After a second round of interviews that lasted three hours, the Toledo Public Schools (TPS) Board of Education (BOE) voted unanimously to name Romules Durant as its interim superintendent, April 8.

Durant, 37, TPS’s assistant superintendent of the Bowsher, Scott and Waite Learning Communities, said he was overjoyed to receive the news.

“I’m very excited,” Durant said. “We have a road ahead of us, and [I’m looking forward] to being able to be in charge as well as developing a lot of energy that I have with myself along with [what’s] already here with the board. I’m just very excited to begin to look at the vision of TPS, to begin to work with our partnerships and to continue on with the Transformation Plan that we put forth two, three years ago.”

Durant said he was looking forward to the challenges he knows he will face.

“In regards to any superintendent, your sole duty is working in close relationship to the board members. [I look to] begin to be much more inclusive in the discussions as opposed to in my previous position, [where I] kind of took a back seat to Dr. Pecko.”

Durant said his regular interactions with TPS students “in walking through the hallways, as well as [working with] many of them [as] part of my student youth group,” makes him a firm believer that student input is essential for the district’s success.

“I expect to [tell students to] look for more leadership positions,” Durant said. “We want you to begin to own the mission individually in TPS. When you’re capable of saying it, then we know we’ve done our job in due diligence in regards to setting a tone of what we expect from our youth.”

Durant, a 1994 Waite High School graduate, said he is looking forward to “reinvest within the district and provide the things” he was afforded as a TPS student himself.

Durant said he was never really nervous about whether he would be offered the interim superintendent position. He said he used the training and preparation from his student football-playing days to be prepared for whatever decision the BOE reached.

“Coming from my athletic background, you’re used to performing on certain days,” Durant said. “I think what I’ve taken away from the game of football, when we’re talking about data and statistics, [is the] results in regards to how to go about 48-hour preparation—how to prepare yourself [in the preceding] 48 hours [of any event] which will allow you to perform in a means that you visualize on a day-to-day basis.”

Durant deferred any comments about goals he may have for the district, saying “I leave that in the hands of my board.

“My main thing is, one, start with youth in regard to what their philosophy is, as well as their goals. I’m looking forward to make sure that I step forward and carry through with those.”

‘Best meet the needs of the district’

Brenda Hill, board president and spokesperson, said the BOE selected the candidate “we think will best meet the needs of the district.”

In their second interviews, Hill said the BOE asked Durant and candidate Douglas Heuer “general questions about the school system and how would you see us moving forward. And then we had a discussion. We talked about what’s coming up. We just decided, with academics, and all other kinds of issues, and the levy, we needed someone who would be organized and someone who would have accountability.

“It’s not that the other superintendent candidate didn’t [have those qualities]. We just had to decide between the two of them who we thought would do the best as far as organizing, having accountability, moving us forward, making our report card improve, and also be able to get the confidence of the community. We decided Dr. Durant would probably be the best one.”

Hill said the BOE was unconcerned with Durant’s youth.

“You find most people who do things and are famous, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., started in their 30’s and 40’s,” Hill said. “So leadership comes at an early age. I think sometimes people are kind of born with leadership and leadership abilities. Dr. Durant has leadership abilities. He’s worked. He’s shown it. And we believe he would be a good leader for our system.”

Hill said the BOE discussed offering Durant a one-year contract, “but those things have to be worked out” in contract negotiations with Durant, Keith Wilkowski, TPS legal counsel, and Hill. Once an agreement is reached, Hill said the board will publicly vote to approve Durant’s contract.

Hill also left open the possibility that Durant could be named superintendent at the end of his interim contract.

“If we want him, and he wants us, he can apply to us and we could decide to make him permanent, or not,” Hill said.

Denied a chance to speak

Don Yates, president of the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel (TAAP), had his request to address the BOE before it went into executive session denied by Hill.

Yates requested to speak to the board “per contract.” The relevant portion of the TAAP contract, page 8, number 6, reads that TAAP’s representative can “… appear and speak at all regular and special meetings of the board.”

Hill said she would not permit him to speak because she had already moved that the BOE to go into executive session.

“I’m sorry,” Hill said. “I have moved right now that we go into executive session, and I have a second and a motion.”

Hill then called on Treasurer Matthew Cleland to call the roll.

