Items of Interest

• TPS' Pacing Guides - A real reform initiative or just another public relations ploy to make us believe they really are making changes? When you're done looking at TPS' pacing guides, Google pacing guides and see what other districts are doing - some are just a bit better than TPS - a number of district's have put a lot more effort into this project. But you be the judge!
  • This definition of pacing guides was found on line - "They may be as simple as a list of topics organized by week or as comprehensive to included instructional strategies, assessments, materials, and alignment to a set of standards. Individual teachers, departments, or teachers across a district might collaborate to design a pacing guide."
  • Pacing guides for TPS have primarily been discussed as a way to keep students at the same instructional level regardless of how many times the family may move to another school. But they can be valuable instructional tools to assure mastery of essential skills for all students regardless of mobility issues.

News and Events

October 2, 2008 - On Monday, 9/29, the Toledo Board of Education passed a resolution which they believed defines how the Bond Issue proceeds will be used, priorities, and accountability. We disagree and believe the resolution allows the Board and Administration great leeway and no accountability to the community for the use of levy proceeds. A number of community groups attempted to get a resolution written and passed to meet the following concerns:

To assure:

1. That need is the deciding factor in determining how proceeds from the bond issue would be used.
2. Any changes in how the bond proceeds would be spent would occur in an open forum (Board Meeting) so that the community would know and be able to offer input.
3. There was in place a mechanism to provide accountability and measure progress given the failures in the current building program especially with an oversight committee that was fraught with conflicts of interest, self-dealing and the lack of on going and consistent oversight.

However, we were unsuccessful as the Superintendent and Board Member Sobecki were unwilling to find suitable language that would facilitate a compromise. Frankly, we wonder if some in the district really want the levy to pass, as well as the renovation of Scott to occur.

The chronology and events of the community effort were documented:

• Chronology and Events
• Original resolution language proposed by Foley.
• Language (without budgeted amounts) proposed by Board Member Fisher to address community concerns and accountability issues.
• Resolution proposed by Foley after 9/26/08 committee meeting - Resolution was passed 9/29/08.

October 1, 2008 - If you attended the State of the Schools address last evening by TPS Superintendent Foley at Bowsher High School, you would have come away believing the district was designated as excellent. Nary a word was said about the other half of TPS and the challenges ahead at the under performing schools. Those that attended besides the ardent TPS supporters and employees ( a majority of the audience was believed to be employees) felt it was nothing more than a big pat on the back, more head in the sand thinking, and a big levy commercial.

In fairness it is important to discuss your successes and work to improve morale. Successes need to be discussed and analyzed so they can be replicated. However, TPS has consistently failed to replicate on any kind of scale where they have succeeded.

There is always a problem with TPS when a levy is on the ballot and how they categorize the state of education in TPS during these times. The risks were huge that Foley would use this opportunity to promote the schools and thereby promote the levy instead of fully informing the public of the state of education at TPS. There never has been a full acknowledgment of any kind of the challenges that are facing TPS. What you do hear is blame assigned to the community and parents and passing references that there are challenges. No where in anything said or printed by TPS will you get the entire picture especially regarding the under performing schools and how this is the challenge if TPS is ever to rise beyond the lower echelons of Continuous Improvement.

TPS has serious problems that in many ways dwarf the positive results. For the other side of the coin, read this in the 9/26/08 Toledo Free Press:
It’s time to shake things up at TPS.

For more information and analysis of the report cards see below.

Blade Article - TPS leader celebratory in 1st address about system

September 18, 2008 - We looked at current and past TPS report cards building by building and overall. What we found was a district with inconsistent results from year to year, schools in academic emergency and watch that have declining scores, and many chronically under performing schools clustered around the central city. In addition, TPS’ middle schools have particularly disturbing results.

Here are the positives (link) as outlined by Superintendent Foley at his press conference on August 26th. Other than taking credit for one school that was closed at Libbey making the percentage of schools no longer in academic emergency and watch 18% and not the 22% claimed by Foley, we agree with the comments. We would add that students in schools in academic emergency and watch dropped by 2,659 students to 9,045 students, almost a 23% decline.

