year, schools are only able to have an “F” overall or in performance three years in a row before having to work with a distress commission.
The point of the visit, Huff-Franklin said, is to help the district avoid a commission, as Lima schools has not been recognized as a district in distress.
“Our purpose is not to say you’re a failure,” she said. “Our purpose is to offer support and say we see some strengths, we see some challenges, and here are some recommendations we approve of.”
Department representatives also notified the district of results from evaluations at some schools made earlier in the year, showing great improvement already.
“It’s refreshing to have people come in and spend time in here rather than just looking at a grade card,” said Superintendent Jill Ackerman. “I feel good that they’re going to see a lot of hard work here.”
Carrie Woodruff, the district’s director of nutrition services, reported that the program received rave reviews in inspections with multiple ongoing projects and initiatives to encourage nutritional eating and education, among other related topics.
“There are few schools in the United States that serve as many breakfast meals as we do,” Woodruff said.
The board also approved the future transfers of two principals in the district for the 2015-16 school year. Tricia Winkler, who has been a principal for two schools, will now lead only Unity Elementary School because of an increase of enrollment. Independence Elementary Principal Chad Fallis will also transfer to become principal at South Science Technology K-8 School.
As a result, the board will be looking into hiring a new principal for Independence Elementary School for the 2015-16 school year. The board has not started the hiring process for the position.
Board members also offered a PARCC testing update, indicating there’s already a pile of “Test Irregularities” reports. However, every district has dealt with their own unique issues in working with PARCC testing, Ackerman said.
Despite the amount of time spent testing and other challenges the district’s facing, “we have a lot of good, great things going on,” Ackerman said.