In a three-minute private conversation with Wilkowski, Hill, BOE vice president Cecelia Adams and BOE member Larry Sykes after the BOE dismissed itself to go into executive session, Yates said he given a send, unrelated reason as to why he could not speak. He said he was told he could not speak because the formal announcement of the special board meeting did not include that members of the bargaining units would be speaking. Yates said he was asked not to be confrontational.

Request ‘not to be confrontational’

Yates said he contemplated “their request to not force them into … to not be confrontational. My intention was not to be confrontational. I don’t want to disrupt the process of hiring an interim superintendent. I simply wanted the opportunity to speak to the performance audit to make sure the board knows that we’re supportive of a performance audit that is correct and accurate and the recommendations that come from it are based on correct and accurate data, not inaccurate.

“What I wanted to say to them is that the performance audit is flawed, it needs to be fixed, and we can’t do that by [the] Wednesday [deadline]. We need ample time to go back to fix the inaccuracies with correct data so we can make good recommendations based on facts that are correct. Having that done by Wednesday is not possible.

“I’m finding multiple inaccuracies that have significant impact on the recommendations. Like 2010 student data, the number of kids in the various school buildings is wrong. The data that was provided was pre-K-8 configurations before the district redistricted.

“Also, the number of administrators cited in the report of 429 is grossly inaccurate. The correct number is 200. Even if we included everyone in the bargaining unit, our total is about 265. We do not have 429 members.”

Yates said the Evergreen audit also reports assistant principal salaries inaccurately, thereby gives the BOE a false projection of savings. Yates said assistant principals make $62,000 a year, not the $85,000 cited in the performance audit. “Yet, that was the number used to calculate the $101 million over five years,” Yates said, “and it’s inaccurate.

“Dr. [Linda] Reico made a comment about using the TAAP contract to determine staffing levels for principals. It didn’t include what was really the contract language because it was done outside the contract. We were reconfiguring to a K-8 [structure]. So her recommendation on number of assistant principals based on contract is incorrect.”

Lack of malicious intent

“Mind you, I don’t think any of that is malicious,” Yates said. “I don’t think any of that is because anyone is trying to manipulate.

“I think it’s just wrong data that needs to be fixed. Let’s fix it and move forward. But it has to be fixed. And to do that by Wednesday? Have you seen the report?

“I’ve been reading it. There’s a lot of information in it I agree with and a lot I don’t agree with. But I can live with that.

“What I can’t live with is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading information. And unfortunately, there’s some of that that needs to be fixed.

Yates said he was also disappointed with the BOE’s unwillingness to respect both the letter and spirit of its contract with TAAP.

“I think it’s unfortunate they don’t want to hear a voice, especially since it was a mistake on their part,” Yates said.

It is Yates position that the conflict is the result of a mistake made by someone who works for TPS. And because a district employee made a mistake in drafting the special board meeting notice, a bargaining unit representative who is contractually permitted to address the BOE at any and all board meetings was denied the opportunity to speak.

The notice was signed by Treasurer Matthew Cleland.

“It’s unfortunate,” Yates said. “This performance audit is too important not to get correct.

“It does a nice job of putting together a five-year plan. Whether we agree with all or not, we will have to work with that. [We have to] at least get people focused on what we have to do with our big picture planning, but it has to be right. I want to make sure they don’t rush to get something done because there’s a thought that it’s more important to get a product done than it is to get it done and right.”

Yates also said that Wilkowski told him that he was restricted as to what he could speak about at a special board meeting.

“Board counsel tells me that I can only speak regarding the matter at hand,” Yates said. “I don’t know that’s there’s anything in the language of the contract that restricts me from speaking about whatever it is that I feel I need to speak about. And they wouldn’t let me speak in violation of our contract.”

Yates said that because he was not allowed to address the board, he intends to do two things.

“One, each of the board members needs to know that performance audit has to be corrected. I will contact them individually. Two, [the board] has to be granted enough time to get it right.”

Yates added a third thing he wants to see come from this situation.

“I want to make sure that on every single agenda from now on, that organizational input be added to the agenda,” Yates said. “And organizational input is not limited to anything other than then what the organization has to share regarding whatever they want to share.”