Foley did not outline the challenges and problems that can be found in looking at the report card results. Here is what we found:

• 33% of TPS students attend a school in academic emergency or watch.
• 9 of 22 schools in academic emergency and watch have been in improvement status for 5 years or more.
• 6 of 9 schools in academic emergency have been in improvement status for 5 years or more.
• 14 schools have been in improvement status for 5 or more years.
• 23 schools have been in improvement status for 3 or more years.
• 5 of 7 Junior High Schools have been in improvement status for 5 or more years.
• 14 of 22 schools in academic emergency and watch had declining scores in 2008 vs. 2007.
• 31 of 62 schools had declining scores in 2008 vs. 2007. The number was unchanged from 2007.
• 6 of 62 schools met 75% or more of the applicable standards which was unchanged from 2007. 13 schools met 50% or more of the applicable standards which was also unchanged from 2007.
• Byrnedale Junior High met 37.5% (3 of 8 standards) of the applicable standards. Two other Junior High Schools met 2 of 8 standards. The other 4 met only 1 standard.
• Only 1 Junior High met AYP requirements

The raw numbers - review the information and make your own conclusions - 2008 TPS Report Card Review.

August 26, 2008 - The Toledo Public Schools today announced that they reached the Continuous Improvement (CI) designation with a Performance (PI) Index of 80.1. The PI was just barely above the minimum 80 required for a CI designation. The change over last year was 1 point or 1.26% increase. We predicted a minimum of 80.3 so we were a bit more optimistic about TPS' performance than merited. We did accurately predict the district would meet only 5 of 30 standards. Not surprisingly TPS again met 10th and 11th grade reading and writing standards. They lost the graduation rate standard but picked up the attendance standard.

Fewer schools are in Academic Watch - 13 versus 18 schools last year and Academic Emergency - 9 versus 10 schools last year. Unfortunately half the schools in Academic Emergency this year showed a decline in their PI. (Last year all the schools in Academic Emergency showed declines in their PI scores.) Until more progress is made at addressing these "under performing" schools, overall progress for TPS as a district will lag. The administration has touted pacing guides as responsible for some of the improvement. Above we have posted pacing guides developed for TPS - they are not pacing guides but merely course outlines as opposed to week by week skills to be learned and lesson plans to keep all students progressing at the same rate. Real performance increases are about hard work not public relations!

Some bright notes include 16 schools meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) versus only 6 schools in 2007. Also this year 49.9% of TPS schools showed increases in their PI over the previous year as opposed to only 37.3% last year.

Don't be fooled by TPS' designation as a Continuous Improvement district! The progress made is a mixed bag with some reason to be optimistic. However, the only reason TPS made CI was because they were so close to the goal last year and needed only minimal increases this year to move up a designation.

• TPS Presentation at the 10 AM press conference
• Building Performance - Analysis of the Building Performance Index
• Ohio Department of Education - Report Card results

We will have more analysis of report card results in the next week or so.

August 22, 2008 - On Tuesday, August 26th the state of Ohio and TPS will release and discuss their 2007-08 report cards. Last year TPS reported a Performance Index (PI) of 79.1, 5 out of 30 standards passed and they did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals (2006-07 report card).

We have been discussing expectations for the new report card and here are our predictions. We expect the district to climb out of academic watch and be rated as continuous improvement. TPS will report a PI of at least 80.3 and will not exceed 82. The standards require an 80.1 PI to be rated as continuous improvement so our prediction of a minimum 80.3 PI will result in a move to continuous improvement.

Last year the district met 5 standards including 10th grade reading and writing, 11th grade reading and writing and graduation rate. TPS was close to meeting the standards for 4th grade reading and attendance. Our best guess is that TPS will meet just 5 standards again. It is possible that TPS might pick up one standard, but it would require that they attain the standards met last year while picking up another area. Since the standards attained last year were just above the requirements (eg., graduation rate was 90.5 and the standard was 90), any slippage would result in losing the standard attained.

