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Michael D. Clark reports:

A public records lawsuit filed to the Ohio Supreme Court and connected to a former special education teacher ended with a settlement approved by the Kings school board Tuesday evening.

The Kings Board of Education voted unanimously to approve an out-of-court settlement with the anti-tax group Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes to release depositions taken by the district’s attorney during an investigation into allegations the former teacher had mistreated students.

The teacher, who resigned last year, was investigated by district officials, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office and the county prosecutor, but no charges were filed.

The Enquirer is not naming the former teacher because there have been no criminal charges filed by law enforcement agencies, nor are there documented allegations by Kings officials or any findings of wrongdoing by the Ohio Department of Education.

John Charleton, spokesman for state education department, said under Ohio law, department officials do not confirm the existence of any investigation unless it reaches the hearing stage or resolution on whether a teacher’s license is suspended or revoked.

The first complaint about the teacher came to Kings officials in October 2011 and by January 2012 the teacher was placed on administrative leave. The instructor, under a negotiated resignation agreement with the district in March 2012, received a letter of recommendation that included an excerpt from the teacher’s previously favorable job reviews.

Kings officials had initially disputed COAST’s lawsuit, contending depositions done by the district’s attorney with former school staffers, classroom aides and some of the students’ parents were not public record and were covered under attorney-client privilege.

Moreover, said Kings Superintendent Valerie Browning, Kings contended the depositions “might jeopardize the privacy and identity of our students” and their families if they were made public.

(more…)

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: chris finney, coast, kim grant, kings board of education, kings school district, ohio department of education, ohio supreme court, public records lawsuit, settlement, teacher, warren county sheriffs

Sue Kiesewetter reports:

The Mason City School District Board of Education has called a special meeting Tuesday that begins at 6 p.m., in room 108 at administrative offices, 211 N. East St.

Board members will go behind closed doors to talk about the employment or dismissal of employees. Following that session, the board will begin its discussion of the district’s five-year forecast.

Treasurer Richard Gardner will review the district budget, planned spending reductions and update the board on anticipated state revenue. Spokeswoman Tracey Carson said the district won’t have exact numbers until the governor finalizes the state budget, which might not happen until June.

The state-required, five-year financial forecast would be voted on at the board’s regular meeting on May 21, at Mason High School, Carson said.

Posted in: Board of Education, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: board of education, five-year forecast, mason board of education, mason city school district, mason city schools, Mason City Schools five-year forecast, mason school board, mason schools

Kings Board of Education. From left, Todd Overturf, Bonnie Baker-Hicks, Hale Husband, Becky Holloway and Bill Russell. Photo provided

The Kings Board of Education elected new officers at its January 15 meeting.

Bonnie Baker-Hicks was elected president and Hale Husband vice-president.

Baker-Hicks served 11 years on the board as vice-president, both for a term of one year.  Husband has 15 years experience serving on the board.

Other board members are Becky Holloway, Todd Overturf and Bill Russell.

Meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of the month at the Kings Education Center. 1797 Kings Ave.  For more information, go to www.kingslocal.net.

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: board of education, bonnie baker-hicks, hale husband, kings schools, officers

Michael D. Clark reports:

Ohio school superintendents who may have cheated the system are again being put on public notice by the state’s auditor but this time with an offer of leniency.

Local school officials that voluntarily come forward by Monday to confess if they improperly altered student enrollment figures in recent years to improve their state academic rating will suffer less than if they wait until the auditor’s investigation reveals they did so.

“The time to tell the truth is now,” said Ohio Auditor David Yost in a letter sent this week to Ohio’s local school leaders.

Officials from Mason Schools, the largest district in Warren County and among the state’s top-10 academic performers, said they have nothing to report.

“We have nothing improper to report so we will not be responding,” said Tracey Carson, spokeswoman for the 11,000-student district.

Locally the Hamilton County school district of Lockland is one of three districts – including Columbus and Toledo schools – that have already been accused of altering enrollment data.

Yost contends some district administrators have withdrawn, then re-enrolled students who were habitually absent. The practice could improve test scores and attendance rates on the districts’ state report cards because only students who are continuously enrolled in a district are counted on them.

In his letter, Yost said, “I am confident that most districts have been doing the right thing, in the right way. Others may have acted improperly, but with the belief that their practices were acceptable. It seems likely that still others acted deliberately.”