Tags: Brenda Hill, Don Yates, Jerome Pecko, Keith Wilkowski, Matthew Cleland, Romules Durant, Toledo Public Schools

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at 6:40 am and is filed under Community, Education.
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Toledo Public Schools’ Board of Education (BOE) was told April 3 that it could save as much as $101 million during the next five years if it would adopt Evergreen Solutions’ performance audit in its entirety.

However, Linda Reico, president of Evergreen Solutions, said it is not reasonable to expect any school district to implement every recommendation her firm makes.

“A good success rate would be between 75 and 85 [percent],” Reico said. “But I’m not usually called back to monitor whether a district does one, two or three. But that’s been our general success rate.”

Reico also acknowledged that since 80 to 85 percent of costs a school system faces are salary and benefits, recommendations would focus on reduction in personnel.

“It’s got to come with people who are not being used effectively,” Reico said. “However, we recommended additional personnel in area where we though they needed it as well. So it just wasn’t a hatchet job, so to speak.”

Reico’s addressed the BOE for almost 90 minutes, highlighting what she considered some of the more significant 50 commendations and 169 recommendations contained in the performance audit. She also noted that 61 of the recommendations “carry a fiscal impact that will have to be addressed in union negotiations.”

Noteworthy recommendations

Additional recommendations not previously mentioned at the March 13 Finance Committee meeting include:

* Board members need to top micromanaging district operations and creating special staff assignments.

* Close two elementary schools and one high school.

* Immediately close the Thurgood Marshall Building, even if it will require establishing a temporary central administration office for this summer.

* Restructure the cabinet, eliminating one assistant superintendent position and creating a chief of staff position.

* Eliminate a minimum of 15 assistant principal positions.

* Eliminate 15 elementary school and six high school clerical staff members.

* Negotiate instructional authority away from teachers and back to principals.

* Hire in-house legal counsel and a part-time paraprofessional to cut the cost of legal costs from $56.50 per pupil to the state average of $20.94 per pupil.

* Hire an additional communications office specialist. Reico told the board, “You’re underfunded and understaffed, and your PR is showing it.”

* Stop paying employees supplements for duties that are already a part of their job descriptions.

* Eliminate petty cash funds and replace them with a procurement card system.

* Increase the cost of a meal that students who do not qualify for free or reduced lunches pay to be in line with the federal reimbursement rate for meal prices.

* Sell 56 buses.

* Increase the numbers of students per bus from 22 to 30 to save $1.5 million a year.

* Implement standards for technology purchases of computer hardware and software.

* Disconnect 200 phone lines that are no longer in use.

* Create a cap on the number of photocopies made by a single employee.

Most controversial recommendations

“The presentation left the most controversial recommendations in the report,” said Steven Flagg, an education advocate who has followed TPS’s progress for the past 17 years. “Those of us that have been calling on the district to respond to the reality of Toledo feel like we’ve been vindicated.

“I got a kick out of all the compliments the board members gave Dr. Reico after her presentation. The more they said, the more they were digging their hole. Do they not see that they are going to have to actually do something now?

“Section 2 excoriates them. Section 3 rips the bargaining units apart. Section 3 is directly aimed at TFT (Toledo Federation of Teachers), and every single one of those recommendations requires a contract change. I find it interesting that Kevin Dalton (TFT president) was the only bargaining unit representative not at the presentation.

“Now comes the Implementation Committee. They won’t want to put critics like me on it, but we’re the most informed citizens out there. We have to make sure that we keep on them. They’re not going want to do it. They’re just now realizing what’s in the report and they’re going to have to finally do something.”

Board praise

The compliments to which Flagg referred came from all five board members. Each member individually thanked Reico for the work the BOE paid Evergreen Solutions $120,000 to complete.

“It seems to me that in this current day, it’s hard to find a company that makes a commitment and sticks to it to the day, like you have,” said BOE member Bob Vasquez. “I hope that we all receive this in the right way and not become defensive because I will tell you that no way internally we could have done what you have done.

“You have presented is great information. I look forward to reading it. I’m looking forward to working on it. I’m not defensive at all about it. But I do know that we’re going to have to balance your suggestions with the reality of the day-to-day operations of this school district. But I look forward to that opportunity.”

BOE member Lisa Sobecki focused her praise on the collaborative nature of the report.

“For all your hard work, you couldn’t have done it without everyone pitching in, in a timely fashion to allow you to create 500 pages or so,” Sobecki said. “I think the collaboration of our administration and our folks out there in the buildings is something fresh and different coming out of TPS. It’s different than what people have heard or perceived they heard in the past that we are not transparent.”