AYP targets are easy to obtain in the early years. But as the standard increases, it becomes exceedingly difficult to obtain AYP. In the years 2003-04 and 2004-05, TPS climbed into continuous improvement on the strength of meeting AYP targets. In 2005-06, TPS was in continuous improvement because their PI was 80.4 with 80.1 required to meet continuous improvement requirements.

TPS results for the last 5 years:

Items bolded indicates how the continuous improvement designation was attained by TPS. Guide for Ohio's Report Card System

August 14, 2008 - The Toledo Board of Education today placed two levies on the ballot! The first is a renewal of an emergency levy that expires December 31, 2009 and provides $15.7 million toward operating expenses. The original levy was for 5 years but the new term is for 10 years. This extension from 5 to 10 years means that voters will be authorizing $78.5 million more in local property taxes than the previous term of 5 years. This extension to 10 years is made possible as a renewal by the recently passed HB 562 that increases the maximum permissible term of emergency levies from five years to 10 years. The change applies only to newly imposed or newly renewed levies, not to existing levies currently being imposed. We will be delving into past financial forecasts and results and take you back to what was said during the March 2008 levy renewal about TPS finances. How have TPS finances changed since then? We'll keep you informed.

The second levy request is a bond issue that as TPS officials state, reauthorizes the original local amount requested in 2002. The amount of the bonds is set at $37 million and the levy proceeds will pay the principal and interest over 28 years to retire the bonds issued. Proceeds will go toward what TPS now calls segment 6 which renovates schools now ineligible for OSFC matching funds due to projected enrollment decreases. If enrollment is decreasing, it does beg the question of why we need to renovate these schools. Schools included are Scott, Waite, TTA, Old West End Academy, Crossgates, Harvard, and Glendale-Feilbach. The total cost of these renovations in 2002 was projected to be $57.1 million. So how does $37 million pay for an estimated $57.1 million in renovation costs? Let us not forget that these estimates were made 6 years ago during a time of lower building costs. It will be interesting to see how TPS determines what they will spend on each renovation and what priorities they place on schools to be renovated. In addition, how will taxpayers be assured that the money is spent appropriately without an approved plan and without oversight. The original Oversight Committee was hand picked to include individuals who strongly supported TPS or had conflicts of interest. The committee is all but defunct now as it has not met in over 2 years. No plan and no oversight: a formula for continued disaster. We will have more on the building plan as the fall campaign season gets into swing.

The Board and Administration seem to believe that the November general election

July 29, 2008 - The school board today voted on a plan for segment 5 of the building program. The plan calls for 2 secondary schools (7 -12) of 600 students each for the Scott feeder pattern. Supposedly the two schools are "placeholders" for a renovated Scott High should the new assessment indicate a smaller contribution is required of local funds and/or funds can be raised privately.

• Blade Story on TPS plan.
• SAVE OUR SCOTT website.

While we want Scott to be renovated, we expect in the end that Scott will be excluded from the plan and not renovated. In the next 20 years expect that both Scott and Libbey will see the wrecking ball. Our community does not have the resources to renovate both schools should one not be maintained as a school. In addition, competing interests will attempt to save both schools and in the end they will come up short. Both buildings will become eye sores when they are closed and eventually we will lose both of these historical buildings. What a shame! History is the path to our future.

June 19, 2008 - The Building plan is again the focus of our attention. At the OSFC committee meeting today, the Board committee was informed of the results of the Scott HS meetings. The overwhelming response from the community was to renovate Scott HS - report here. Problem is money! Apparently there is not enough projected students to provide the $39 million needed of renovation. The current projections only provide $25 million leaving the project short some $14 million. This comes as no surprise to the Coalition. Since 2004 we have expressed concerns and suggested that Scott would become a casualty of the dwindling student population. The Board in 2002-03 knew the potential problems and placed all schools which would require renovation at the end of the plan. With today's announcement, there are no schools that will be renovated with state matching funds. Several schools are planned to be renovated using local dollars. but those funds are limited and it is not possible to renovate all 7 schools now placed in that category.

