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Board will vote on new elementary principal

By Megan Gildow | Friday, May 9, 2008, 07:12 PM

The Middletown school board will vote Monday night on a new principal for Creekview Elementary.

Pending board approval, Derrick Bobbitt will be the third principal at Creekview in as many years, according to the personnel agenda. Bobbitt is currently assistant principal at Alliance Academies of Cincinnati, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

This school year, Joan Stoutenbrough has served as interim principal at Creekview. She took over after Jon Graft resigned at the end of the 2006-07 school year to become director of Head Start for Butler County.

The board will vote Monday night on a recommendation to hire Bobbitt.

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When board members vote ‘no’

By Megan Gildow | Friday, May 9, 2008, 11:37 AM

In April, two local schools boards, Madison and Middletown, split on votes relating to personnel in the district and in both cases the dissenting board members declined to explain why they had voted “no.”

Madison board members Brian McGuire and David French cast “no” votes against drug testing employees and suspending the contract of a teacher as a reduction in force due to the elimination of the athletic director position and Middletown split on votes when board President the Rev. Greg Tyus and Vice President Katie McNeil voted against personnel actions that included the hiring of new football coach Jason Krause.

All four board members declined to comment on why they had voted no, giving vague answers about not agreeing with the decisions or concerns that it would affect the district’s academic achievements.

McNeil submitted a letter to the editor that will run Tuesday explaining her decision to vote no. According to the letter, McNeil disagreed with the process to hire the new coach and a “growing frustration” that the district is not being open about how much it costs to bring in coaches.

As elected officials, board members are representing the constituents when they cast votes on school issues. Since the recent “no” votes, some community members have expressed disappointment that board members did not tell the public why they voted the way they did and some are drawing their own conclusions from the board members’ silence.

All of these were personnel issues and most of them concerned specific employees not large groups.

Do you think board members should cast “no” votes without explaining the reasons to the public? Should they always say why they vote the way they do or are there some circumstances where it is appropriate to keep their reasons to themselves?

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Middletown football coach: Got questions?

By Megan Gildow | Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 01:00 PM

My colleague Skip Weaversweaver@coxohio.comr and I are working on a story about the process Middletown City Schools went through to hire new football coach Jason Krause.

We’ll be talking to district officials, coaching candidates, and community members who were involved in the process.

What I’m wondering now is what do YOU want to know? What questions do you guys think are most important to see answered?

Send us an e-mail or leave your questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to get them answered.

Skip will also be sitting down with the man himself, Krause, soon for a Q&A. If you’ve got questions for the new coach, send them to sweaver@coxohio.com.

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First roving meeting scheduled for next week

By Megan Gildow | Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 10:39 AM

The Middletown school board will hold its first roving meeting next Monday at Amanda Elementary.

The meeting will start at 6 p.m. with a tour of the renovated Amanda Elementary School and then the regular work session will convene at 6:30 p.m.

The board will allow public participation at the meeting, even though they typically do not at work sessions, only at the business meeting. But since the point of the meeting is to foster better communication with the residents, they will have public speaking at this meeting. Anyone interested in speaking should arrive a little early, fill out a public speaking card and give it to Treasurer Eric Sotzing, according to the district’s Web site.

In anyone planning to attend the roving meetings? There’s no agenda yet, but I think the new football coach, Jason Krause, might be introduced at this meeting. Superintendent Steve Price told me the district’s policy is to bring new hires to the meeting after the board votes, like with new Middletown High School Assistant Principal Derrick Richardson a few weeks ago.

What do you think? Will more residents attend the meetings at the neighborhood elementary schools?

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Board meeting replay

By Megan Gildow | Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 12:04 PM

I’ve just noticed on the Middletown City School’s Web site a link to “replay” the last school board meeting.

Middletown City Schools’ agreement with TV Middletown allows residents who can’t make it to the twice-monthly board meetings to catch up later. Each meeting is usually replayed a few times before the next meeting.

A few other districts offer things like this. For example, Mason City Schools has streaming video of its board meetings available for residents.

Putting the video online allows residents to watch it at any time at their convenience without worrying about the TV Middletown schedule. The video appears to be the TV Middletown tape from the April 28 board meeting.

I’ve asked communications specialist Debbie Alberico is this will become a regular thing or if this was a special case for some reason. I’ll update as soon as I hear back.

What do you think? Would you watch the video on the district’s Web site?

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Say ‘thanks’ to a teacher

By Megan Gildow | Monday, May 5, 2008, 06:23 PM

Not only is it Teacher Appreciation Week across the country and in Middletown, but tomorrow is National Teacher Day, according to a press release I just received from the National Education Association.

The Middletown board voted last Monday on a proclamation to name this week Staff Appreciation Week.

The NEA is partnering with the National Parent Teacher Association to create the Nation’s Largest Teacher Thank You Card project. The NEA and the NPTA are encouraging people to send a card via U.S. mail or online.

I don’t have e-cards for you guys but we can recognize local teachers in the comments. And what the heck? I’ll start.

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Drug testing for school employees

By Megan Gildow | Monday, May 5, 2008, 09:25 AM

In today’s Journal, I wrote about drug testing for school employees.

The legally-required minimum for drug testing for school districts is to test employees who are driving vehicles. Most of the local districts are not going beyond that at this point. Madison schools has implemented random testing for its employees not represented by the teacher’s union and has entered the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation level one Drug-Free Workplace Program, which requires pre-employment, post-accident and on suspicion testing for employees.

The Ohio Federation of Teachers’ legal director, Darold Johnson, testified before the state legislature recently that the level one program, which comes with a 10 percent discount, could be implemented without negotiating with collective bargaining units. Random testing for all employees likely would require negotiation.

Middletown board Vice President Katie McNeil weighed in on the article that she thought drug testing was just “part of doing business,” at this point. McNeil is a former educator who is currently the vice president of Miami Machine Corp., a manufacturing company.

I talked to a couple other local board members last night, but their comments didn’t make it in today’s article.

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