Superintendent Tucker on the Radio

Worthington's new Superintendent, Dr. Thomas Tucker, participated in a discussion about the state report card on Ann Fisher's program "All Sides" on WOSU radio. Ann Fisher pressed Dr. Tucker about the difference between "Excellent" and "Excellent with Distinction".  Dr. Tucker  correctly points out that other districts in Central Ohio received the "Excellent with Distinction" rating with worse scores than Worthington but because they had more "growth", they received a higher grade.

Let's use a football analogy as we celebrate the start of the football season. Let's say that Mark Sanchez throws 30 touchdown passes for the Jets this year and receives an "A". Now let's say that Tom Brady throws 15 touchdown passes for the Patriots this year and also receives an "A" because of the low standards for getting an "A" that the NFL has. Fast forward to next season where Sanchez throws 31 passes and again gets his "A" but Brady improves to 22 passes and earns an A+ (excellent with distinction) because he "grew" more than Sanchez even though Sanchez clearly had the better stats.

You can catch Dr. Tucker's comments on the WOSU podcast starting at around the 27 minute mark.

Convocation 2011

Convocation in Worthington is part giant-staff-meeting and part pep-rally. The day before school officially starts, teachers and staff members are welcomed back and a short program is provided featuring addresses by the Superintendent, Board President, WEA President and WESP President. This year, convocation was tinged with sadness at the retirement of Dr. Melissa Conrath and excitement as we welcomed Dr. Tucker into the district. Before the speeches this year, the legendary theatre teacher at TWHS, Bronwynn Hopton, in conjunction with teachers at Evening Street produced a play called "The Wizard of Worthington".  It was too good not to share. It is in two parts and you can access them here:

The Wizard of Worthington Part 1

The Wizard of Worthington Part 2

Superintendent Search Update.

On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, our superintendent candidates met with the Board, a group consisting of Worthington School District Staff members and a separate group consisting of parents, community leaders, community volunteers and a student representative.  I want to take a moment to extend a note of thanks to all of these people who took time out of their schedules in this busy time of year to put in two very full nights with our Superintendent candidates.


The Board of Education intends to proceed in a very deliberate fashion. Last night, the Board met in Executive Session for approximately 3 hours and started going over the volume of information we have collected on all four candidates, including the evaluations  from community and staff. There is a lot of material provided by the candidates in their applications and a lot of research into the history, background and accomplishments of each of these educational leaders and the Board is doing its due diligence to go over all of it.

The Board will again come together to continue our discussion after our regular board meeting on May 23 and we have scheduled another executive session on May 26 where we hope to conclude this process. No decision will be announced prior to May 26. I thank the Worthington community for all of their emails and phone calls (keep them coming) and also for their patience.

If you'd like to email or contact the Board or any of its individual members, you can get our phone numbers and email addresses here:

http://www.worthington.k12.oh.us/school_board.php?PHPSESSID=20e291ca03dd0846ddb4fcadc66c13a3

Superintendent Search - Finalists Announced

The Worthington Board of Education met in executive session on May 9 and selected four candidates to advance to our final round. Clicking on the candidates name will direct you to their application which would include biographical information as well as personal statements of why they are interested in the job. The candidates are:

1)  Dr. Trent Bowers - Assistant Superintendent Intern at Worthington City Schools.

2) Dr. Michele Evans - Superintendent, Canton City Schools.

3) Dr. Thomas Tucker - Superintendent, Licking Heights Local Schools.

4) Mr. Michael Trego - Deputy Superintendent, Dublin City Schools.

These four candidates will meet with the Board, a representative group of staff members and a representative group of community members on May 17 and May 18. Based on the results from those interviews, the board may name our next Superintendent at our May 23 meeting,  or, if the decision is close between two candidates, we may hold a forum for the public at large to weigh in.