Schools eliminated from the plan in 2006: Fall Meyer, Franklin, Libbey MS, Lagrange, Lincoln, MS Academy, Newbury, Ryder/Mayfair, and Woodward MS. Schools pulled out of OSFC funding and will now be renovated with local dollars included Crossgates, Glendale-Feilbach, Harvard, Old West End, TTA and Waite.

The current plan as discussed at the OSFC committee meeting would eliminate Nathan Hale and move Edgewater and Scott out of the OSFC program and renovate with local dollars. There is some confusion about Scott as the student enrollment would be used to build two new "designer" secondary schools that would house approximately 1200 students. So why would Scott be renovated? Is this just more mumble jumble to keep the community from asking about or understanding what will happen to Scott?

There are now 19 schools that have now been eliminated from the original 2002 master plan. Our 2004 and 2006 analysis of the proposed plans were fairly accurate including predictions of which schools would be closed - 2004 review - 2006 review.

May 23, 2008 - The Toledo Board of Education accepted the fact finding report by James Mancini on a 4 to 1 vote. Only Board member Darlene Fisher voted no. Fisher while not completely happy with the way the economic settlement was paid out indicated she wanted to vote for the increased wages and lump sum settlement for teachers, but that contract language was an impediment to moving forward to improve student achievement in the district. Apparently accepting the fact finder report is the same as accepting the entire contract. The only issues submitted to the fact finder are those in dispute. So that a yes vote accepts all items agreed to during negotiations. Fisher is concerned that issues she considers necessary to resolve or change to move the district forward were either never discussed or "given away" without a fight during contract negotiations. Expect the TFT to blast Fisher as anti-teacher despite her comments of support for teacher wage increases. TFT union leadership has always been as concerned with contract language that controls Board policy. The contract as structured trumps any Board programs or policies - essentially the TFT has veto power over any changes the Board decides to adopt. Audio of Board meeting Fact Finder Report.

May 21, 2008 - Troy Neff interviews former school board candidate Chris Myers about the Fact Finders report and Myers belief that merit pay is the way to go - interview.

May 20, 2008 - Steven Flagg using materials obtained from open records requests estimating a $100 million wage base for TPS teachers estimates acceptance of the Fact Finder report will result in approximately $25 million of additional expenses over the two year life of the contract. Yet to be determined is what the expense will be for TAAP and AFSCME contracts. The expense of new contracts will wipe out the $21 million surplus projected in the last five year financial forecast issued in November 2007 and will require additional spending cuts. The new five year financial forecast is due out before the end of the month and should be on the May 27, 2008 regular board meeting agenda for approval.

May 19, 2008 - Steven Flagg predicts the Toledo Board of Education will rubber stamp the Fact Finder report at their Friday, May 23rd meeting without meeting as a group to discuss and deliberate the report prior to there Friday meeting. Troy Neff interview - part 1, part 2.

May 18, 2008 - As predicted the details of the Fact Finder report were leaked yesterday after the TFT met to accept the report. The Blade details the key points in their article - Teachers approve fact-finder report, strike authorization. As expected the TFT called for approval to strike if the Board rejected the Fact Finder report and teachers did authorize the union leadership to proceed.

May 15, 2008 - Steven Flagg discusses the fact finding process and concerns surrounding the contract negotiations with Troy Neff - Interview.

May 14, 2008 - TPS and the TFT have went to fact finding to work out disputes on a new contract that expired March 31, 2008. It will be interesting to see what areas, apparently all economic, are disputed. Major changes are needed in the contract with the TFT in non-economic areas to allow the Board the ability and flexibility to implement innovative policies and programs to address under performing school and academic performance. Since the disputes seem to be centered around economic issues, one can only conclude that changes imperative to future success were not addressed by the Board and Superintendent Foley. This does not bode well for the children attending TPS.