Reico told the BOE its presentation strategy is one of most transparent she has ever seen. Reico also said she would send the board a suggested implementation strategy tailored specifically to the issues TPS faces.

BOE member Larry Sykes mused that if the BOE had “done this three years ago, when it was first suggested, we’d be three years head of the game.”

‘Like any other school district’

Reico said TPS operations are “like any other school district. Some things are very efficient and effective and some things need to be improved upon.”

She said TPS will see savings increase after it completes the first year of implementation.

“First year [savings] will be less significant,” Reico said. “In order to generate cost savings, you have to [invest money], so there are greater costs the first year than years two through five.”

Reico also said Evergreen Solutions identified more cost savings per pupil in TPS than the typical district it evaluates.

TPS was “a little higher than typical,” she said. “Off the top of my head, [the typical district] might be half that [$101 million five-year projection].”

BOE President Brenda Hill was a little skeptical of Evergreen Solutions’ overall projection in savings.

“I’ve seen budget projections before, and a lot of times the number that they project and the reality is not quite the same,” Hill said. “But the fact is, they see ways that we can save some money.

“It’s just like I asked them about bussing. It’s just not practical to put a child on a bus for an hour just to fill the bus up. So there are things we have to look at.

“Things about staffing … maybe there’s an extra assistant principal and an extra secretary. There was a reason. So we have to look at the reasons in the way that children’s education and the quality of the service that we give them [relates] to the cost. We have to look at both of those. Both are important. But the bottom line is the education of the students.”

Hill said she agreed with Reico’s recommendation regarding the communications office.

“Our public relations needs to be increased. When we increase our PR, we will be able to do a much better job. That’s been my mantra for a long time too. So she just went right down the path I wanted to hear.

“It’s an investment. When you have better public relations and you can communicate with the community better, they understand what you’re about and it helps all the way around.”

Inaccurate staffing formula

Don Yates, president of the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel (TAAP), questioned the relevance of the staffing formula Reico used to arrive at a few of her recommendations.

“I haven’t studied it closely enough to understand exactly what the impact would be on our membership, per say, other than to say the formula that she used to make her recommendation for assistant principals is, quite frankly, an outdated staffing formula,” Yates said. “We essentially negotiated it away the last negotiations so our assistant principals aren’t assigned by [the number of students] anymore.

“It’s done by district need. Essentially, the assistant superintendents, chief academic officer and myself have conversations about where was the greatest need for assistant principals.

“I see where she got her number. That may or may not be totally accurate as far as the need is for assistant principals. But it’s certainly worth looking at.

“And also remember that, that formula described in the current collective bargaining agreement is pre-K through 8 [school configuration]. That was the staffing formula used under the old configuration of the school district. So it’s certainly worth looking at again this time. We don’t object to looking at reallocating staff where they’re best needed.”

Upcoming negotiations

Yates said he was also encouraged to hear Reico’s recommendation that TPS negotiate instructional authority away from teachers and back to principals.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, nor is there any doubt in the minds of most experts you will see as you research education leadership, school principals are the second most influential individuals that impact the achievement of kids,” Yates said. “You have to have principals that have the authority to be instructional leaders in their buildings, not simply managers of the buildings.

“That’s not just from TAAP. That’s national research about effective schools vetted out over and over again. (Ohio Department of Education’s ‘Beginning Principal Mentoring Program’, September, 2012)

“Principals that have the authority in their schools to bring in teachers that want be there, are willing and able to do the job and fit in with the culture of the building, and are willing to be team players and work with the principals, they get a heck of a lot more done than those that don’t have the authority to manage their staffs.

“I think the Race to the Top format is an excellent model for the district to implement because it gives decision-making authority at the building level. And when you have decision-making authority at the building level that includes principals and teacher leaders, you get the decisions, you get people that are committed to the building, and they do a better job.”

Yates said TPS has already taken the initial steps for principals to regain the administrative authority the district negotiated away in the 1970s.

“I think we’ve done that with the school improvement grant with six schools and with the Race to the Top schools. And I think the Transformation Plan has empowered people to start looking at what the needs are in their building.