Superintendent Search Update

The Worthington Board of Education met in executive session last night to finalize our selection of the Superintendent candidates that we will invite to first round interviews.  It was a difficult evening because there were so many qualified candidates. Clicking on the candidates name will direct you to their application which would include biographical information as well as personal statements of why they are interested in the job. The board looks forward to interviewing:

1) Dr. Trent Bowers

2) Dr. Michele Evans

3) Joyce L. Hackett

4) Dr. Blane McCann

5) Dr. Todd Nichols

6) Dr. Lisa Wendell

The Board will interview these candidates on May 2, 3 and 5. On May 5, the board will select candidates to move into second round interviews and also to meet with community representatives.

In addition to these 6 candidates, the search consultants are continuing their efforts to directly recruit candidates. Those candidates, if they choose to apply, will participate in second round interviews with the Board and will also meet with the community representatives later in the month.

Superintendent Candidates

As of April 22, 19 candidates have completed their paperwork and applied to be Worthington's next Superintendent. This excellent field includes current Superintendents from school districts in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, candidates from large districts as well as smaller districts (including one from right here in Worthington) and candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences. In addition, there are a handful of candidates who have started but not completed their applications so this list, while accurate as of this blog post,  may grow.

In addition to this list, our consultants  are continuing to directly recruit candidates for another week or two.  These recruited candidates, if they choose to apply, will meet with board members and community groups the week of May 16.



LIST AS OF APRIL 22

Candidate: Dr. Walter Calinger, Current Position: Superintendent
Woodland Hills School District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Candidate: Dr. Steve Castle, Current Position: Past Immediate Superintendent
New Albany-Plain Local Schools, New Albany, Ohio

Candidate: Dr. Michele Evans, Current Position: Superintendent
Canton City Schools, Canton, Ohio

Candidate: Dr. Craig Fiegel, Current Position: Superintendent
Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Plymouth, MI

Candidate: Dr. I.V. Foster, Jr.,  Current Position: Superintendent
Prairie-Hills School District, Markham, Illinois

Candidate: Dr. Thomas Gay,  Current Position: President and Chief Executive Officer
The Quality Schools Group, Lapeer, Michigan

Candidate: Dr. Trent Bowers, Current Position: Assistant Superintendent Intern
Worthington City Schools, Worthington, Ohio

Candidate: Scott Hartley, Current Position: Superintendent
North Fork Local Schools, Utica, Ohio

Candidate: Tod Hug,  Current Position: Superintendent
Ayersville Local Schools, Defiance, Ohio

Candidate: Dr. Kathleen Jenney, Current Position: Superintendent
Galion City Schools, Galion, Ohio

Candidate: Dr. Paul Long,  Current Position: Acting Superintendent – Chief Executive Officer
Pennsbury School District, Fallsington, Pennsylvania

Candidate: Dr. Blane McCann, Current Position: Superintendent
School District of Shorewood, Shorewood, Wisconsin

Candidate: Dr. Todd Nichols, Current Position: Superintendent
Bucyrus City Schools, Bucyrus, Ohio

Candidate: Dr. Blair (Andy) Riggle, Current Position: Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, Accountability, and School Improvement 
Hilliard City Schools, Hilliard, Ohio

Candidate: Mark Robinson,  Current Position: Superintendent
Ashland City Schools, Ashland, Ohio

Candidate: Theresa Rouse, Current Position: Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Division

Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Santa Cruz, California

Candidate: Dr. Lisa Wendel, Current Position: Superintendent
Mississinawa Valley Local Schools, Union City, Ohio

Candidate: Michael Yonnotti, Current Position: Elementary Principal
Hamilton Local Schools, Columbus, Ohio
 
Candidate: Joyce Hackett, Current Position: Director of Curriculum/Intervention Programs
Columbus City Schools, Columbus, OH

Written Testimony on House Bill 136.

Submitted to the House Education Committee.