March 14, 2008 - Fund The Child: Bringing Equity, Autonomy, and Portability to Ohio School Finance is a new report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that discusses the need to have state funding follow the child. Apparently there are some rather large discrepancies within school districts in Ohio and that goes for the Toledo Public Schools. The report says, To mitigate the school-finance inequities that remain within districts and gear school funding toward the realities of student mobility, school choice and effective school-based management, the report recommends that Ohio embrace Weighted Student Funding (WSF)." The Buckeye Institute came to the same conclusion in Shortchanging Students in High-Poverty School Districts and TPS is one of those districts with significant disparities.

March 7, 2008 - The Toledo Board of Education selected Bob Vasquez to replace Robert Torres who left for a job opportunity in Canton, Ohio. Vasquez has been a candidate for Toledo City Council and until recently no one was aware that he had an interest in being on the school board. We wonder what real experience Vasquez has and what knowledge of the district he possesses - looks like he has a steep learning curve. Is Vasquez really interested in serving the children of Toledo or is this just to keep his name in the public eye until he makes his next bid for city council? Time will tell. But skeptics have every right to wonder if this appointment was more about politics than what is in the best interests of Toledo.

March 5, 2008 - Issue 7, the TPS renewal levy, passed yesterday. With regard to the results of the election, the following statement was issued this morning by the Coalition:

"TPS has an inherent advantage in reaching Toledoans simply because the levy is on the ballot and that it is a renewal. Reaching voters with the truth is a difficult challenge. Our efforts during levy times have always been about educating the community. We certainly don’t see this vote as a ringing endorsement of TPS’ results. In fact, TPS’ TV and direct mail advertisements were of fear and not hope for the future and their accomplishments.

The bright side is that Toledoans are more informed of the issues and that overall tax rates have not went up. With each year and election, Toledoans get a better picture of TPS' results. Unfortunately more bad news is on the way for TPS: The news that was not discussed by the district or media before the levy.

It is difficult for some to understand how taking a stand that requires a short term sacrifice can lead to a better future. That is the case with TPS and the passage of the levy.

Without transparency and change, TPS will never improve. The voters will have another chance to speak out next year. Hopefully TPS officials realize that they are losing the faith and confidence of this community and will respond with action and not merely words designed to make us all believe that progress is happening."

March 3, 2008 - The Toledo Free Press covers Issue 7 and has dueling op-ed pieces from John Foley for Issue 7 and Steven Flagg against Issue 7.

• Levy defeat would cost TPS $15.8 million
• Issue 7 will help Toledo district meet needs of students
• Demand change by voting down the TPS levy renewal

From the Editorial - Demand change by voting down the TPS levy renewal, "If you want TPS officials to get off their duffs, tell us the truth, engage in real community-based problem solving, efficiently allocate and spend your tax dollars while keeping tax rates as low as possible and take corrective action, then the most effective way you have to communicate this is with a vote of no confidence on Issue 7.

The color green should get their attention. This is your chance to give TPS officials the failing grade they deserve.

Vote No on Issue 7: Demand change."

Regardless of your vote, VOTE on March 4th.

February 28, 2008 - Just what is the true financial condition of TPS? On January 24, 2008 an independent two person panel (one member selected by the TFT - Jewell Gould and one selected by TPS administration - Arthur Purinton) concluded that TPS has the money to pay the retroactive payment. Board members were not given the report until February 19, 2008 after Steven Flagg attempted to obtain the report through an open records request based upon information contained in the February 1, 2008 TFT newletter. Many questions come to mind such as: Why was the Board not informed within a reasonable time period? Was this information deliberately concealed by the administration prior to the March 4th levy vote? Read more:

• Chronology of Events - includes questions and comments
• Independent Panel Report

February 27, 2008 – As of 12:05 PM Wednesday, 2/27, the headquarters of the Toledo Federation of Teachers is without a sign, large or small, supporting Issue 7, the TPS levy. Does Francine Lawrence support the employer that pays the wages of all TPS teachers? Signs at TPS schools and other locations have been up since Thursday of last week. What are they waiting for: March 4th?