“It’s a small step, and there’s a lot more to be done, but I’m a firm believer in putting the authority at the school level with people at the schools that have the authority to make the decisions. And they’re not waylaid by the central office, teacher unions or administrator unions.”

A conservative perspective

John McAvoy, a Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition board member who has pushed for local performance audits, said he was “really happy” with what he had seen in a quick review of the executive summary.

“It looks like these guys did a very good job looking at pretty much all the aspects,” McAvoy said. “I’m looking very much forward to the board pulling together and involving the community in some of these things.

“For instance, one of the things I like that they recognized is giving more authority to the principals. The example I give is we’re getting ready to spend $160,000 to hire a superintendent, but quite often his hand are tied because of contracts. When he wants to do something, he has to go back to a contract and look and make sure it’s OK.

“So we’re looking for perhaps maybe some give on the upcoming labor negotiations on giving some if those things back and put those back into the authority of the superintendent and the principals and people who make decisions on running the schools.”

McAvoy questioned why the district should even hire a superintendent is she or he does not have decision-making authority.

“Just hire a contract negotiator for $30,000 a year,” McAvoy said. “We hire a superintendent to run this business. And if his hands are tied because of contracts, then let’s negotiate some of those hand-tying things out of there.

“Have they been there for 40 years? I don’t care if they were there for 140 years. If it’s something that’s tying our hands, then we need to say, ‘Look, we need to untie the hands of the people who are hired to do a job.’ And if we’re going to continue to keep their hands tied, then we’re going to continue to get what we got.”

‘Coming to the table with an open mind’

David Blythe Jr., an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) representative, said he is concerned that McAvoy “comes to the table with an agenda that I think reflects absolutely no new taxes, all government is wasteful and we need to say no to everything.

“He’s waiting in the wings to be at the helm of the ‘right to work’ movement if it makes it to the ballot. I just have a different viewpoint on the working individual.

McAvoy is serving as state coordinator for the potential Ohio’s Workplace Freedom Amendment, similar to Michigan’s right-to-work law.

Blythe added, “[McAvoy’s] affiliated with the group that went to Findlay and wanted to tamp down a fire levy. So he doesn’t come to TPS with an open mind. He comes with an agenda that ‘We have to do everything we can to tamp down taxes.’ And my thinking is, ‘The Greatest Generation came back after WWII, and they may not have liked it, but they paid their taxes.’ ”

Blythe said he also objects to McAvoy’s discussion of education as a business. Blythe said the in 300-year history of education in the U.S., the concept that education is a business isn’t even 20 years old. Blythe believes education is a social service.

“Whenever somebody says education should be run like a business, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Blythe said. “It just doesn’t work that way. A business can make a decision based on dollars and cents only. Government cannot. They’re so many conflicting constituencies out there.

“If you ran this as a business, you’d have a huge divide between haves and have-nots.”

Blythe also said he believes the school choice movement “is a detriment to society. I think we lose that commonality, and I think we lose that ‘We’re all in this together’ kind of thing. Before you know it, nobody has a common reference.”

Tags: Bob Vasquez, Brenda Hill, David Blythe Jr., Don Yates, John McAvoy, Larry Sykes, Linda Reico, Lisa Sobecki, Toledo Public Schools

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Education.
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A union leader’s concerns with the procedures teachers and administrators use to report suspected child abuse or neglect failed to generate discussion at a Feb. 26 Toledo Public School (TPS) Board of Education meeting.

Rather, board members focused on the three-year contract renewal of four administrative cabinet members. Board President Brenda Hill asked to delay that vote because the board is in the process of hiring a superintendent to replace Jerome Pecko when he leaves his position July 31.

At the Feb. 13 TPS Human Resources Committee (HRC) meeting, Hill brought to the committee’s attention that Don Yates, president of the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel, had expressed concern over the number of TPS investigations, a review of how Lucas County Children Services (LCCS) caseworkers deal with referrals and the relationship between TPS and LCCS.

Cheryl Spieldenne, chief human resources officer for TPS, said in her report on the HRC meeting that Yates has expressed concern with LCCS being called in when there was an administrator involved in a child abuse or neglect investigation.

Board member Bob Vasquez, who said he has had the same responsibility to report suspected abuse and/or neglect in his professional career, reminded the committee that TPS has a policy for reporting.

