Ohio Board of Education votes out 5 of 8 Rule; has no local impact in Portage

There has been many reforms and changes to the requirements and rules when it comes to the education of children in Ohio, like the recent Common Core reform and now there’s been another rule change in the additional teachers and staff that schools provide to their students.

The Ohio Board of Education voted to remove the 5 of 8 rule on April 13.   This rule mandates that all public schools in Ohio must hire at least five teachers and staff from eight different areas, such as art, physical education, music, counseling, nursing and library media, for every 1,000 students.

Eliminating the minimum state requirement has been a hot topic of discussion for the Ohio Board of Education, starting in a November 2014 meeting. The November meeting caused headlines for the state board of education on the topic as four members of the board walked out over the delay of public comment on the proposed change. It was not until their December meeting where they made a 14-5 vote to approve of the resolution of intent to get rid of the state requirement.

Many of those who objected to change or remove the rule said that this would mostly impact the poorer school districts. Board member A.J. Wagner of Dayton, district three, opposed the change from the start.

Roslyn Painter-Goffi of district five, Strongsville, also was against losing a requirement for support staff positions that have proven necessary for students.

“I know today people said earlier, well art, phys. ed and music, there is a curriculum with that. And that needs to be addressed and as far as districts getting rid of them, they are probably not going to get rid of them because there are content standards, said Painter-Goffi during the meeting.

“But what about our guidance counselors? What about our librarians? What about our school nurses who are providing an incredible amount of service and capacity within the schools and school system.”

 

Some expressed concerns for art teachers, physical education teachers and music teachers from many school districts, however, this was quickly refuted, as the Ohio Revised Code 3313.60 Prescribed curriculum. The state requires that “each city, exempted village, and local school district” must include physical education and the fine arts, including music.

Others who were in favor of the change in legislation said that it gave local school districts more control on who they choose to hire and how they create their own contracts.

 

“I think it’s time for an up or down vote,” said Ron Rudduck, representative of Wilmington, district ten. “By delaying it any further, I don’t see the benefit of that. We would have something that is not outdated and that is the result of compromise.“

 

“My concern is that the law, before it was repealed, and the standard were there for a reason which was to help schools understand what they needed to have a thorough and efficient system of education in Ohio,” said Painter-Goffi. “And we see evidence of it all around the state where school districts have, because that law was there and that standard was there, they have implemented this in their school districts and we all know the benefits of that.”

 

Board member Robert F. Hagan, who represents district eight, Youngstown, also was against voting out the rule of five.

 

“Now I know that we’re cutting the arts. I know we’re not librarians.  I know we’re not actually doing it. But we’re telling the government, ‘yeah, you might as well do it,’ because the state of Ohio likes being 29^th , 30^th, and 40^th because they refuse to fund the school system. They refuse to fight poverty. They refuse to make sure that families are educated in a way that brings us up to the top ten. That’s our responsibility here. That’s what we need to do as board members”

 

 

 

Even with the large amount of disapproval from teachers and other school faculty members across the state and board members, the Ohio Board of Education voted 11-7 to reject the ‘5 of 8’ rule.

 

State Statistics

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2011-2012 school year there were 3,380 public schools in the state of Ohio. Out of all the public schools in Ohio, 3,140 schools had a library media center. However, the total number of full-time and part-time librarians and library media specialists was 2,860.

 

Also in the 2011-2012 school year, Ohio public schools had 4,270 full-time and part-time school counselors, not including psychologists and social workers. Public schools in Ohio also had 2,940 school nurses. However, now that the state mandate has been removed and these positions are no longer required, these numbers are projected to go down.

 

How will it impact Portage?

With the change being so new and happening while nearing the end of the school year, the school districts in Portage County won’t see any changes just yet.

Many of the public school districts in Portage admitted that this change in the state laws regarding education will not have any effect on the students in their school districts.

 

Aurora City Schools District Superintendent Russ Bennett said that this change will not affect any students or staff at their schools.

“We don’t plan to make any cuts,” Bennett said. “We support it because it gives us a local control, but it does not affect us.”

 

 

 

 

David Toth, Superintendent of Crestwood Local School District also said that it would not have any affect on their staff decisions. “It will have no effect on us at all,” said Toth.

 

 

 

 

 

Superintendent Andrew Hawkins of Rootstown Local School District also said that they will not be affected by this decision. “We are not going to make any staff changes,” Hawkins said. “[The change] gives us more options now. Before, we were kind of limited, but now we just have more options. I agree that it gives local districts more control.”

 

For now, Portage County school districts are safe from losing very important staff and faculty members.