In addition, the Committee for Schools filed their pre-primary campaign report on 2/20/08. The committee raised just $7,490.80, most of it from TPS employees, since the levy was placed on the ballot by the Toledo Board of Education on December 20, 2007.

What level of community support does TPS have in their bid to renew the operating levy originally passed in November 2000?

February 24, 2008 – The Board of Education has accepted applications from 14 candidates. We have obtained a copies of the resumes and you can download the pdf file and determine for yourself who is best qualified.

We do believe that at least one candidate, Angelita Cruz Bridges, should be dropped from the list. Cruz Bridges is the Director of Operations/General Counsel for the Lucas County Auditor. The Auditors office is directly responsible for property assessments, revisions and appeals. Since TPS gets significant dollars from local property taxes and may from time to time challenge such assessments, not to mention the auditor’s role in certification of the levy amounts, we see this situation as incompatible and a conflict of interest. In fact research in the last few days has identified that there is a seven part test developed by the Ohio Supreme Court in State ex rel. Hover v. Wolven (1963), 175 Ohio St. 114

• Is either of the positions classified employment within the terms of RC 124.57?
• Do the empowering statutes of either position limit the permissible outside employment?
• Is one office subordinate to, or in any way a check upon, the other?
• Is it physically impossible for one person to discharge the duties of both positions?
• Is there a conflict of interest between the two positions?
• Are there local charter provisions or ordinances which are controlling?
• Is there a federal, state or local department regulation applicable?

Obviously, we believe that the conflicts of interest between Director of Operations/General Counsel for the Lucas County Auditor and Toledo Board of Education make the two positions incompatible. Cruz Bridges should not be considered for appointment to the Toledo Board of Education. We suggest the Board get a legal opinion prior to consideration of Cruz Bridges.

February 21, 2008 - Vote NO: Demand CHANGE - At the Kent Branch Library those opposing Issue 7, the TPS levy, gathered to hear Tyrone Sturdivant and Sherita Evans urge voters to vote NO on Issue 7 on March 4th. Sturdivant said that education in Toledo is the civil rights issue for our community and our time. Evans said the money has not been spent wisely. She also talks about the discrepancies in facilities, spending and employment. More on the levy in the next few days.

• Press Release
• Comments by Sturdivant
• Comments by Evans

February 12, 2008 - Toledo Board of Education member and Vice President Robert Torres announced his resignation yesterday. In a public announcement he recommended Robert Vasquez to replace him. Vasquez has been in the news the last couple of years as he has ran for election to Toledo City Council. We are wondering whether Vasquez really wants to be a board member or is this just to keep his name in the news over the next 2 years until he can again run for City Council. We have never heard Vasquez utter a word about Toledo Public Schools and know nothing of his positions on critical issues. If he were so interested in the Board of Education why did he not run for office in November 2007.

While we value the idea of diversity on the Board, we believe the best candidate available should be selected. The current seat is not reserved for an Hispanic, African American, etc. Actually there are two qualified and vetted candidates that the Board should consider: Chris Myers and Cheryl Catlin. While it is unlikely that Myers would be selected as he is a Republican and the 4 Board members making this decision are Democrats. Still Catlin was one of two candidates endorsed by the Lucas County Democratic Party. Her sin is that she actually addressed the issues facing TPS in detail during the campaign and many of the suggested changes would require changes in contract language. There goes support from the collective bargaining units; TFT, TAAP and AFSCME. We expect that Vasquez will get three votes.

January 17, 2008 - The Toledo Blade once again demonstrates that reason and logic is sometimes in short supply in their editorials. Could this be the first salvo in protecting TPS' image with voters to assure them that the TFT is not really calling the shots?

• Question: When is a conflict of interest, really a conflict?
• Answer: Never if you use the reason and logic exhibited in the January 27, 2008 editorial of the Toledo Blade!