Yost offered “an opportunity to report information in good faith. If your district has or may have done something wrong in reporting data, whether you knew or did not know it was wrong, we need you to step forward and report the truth.”

“Falsely reporting attendance data is a violation of state and federal law. More importantly, we fail our children and the mission of our schools when we alter records that have a direct impact on the services offered to our students.”

“Voluntary self-reporting demonstrates good intentions and will help separate those who acted in good faith from those who acted with fraudulent intent. This office will be an advocate for those who self-report attendance irregularities.”

Yost, has said his office will investigate a yet-undetermined representative sampling of Ohio’s 613 districts.

“In the weeks ahead, auditors from my office will visit schools in Ohio to review records and report whether it is likely data manipulation occurred. If you have knowledge that inaccurate data was reported to the state by your schools, regardless of the motive for doing so, you can make things right,” wrote Yost.

Toledo Public Schools voluntarily admitted its past data manipulations last month to the Toledo Blade. Superintendent Jerome Pecko said he began an investigation into his district’s policies after reading reports of manipulation in Columbus Schools.

The Toledo Blade contributed

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: attendence, columbus, data manipulation, david yost, enrollment, false reporting, lockland, mason schools, ohio auditor, school enrollment, toledo, toledo public schools, tracey carson

More fruits and vegetables will be on the menu at Mason Schools this school year. Pictured: Mason Child Nutrition Supervisor Tamara Earl serves lunch to students. Photo provided

Parents will have to pack an extra nickel in school backpacks for the 2012-2013 school year.

The Mason School Board approved the 5 cent price increase on school lunches at last month’s school board meeting.

That will bring the price of lunch to $2.60 at Mason Early Childhood Center and Western Row.  Lunches at the intermediate, middle and high school are $2.70.

The increase is a result of a federal legislation that requires school districts to gradually increase school lunch prices until they are more in line with federal reimbursements for free and reduced priced lunches.

The federal mandate also requires more fresh fruit and vegetables and whole grains.

“We can’t say it too much — fruits and vegetables will be the star attraction as we start the school year,” said Tamara Earl, Child Nutrition Supervisor.  “To make lunch a complete meal, students must take at least one fruit or one vegetable with an entrée.”

Mason Schools’ lunch program is a self-sustaining operation that does not use funds from the district’s general fund, said Earl.  The district receives partial reimbursement for “complete lunches served” from the federal government under the National School Lunch Program.

“Our Child Nutrition Department must run like a business,” she said.  “We work to make sure that we generate enough revenue to cover all of our costs so that each district dollar can be kept for students in the classroom.”

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: cost, free, increase, legislation, mason city schools, mason schools, nutrition, price, reduce price, school lunch

BMI testing won’t be among the curriculum for Mason Schools students this school year.

The school district Wednesday unanimously agreed for the third year to ask the Ohio Department of Education to waive its requirement that Mason measure the BMI of students and report those numbers to parents and the state.

“Childhood obesity is an important issue, but we think body mass index screenings of children is a matter better left to families and their physicians rather than the schools,” said Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline.

The BMI requirement is part of the Ohio’s Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act, which took effect in June 2010.  School districts annually must take BMI, a measure of body fat based on a person’s height and weight, in kindergarten and grades 3,5 and 9.

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The number helps determine whether a child’s weight could place him or her at risk for chronic health conditions, such as diabetes or heart problems.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, more than 30 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. More than one third of Ohio’s third graders are overweight and 18 percent are obese.

The law requires schools to report aggregated student BMI, along with demographic data, to the ODH.  No information can identify an individual child.

Under the law, schools, including private and charter schools, can request a waiver to the screenings.  The law also allows parents to opt their children out of the screenings.

The Ohio Department of Education reported that for the 2010-2011 school year, 686 requests were made for waivers, while 242 districts submitted screening data.

Districts have been critical of the unfunded state screenings, citing a lack of staff, time and expertise.  Others say that the unfunded mandate cuts into class time and that BMI screenings are not the school’s job.

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: bmi, childhood obesity, gail kist-kline, healthy choices for healthy children act, mason school board, mason schools, ohio, ohio department of education, ohio department of health, waiver

Michael D. Clark reports:

Maybe this is the way you “vacation” when you deal all year with the pressures of running one of Ohio’s top-10 academic school systems?