“We must follow it,” Vasquez said of that policy. “If I am told that you believe a child is being abused, I have an obligation under the law to report it. It’s not up to me to do anything but report. It’s my legal obligation.”

Pecko told the committee  there had been a recent change in the reporting procedure districtwide and that all reporting must now go through the superintendent’s office. He also said that there would be LCCS staff training sessions later in the year.

Yates, who did not attend the HRC meeting, said Feb. 19 that his concern centered on the training sessions Pecko said would take place.

“I am concerned with the administrative review process, especially when administrators and teachers are involved,” Yates said. “I believe there may be confusion internally as to who does what investigation. We need to be able to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, especially when administrators and teachers are involved.

“On the flip side, however, there are referrals that are legitimate and there are cases that need investigation. We want to stress education so folks know what’s an appropriate referral,” Yates said.

Choice is not an option

Dean Sparks, LCCS’s executive director, referred to state law — Ohio Revised Code Section 2151.421, which identifies “school authorities, employees and teachers” as one of 15 professions “required by law to report if they suspect or know that child abuse is occurring.”

Ohio law is clear that choice is not an option for school personnel, Sparks said. The law requires immediate reporting of any known or suspected abuse or neglect.

“This is not a union issue,” Sparks said. “This is a state law issue. Failure to make a report of any abuse that should reasonably be suspected is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time and a fine.

“Let me couple this by saying we get lots of reports about a variety of people who care for children, like teachers, preachers, scout leaders, day care providers and foster parents, that never turn out to be true. So to say that it could be a career-ender for someone reporting [the suspicion of abuse or neglect] is a misnomer. It could be if somebody’s abusing children, and if they’re abusing children, we want it to be a career-ender.”

Sparks said all reports are confidential by law and LCCS does not disclose who made the report without that person’s consent.

Once investigated, Sparks said that cases are deemed “unsubstantiated,” “substantiated” or “indicated.”

Sparks said most letters that come across his desk are “unsubstantiated” allegations. “So that, in itself, is a protection for that educator,” he said.

“Anybody can say anything they want about any of us. And if we conduct an investigation and said it didn’t happen, then that never happened. That seems to me to be some protection from civil and personal liability for that person.

“And for everybody who goes through an investigation of child abuse or neglect as a perpetrator, it’s really uncomfortable. We understand that. There’s no way that we can ask those questions [comfortably]. But it really is for the protection of everyone.”

Sparks said in more than 70 percent of the cases referred to LCCS, “we find that it has not reached the level of abuse and neglect. “And that’s not just for teachers. That’s all together.”

No child in jeopardy

Yates further qualified his concerns Feb. 26.

“In years past, we’ve had speakers come in from [LCCS] to meet with school counselors, to make sure that teachers and principals and everybody is real clear about reporting requirements,” he said. “To me, that’s just a good way of making sure that no child is in jeopardy because somebody wasn’t sure or somebody had a question about a situation and they didn’t know who to contact. To me, that’s just a good of having a solid relationship between two organizations in charge of kids.”

Prior to 2009, Yates worked as a school assistant center coordinator, supervising counselors, special education teachers and psychologists. In that job, Yates said he was “pretty well plugged into” districtwide child abuse and neglect professional development classes.

“I’m not aware that we’ve done that recently,” Yates said. “At a Human Resources Committee meeting, I made the comment that I think it’s time to set that up again just to make sure that everybody knows what the requirements are.”

Background checks

In other business, the board agreed to pay the $22 fee for all employees Ohio Attorney General Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) background checks at a cost of $63,140 to the district. The 3-2 vote approving this move was predicted by Cecelia Adams, board vice president, during the Feb. 13 Finance Committee meeting. Responsibility for the FBI background check will remain with the employee.

However, in presenting her committee report to the full board, Adams did not mention the 42-minute background check discussion that took place in the Finance Committee meeting. She asked the board to approve the related items in a bundle.

Before her motion could be seconded, Vasquez asked Adams why she had not disclosed the committee’s decision to bring the background check item to the board without a recommendation for a full discussion at the regular board meeting.

Adams said current TPS policy requires both; that in 2008, the decision to pay for both background checks was an emergency issue; and that she did not think there would be a need to do anything if that policy is to stay the same.

“Basically it is the responsibility of the employee,” she said.

