By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Listening to the presentations on the Ohio Improvement Process (OIP), the Wynford Board of Education received a crash course on ways that different leadership teams are working towards improving annual measurable objectives for the school district.
Junior High Principal Chris Solis and members of the District Leadership Team (DLT) Krista Richmond and Michael Smith spoke with the board, with Solis speaking first explaining what the OIP is.
“The OIP is talking about improving success. The state and federal governments want to make sure the students are learning, and have high stakes testing. Last year the school district was placed on academic watch for receiving D’s on the school’s state report cards,” Solis said.
Solis then transferred his discussion to Annual Measurable Objectives and ways that the Wynford School District are working towards closing the gap between students. Noting that the District Leadership Team (DLT) develops a plan based on instruction and needs of the students so that they can perform academically and then measure their performance for success.
Solis explained the process of the DLT.
“We met with the District Leadership Team (DLT), who meet 6.5 hours quarterly. We look at three years of data, set goals and benchmark them,” Solis explained.
“The Building Leadership Team (BLT) meets two hours monthly to monitor the PLT,” Solis explained of the BLT. “They use decisions around professional development days.”
“The Teacher Based Teams (TBT) meet weekly for 40 minutes,” Solis noted of the TBT. “They use data to assess students and instructional practices. It is a great way to improve student growth.”
“The DLT look at the previous year’s test score and surveys the staff,” Solis said of the DLT. “Each group in the DLT has representatives from each school building. It is a long process, but we hope to see benefits in the long run. After looking at the data the DLT came up with goals for the district.”
Solis spoke to the board about the different goals set up for each building which the DLT dubbed SMART goals.
Wynford implemented the various leadership teams in January. Mary Teglovic from NCO ESC explained that the project began with the No Child Left Behind Act, and continued with the Every Student Succeeds Act. Teglovic noted that with the upcoming election things can and will change.
Wynford Superintendent Fred Fox added that the endgame will be an academic plan for each student in the school district.
Treasurer Leesa Smith delivered the five year forecast to the Board of Education Thursday night. During her report she noted that the school is in good shape financially for the next two years, however, in 2019 there could be issues.
“In 2019 we start seeing issues if the renewal levy were to fail, but if the community takes the levy and we combine it with state funding we would stay in the positive.”
Smith noted that the school is expected to lose $300,000 annually to open enroll out students to community schools such as Treca and ECOT.
On the Revenue side for the school, Smith explained that the Wynford School District is funded from the state by a little over 50 percent. In noting this, Smith added that this five year forecast features an uncertainty as there are five biennium budgets tied with it. Smith added that with each budget change comes new formulas for how schools are financed, thus making the guess work a little difficult.
In expenditures, Smith noted that most of the funds go towards personnel on the payroll. Smith noted that this year it was difficult to predict the expenditure column in Personal Services due to it being the final year of the contracts for the current pay structure for teachers.
“We won’t know these exact numbers until negotiations are completed, which make it hard to fill out because it looks like we have already made decisions that we haven’t,” Smith said. “I only included the step increases into the forecast because of this.”
On top of the five year forecast Smith noted that the audit of the school was finished with Julian and Grube. Smith reported that there were no citations or finings related to the financial operations, however, the group did note the attendance recordkeeping, and how it gets into the system.
Smith finished her report thanking those who made both reports possible.
“This is not the Leesa Smith forecast or audit. Yes, my name is on it, but without the principals, the superintendent, and the staff I couldn’t do this.
In the midst of Solis’ report to the board on the OIP, Wynford Marching Band members Caleb Rettig and Todd Chandler took time to thank the board for their purchase of the instruments, as well as perform a few numbers.
“Going from what we played before this to what we are playing now, I can’t come up with an analogy. Thank you very much,” Rettig said.
The Wynford Board approved all personnel and operational items on the agenda including educational aides Sarah Stenson and Cayla Martin.