Among the thousands of natives, tourists and thrill-seekers running with and away from charging bulls Saturday in Pamplona, Spain, was Mason Schools’ Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline.

Clad in the traditional white clothing with a red kerchief, Kist-Kline eagerly joined those dashing through the streets of the city n northern Spain as part of the annual San Fermin festival and the world famous running of the bulls.

Unlike six others sprinting with the horned beasts, she was not injured.

“It was exhilarating and unexpected,” she wrote in e-mails sent to The Enquirer.

“The intense moments of the run involved the massive crowd of people at the beginning and some running in sheer terror. The other really intense moment came just as we were about to enter the arena and the streets are narrowed by gates to funnel the bulls. We thought we were home free when we realized that they were three more bulls to come and there was no where to go,” she said.

Matching her frenetic strides was her 20-year-old son Quinn.

After running with the crowd into the bull-fighting arena, the participants get to “mingle” with the agitated and feisty bulls.

“The ultimate goal is to run and make it inside with the bulls before they close the gates immediately after the bulls enter,” she said.

“You can see the bull chasing the people still inside the ring,” she said referring to one of the photos she snapped.

“By this point Quinn and I climbed the wall to safety. When you enter the arena after the run it is filled with people cheering,” said Kist-Kline, who is also a veteran marathoner who runs occasionally when the job leading the 11,000-student Warren County district allows.

“The biggest surprise was the crowd and the fact that we couldn’t really run fast at all because of the number people,” she said. “The other big surprise was that Quinn smiled so big as the bulls came near us and it made me smile – we really weren’t afraid – it was exhilarating.”

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: bulls, gail kist-kline, mason schools, pamplona, running of the bulls, san fermin festival, spain, superintendent

Mason schools superintendent Gail Kist-Kline talks with kids in a summer school class at Mason high school on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. The Enquirer/Leigh Taylor

Michael D. Clark reports:

Last summer when Gail Kist-Kline took over the helm of the top-performing Mason Schools, the district was embarking on rough waters.

Mason’s extraordinary streak of winning tax levies – unbroken since 1970 – had ended in voter rejection eight months earlier and, for the first time in more than a decade, Mason’s record-breaking enrollment jumps had flattened.

To balance its budget in recent years, millions of dollars in historically deep personnel and program cuts had shrunk one of Ohio’s top-10 academically performing school systems.

The challenges for Kist-Kline were just the beginning.

In October, Mason Board of Education member John Odell died unexpectedly.

A few months later, she oversaw the first school consolidation in Mason’s history – the merger of Mason Heights Elementary with two other schools – affecting more than 1,600 students.

“The loss of a board member was profound and personally a challenge for all us that was not even on the same level of anything else,” says Kist-Kline of Odell’s rapid decline and death from cancer.

Thanks in part to another round of cuts in April – $1.6 million and 40 teacher and school staffer positions – Mason was able to avoid asking in the Warren County community for a tax hike this year. The district has not sought a new operating levy since 2005.

As with so many area districts, the campaigns for public schools are non-stop, whether they are tied to a new levy or simply reminding residents of Mason’s successes, she says.

“The challenge is getting the confidence up with all residents for the public schools. But the idea that all public schools need to be fixed is not what we are facing in Mason,” Kist-Kline says in reference to the district’s top state rating of “excellent with distinction” and its long record of being one of Ohio’s premier school systems.

She gives much of the credit for her first year’s transition successes to the groundwork laid by former Ohio Superintendent of the Year Kevin Bright.Bright’s departure allowed Kist-Kline to take the job last summer as she moved from her superintendent’s position at Wyoming Schools – another top-rated district.

Mason Board of Education President Kevin Wise says Kist-Kline’s success is not a surprise.

“Gail’s experience as a proven leader was immediately visible. There was no honeymoon and her style doesn’t require one,” Wise says.

“During the last year she faced difficult issues including continued staffing reductions and the first ever building consolidation in Mason. Those two projects don’t lend themselves to making friends.’’

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: budget, gail kist-kline, john odel, kevin wise, mason school board, mason schools, superintendent

Michael D. Clark reports:

The first building consolidation in Mason Schools’ history will now impact a fourth community school and more than 1,800 students.