Board member Lisa Sobecki immediately disagreed with Adams, saying that TPS should pay for the BCI background check and the employee should pay for the FBI background check. Sobecki cited the timeliness of the issue, saying employees “need to know when they come to work tomorrow what they will be expected to do.”

Sobecki also questioned whether the board had actually made the decision in 2008 or whether “this understanding may have been an administrative decision that was never brought to the board.”

Sobecki said she asked at the Jan. 22 board meeting that payment for background checks be put on the HRC agenda to be examined.

“Through discussion, HR discovered there was a policy issued and they had to look at whether they were going to change policy because the law had changed,” Sobecki said. “I, as a board member, said, ‘Wait a second. I was on the board at that time. I don’t recall this coming from the board. If it had, can someone show me? Is there a memorandum of understanding with your bargaining units? Was that agreement known to folks through a memorandum of understanding?’

“I don’t know if there’s one out there or not. One was not produced. All that could be produced was a letter that went out from Human Resources to the employees regarding their obligations, what was going to be happening, and the state law and what it is.”

‘Tough economic times’

Sobecki said the background check requirement includes bus drivers and food service workers as well as teachers and administrators.

“Ms. Hill referred to someone who has worked four years in the district working part-time making $9,000,” she said. “And $22 is important for someone who is possibly trying to get an education or paying off student loans or going to school or making a house payment.

“Those are what I look at because I value my employees and understand and sometimes can feel what they’re going though in these tough economic times. And they have worked tirelessly for us, not only in the position they are paid for, but also in their sacrifices on a very huge deficit that they didn’t create. That was my thinking through this whole process.

“And I agree with my colleagues that both of the checks are important. Actually, I wished that the state did the BCI check because it picks up things that the FBI check does not do. That’s a legislative thing in Columbus.”

Tags: Bob Vasquez, Brenda Hill, Cecelia Adams, Cheryl Spieldenner, Dean Sparks, Don Yates, Jerome Pecko, Lisa Sobecki, Toledo Public Schools

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2013 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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Officials gathered May 14 to support Toledo Public Schools’ (TPS) 6.9-mill levy. The levy will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. The resolution for the levy was approved by the Board of Education at an earlier meeting, along with the decision to reinstate some junior high school and freshmen sports programs into the district.

If passed, the permanent levy will cost the owner of a $60,000 home $126.79 per year, or 35 cents per day. The money would fund the district’s current transformation program and balance the budget beyond the 2012-13 school year. While the 2012-13 budget is currently balanced, a failed levy in November would mean drastic cuts the following year.

“Without additional funding at this time, the district will have to cut an excess of $15 million before the beginning of the 2013-14 school year,” Toledo School District Superintendent Jerome Pecko said.

Pecko said that the proposed levy would allow the district to pursue a new district-wide discipline program, a unified student data program for parents and teachers, and employee evaluations based on student performance.

School Board President Lisa Sobecki said the school district’s transformation program cannot be completed without the funding from the levy; its amount was chosen by the finance committee after a variety of millages were studied.

Sobecki said some highlights of the transformation program include the developments of a gifted and talented program for grades 3-6, extracurricular programs for grades 7-12, the continuation of early high school programs for grades 7-8, the implementation of online digital classrooms and electronic grade-books, and of thematic-based high schools.

The School Board’s plan of thematic-based high schools allows each school to concentrate on a specific area. Bowsher would focus on arts and medicine, Woodward on renewable and innovative sources of energy, and Rogers on sports medicine, among others areas of specialization.

University of Toledo President Lloyd Jacobs gave his “unqualified and unequivocal support” for what he believes to be “one of the best investments for the social fabric of our community.”

In addition to Jacobs, city council President Joe McNamara, Representative Fedor, TPS board member Bob Vasquez, Mayor Mike Bell and TAAP President Don Yates spoke at the news conference.

In November 2010, TPS proposed Issue 5, a 7.8-mill levy which voters rejected. That levy, which would have generated roughly $21.6 million, was the second to fail in 2010 as TPS attempted to meet its $40 million deficit.

Issue 5 would have been the highest millage amount passed for Toledo Public Schools in the past four decades, and the first levy passed for TPS since 2001.

Tags: Bob Vasquez, Don Yates, Jerome Pecko, Joe McNamara, Lisa Sobecki, Lloyd Jacobs, Mike Bell, Teresa Fedor, Toledo Public Schools

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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