NORTH ROBINSON —The Colonel Crawford Local Schools Board of Education became the latest local school board to vote against a piece of state legislation.
The board approved a resolution opposing the State of Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship (voucher) Program.
“The problem with this, and the reason that we are doing this piece, is because this little piece of legislation was thrown in at the last hour, and there was really no discussion—it was really kind of snuck in with everything else,” Superintendent Todd Martin said as he began addressing the board on the issue. “It increased the number of schools that have to be a part of the voucher program to where if a child is in your building that qualifies as voucher school, the money would follow that child to a parochial or a private school.”
The program increased the number of schools by 381 percent, from 255 buildings to 1,227 buildings. The change would occur overnight should the legislation pass. More than 70 school districts have schools in voucher-eligible programs—schools that never have been part of the program before.
“The problem that I have is that our elementary, the K-2, scored a ‘B’ on the report card overall, which is one of the higher grades in the county,” Martin said. “In the third grade, we passed 98.5 percent of our kids for the third-grade reading guarantee. So, tell me how this is working? It’s not, this is flawed legislation. That’s why this is a big push with the OSBA, and a lot of schools will be and have adopted it this week and last week.”
This will be going to the governor, legislators, and the state superintendent (Tuesday) when everything is in order, and Colonel Crawford can join that list of schools who are against it.
“Legislators have until Feb. 1 to adopt a revised policy, and what I’ve seen in the works could definitely pull our elementary out, but should also pull our high school out—we think we have a good shot at not having anybody in if they put these pieces in,” Martin said. “So, I’m hopeful, and the legislators talk like this is the week they are going to get it done, so we’re going to cross our fingers that it happens, but we’re not the only ones out there who are upset about this.”
“It should have never happened in the first place, it’s about a person who has stock in a lot of private schools,” Board member Norm Huber said.
“Our district as a whole scored a high ‘C,’ which is higher marks than everyone in the county aside from Buckeye who got a ‘B,’ and we were two points away from a B,” Martin said. “So, we scored pretty well, but they took, in fact the elementary piece, it’s based on 30 kids who weren’t on track for reading proficiency levels, and they didn’t move to what the state felt they should move. So, based on those 30 kids is what put us on the voucher program—not our overall grade, which was a good score. We got a ‘B’ in K-2, a ‘B’ in 3-5, a ‘B’ in the intermediate, and two points from a ‘B’ in the high school. So, our report card was fine, if you read the paper not long ago, they didn’t put the whole story in there, the whole story is this is a flawed voucher system, and the one building had a ‘B.’”
Board member Gordon Grove asked if the voucher system would allow students to go anywhere else they want to take their money.
“The problem with this voucher system is that this could be a kid who has never stepped foot in our building, has never brought funds into the district, who now is in a private school, and that kid that is in that grade level, with the way it’s written now, is qualified to take our money from whatever grade they are in and all the way through even if we come off, which we will because we shouldn’t even be on it. Even if we come off the voucher, that kid is still eligible for that money all the way through,” Martin replied.
“So, are these private and religious schools held to the same standard?” Grove asked.
“They are not held to the report card system, which is another flaw to it,” Martin said. “We are held accountable, yet you are going to give money to a school that is not. So, no, it’s a problem, and a big one at that. When I was at the OSBA conference with all of the attorneys in room, I’m listening, and nobody would fess up to who is sponsoring this.”
Also during the meeting, during the superintendent’s report, Martin gave a report on bullying and harassment. The updates from Aug. 20 through Dec. 19, and there were 12 reports of bullying and harassment. Parents were notified on every one of them along with there being an investigation into each report. As a result of this, there were three warnings, two detentions, five Saturday schools, two in-school suspensions for three total days, and two out-of-school suspensions for 2 total days.
Bullying statistical updates are available on the Colonel Crawford website.
“So, we do investigate, and we do contact the parents on each report,” Martin said.
Athletic director Dave Sheldon informed the board on several projects that the athletic boosters club approved. To begin, they are building a press box on the visitor’s side of the football field. J&F construction will be the company building the press box for the school. Depending on weather, they will break ground in April and will be done by July 31 so that it is ready for practices that will begin the next day. There will be windows on both sides so that games and practices can be recorded, and there will be electric in it.
Next, the boosters are purchasing two new batting cages to go into the gym. There will be one that will go where the eagles’ nest student section is and one for the opposite end of the gym.
The last thing the boosters approved to purchase is a closed-circuit TV system to be put into the old cafeteria, along with cameras in the gym and the swimming pool area so people working the concession stand are still able to watch the game or the meet going on. The TVs will be up by next year.
January is School Board Appreciation Month, and the board members were treated to artwork and thank you notes from students in the building, and cake for all their hard work.
“We recognized our board members and Wynford’s board members at the Wynford vs. Colonel Crawford basketball game the other night,” Martin said. “I think here at Colonel Crawford the community would agree that we are blessed with five excellent board members with no hidden agendas, the only thing they are here to do is make life good for the kids, the staff, and the community. As a superintendent, I am blessed to be working with this board.”