Chairman Stebelton, Ranking Member Luckie, thank you for allowing public participation in this process. My name is Marc Schare and I am the President of the Worthington City Schools Board of Education, however, I write to you as an individual taxpayer concerned that through House Bill 136, property taxes that I and other Worthington taxpayers voluntarily agreed to pay for a quality school district will be redirected away from the Worthington public school system and sent elsewhere.

Let me start by saying that I believe strongly in School Choice and I believe wholeheartedly in the policy initiatives embedded in House Bill 136. In my experience, competition works every time it is tried and I think that competition will make public schools better. I also believe that most people in my community will choose a Worthington public school experience even if the private or charter school experience is free. My problem with House Bill 136 is primarily philosophical. I do not believe the State of Ohio has the moral authority to redirect local taxpayer dollars that are raised as the result of a voluntary property tax levy to an alternative provider.


Quoting from the LSC analysis of the legislation:

PACT scholarships are funded by first counting the scholarship students in the average daily membership (ADM) of the resident school district in order to calculate the district's state aid, and then deducting the amount of the scholarship from the state aid sent to the district

Under the funding formula contained in HB153, Worthington will receive approximately 12.35 million dollars in state aid and approximate 12.85 million dollars in TPP reimbursements in FY12, however, as the grade levels eligible for the PACT scholarships increase, our TPP reimbursement will decrease, eventually going to zero. When HB136 is fully phased in FY15 and assuming stable enrollment, we’ll be down to 19 million dollars from the state, inclusive of TPP reimbursements, or approximately $2000 per student. This proposal indicates that the value of a PACT scholarship is anywhere from $2313 to $4626 depending on income level. This means that proportionately, up to $2600/student receiving one of these scholarships will be paid for by local property taxes. A similar model applies to special education scholarships except that the local taxpayer contribution is dramatically higher.

Asking my neighbors to increase their taxes to benefit my school district is not something that comes easy to me. When a community makes that choice, it is simply not right to have those dollars ripped away from the cause which justified the tax increase and sent elsewhere, and I say this while agreeing that in many cases, the “elsewhere” may be a better option for the child and the family. It would be as if this legislature took dollars from a local police levy and used those dollars to fund home security systems. They might do a better job for some people, but that isn’t why the money was generated in the first place.

I’ve heard the argument that this is fair because the public school district no longer has the responsibility to educate the child. If Worthington spends $12,000 per student and the state takes $4,600 but removes the student, I should be $7,400 to the good. The argument is incorrect because removing a student here or there does nothing to reduce my fixed costs. If all students receiving special education or PACT scholarships were in the same part of my district and I could reduce staff or close a school, the argument would be correct, but they are not. Just as adding a student does not increase my fixed costs, decreasing a student does not help my bottom line.

I’ve heard the argument that this is fair because my neighbors voted their tax dollars to educate the children in the community and those children are still being educated with those tax dollars. Most levy campaigns are run using a variation on the theme that a strong public school district maintains strong property values and that there is some inherent benefit to living in an area with strong public schools even if you don’t have children using those schools. Most campaigns also use an explicit or implicit threat that items that a community values such as busing, extracurricular activities and so forth are at stake. No campaign ever has or ever would make an argument that the local money is needed so that your neighbor’s kid can go to a private or charter school. I hazard a guess that most levys would not be successful using that tactic, yet, HB136 would have exactly that result.
Members of the committee, the legislative session began with HB30, a bill that promised to repeal some of the recent unfunded mandates inflicted on school districts. I submit to you that HB136 is a huge, unfunded mandate that dwarfs any savings I might get from HB30.

In summary, I applaud the policy objective; however, I believe that if the state wants to mandate PACT and/or Special Education scholarships, the state should pay 100% of the cost of those scholarships. You can accomplish this with one minor change. If a student accepts a PACT or Special Education scholarship, do not add that student to the public school districts ADM and have the state pay the provider directly rather than using the public school district as a middleman. I thank you for taking the time to read my submission and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the phone number or email address listed above.