The Mason school board approved a lease agreement Tuesday evening that includes an option to sell the Mason Heights school to Royalmont Academy – a Catholic school also located in the Warren County city.

Under the agreement approved by the board, Mason will lease the now closed Mason Heights building, whose students are being merged into with two other Mason schools, for two years. Royalmont will then purchase the school for about $1 million.

“Students will still be using that building (and) we are thrilled that Mason Heights will continue to be used as an educational home to children,” said Mason Schools Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline.

Kist-Kline said the district will save $50,000 annually in costs for maintaining the 45-year-old elementary that housed grades two and three in recent years.

In February the board voted to consolidate Mason Heights with Western Row Elementary School and the Mason Early Childhood Center beginning in August.

The merger will affect about 1,600 Mason students and now 200 additional private school students. Officials have projected the merger of the three public schools will save more than a $1 million in facilities’ cost for the district during the five years.

Royalmont will pay $12,500 annually during the two-year lease agreement. The $1 million purchase at the end of the lease will go to maintaining Mason Schools’ remaining buildings, said officials.

Royalmont, which is part of the Cincinnati Archdiocese of Catholic schools and enrolls about 200 students in grades pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, will start classes at Mason Heights’ north Mason campus in August.

“This agreement meets our obligations to our community’s taxpayers by saving $50,000 a year …and will generate $1 million when the building is sold,” said Kist-Kline.

Tony Ferraro, executive director of Royalmont Academy, praised the deal as fitting “our vision of the continued growth and expansion of our program.”

Royalmont draws students from both Mason and 17 different Greater Cincinnati school districts and was looking to expand, said Ferraro.

“One of the inhibitors to this growth in the past has been finding the right facility while still maintaining our presence in Mason, which we believe is the optional location for our school,” said Ferraro.

“Mason Schools has a long history of cooperating with others (and) we are proud of efforts to increase opportunities for our students and community,” said Kevin Wise, school board president.

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

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Olivia Wise a 3rd grader help to create this mosaic last year, it on the wall by the school library at the Mason Heights Elementary that will close this summer. Photo taken by Tony Jones Feb. 22, 2012.

Michael D. Clark reports:

One of Mason’s oldest schools will close next school year, but hand-made pieces of art created over the years by thousands of its young students may live on.

Since 2005 large and colorful mosaics have adorned both the interior and exterior of Mason Heights Elementary. Created by second- and third-graders – under the guidance of a local artist – the tile and glass mosaics have become an iconic part of the 800-student school.

In a cost-saving move earlier this month, Mason’s school board voted to merge 45-year-old Mason Heights Elementary with Western Row Elementary and consolidate their students at Western Row and Mason Early Childhood Center. The merger will impact more than 1,600 students and their families in the Warren County school system.

Mason Heights now houses grades 2 and 3.

The more than a dozen intricate art works range from the gigantic – 20 by 8 feet – to poster-sized ones in the school’s lobby, halls and outside walls. Each has a theme, such as biology, diversity, internationalism, science, reading. Many include tiny self-portraits of former grade-school students who precisely used colored tile and glass pieces to create unique works of art.

“When I talk to people and former students, the first thing they ask now is what is going to happen to the mosaics,” says veteran art teacher Kerry Kronenberger, who has coordinated the school’s annual mosaic program since 2005.

“All our students have participated in the past seven years, and it’s meaningful to the public, too,” Kronenberger says. “It’s the students’ legacy here.”

Eric Messer, principal of Mason Heights, echoed the importance of the mosaics. Standing in the school lobby next to the second largest art work, which depicts children saying hello in 22 languages, Messer says “they are neat, and they are different.

“There has been a lot of hard work, pride and dedication put into these over the years. It helps the kids to feel like it’s their school, and it’s a connection for them. They come in with their parents and point to that and say ‘I did that,’ ” he said.

Tracey Carson, spokeswoman for the schools, says district officials understand the emotional and historical importance of the mosaics.

“Right now, we are talking with a contractor, as well as the original artist, to explore the process for preserving and moving the murals,” says Carson.

“Our hope would be that some of the murals could be moved to Western Row, some to the Mason Early Childhood Center and a few could even end up at the district’s Central Office,” she says.

Posted in: Board of Education, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: eric messer, Kerry Kronenberger, mason early childhood center, mason heights, mason heights elementary, Mason Heights mosaics, mason heights school, western row elementary