In their recent editorial they claim it unreasonable for Board members Torres and Fisher to ask Mr. Steel to recuse himself from negotiations. They use an ethics opinion that clearly states that a Board member should avoid perceived conflicts of interest and a legal opinion from Squires, Sanders and Dempsey that was deliberately vague. Squires, Sanders and Dempsey never provided the Board with clear direction on the issue of how the Board should proceed.

Further, John Foley, TPS Superintendent, was the contact with Squire, Sanders and Dempsey in asking the questions and obtaining an opinion from the law firm. For those that don't know, John Foley's wife is also a teacher in TPS. He too has a "perceived" conflict of interest and may not have been very interested in knowing what the law firm's advice would be as to how they should proceed.

And the law firm, they certainly have interests to protect. Right now it appears they are in line to work with the district as legal counsel for the contract negotiations. This little piece of business could easily result in billings that would run several hundred thousand dollars or more. Over the past 6 years Squire, Sanders and Dempsey have averaged over $150,000 in billings. Keep in mind that legal services do not have to be competitively bid. So the big question: Will TPS do a request for proposal (RFP) for work involving the contract negotiations? Our best guess: Can snowballs exist in the summer in Philadelphia?

What interest might the Blade have in supporting the status quo at TPS? Turns out that Buckeye Telesystems, a Block Communications company and affiliate of the Blade, has averaged almost $900,000 in business with TPS over the last 7 years. In FY2007, Buckeye Telesystems billed TPS $1,485,324. The Blade and Buckeye Telesystems have common management. By the way, Buckeye Telesystems has contributed $30,000 to TPS levy campaigns dating from 2002. Buckeye Cablesystems, another Block Communications company, has donated another $17,500 during this time to TPS levy campaigns.

As to Steven Steel, his behavior with regard to his conflict of interest as brought up in 2005 has been, at the least evasive, and at worst deceptive. Why has it taken so long to get any facts? Why is Steel foregoing health benefits so that he can vote on the TFT contract when all he had to do was recuse himself? His behavior is certainly inconsistent with putting his family first given that catastrophic illness and the resulting medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy? So why would a 45 year old man put a non paying job above his own and his family's welfare by foregoing health care benefits just to vote on a labor contract? So many questions and so few answers.

The Blade won't give you all the information to form your own opinion about Steel's conflict of interest, but we will. Get the information here...

Also, read Steven Flagg's guest column in the Toledo Free Press - 1/18/2008 Money, influence and public policy

January 11, 2008 - The Toledo Free Press is out front in digging into the details of how campaigns are funded and influence wielded in local elections. In this case, The Free Press is focusing on the school board election - Loophole could allow ‘legal money laundering'. In a related story, Officials may face sanctions over donations, reporter Justin Kalmes discusses the issues facing the Lucas County Democratic Party. Will the party act when their by-laws are broken? If not, why? It sure will be interesting to see how this current situation is dealt with by the party.

But the real concern in all of this is whether the Toledo Federation of Teachers is trying to sit on both sides of the negotiating table?

If you look at the money trail, if you look at the existing conflicts of interest with Steven Steel, the circumstances and evidence support a “slam dunk” for the TFT in upcoming contract negotiations. However, there is the issue of money and TPS has none to offer in the negotiation process. But there are always the policy issues that can be negotiated which impinge upon the board’s ability to enact reform and programs that will favorably impact student performance. And the TFT can assure that mechanisms to monitor and improve accountability like regular performance evaluations can never, ever be put in place. This also could even mean the elimination of principals in schools if the GEM academy concept gets approval of the board.

How much influence should the TFT have on both sides of the negotiating table? Does the public really care that the Toledo Board of Education has become a rubber stamp for the TFT? We’ve been concerned about this for some time. See the January 8, 2008 entry on Steven Steel’s conflict of interest just below.

Who do you want negotiating for the public? What influence should public service unions such as the TFT have in the elections of elected officials that negotiate and approve their contract? Should the laws be changed to limit the influence further and what should be done about contributions funneled through other campaign committees?

Ohio's Pay to Play laws - HB 694 and amendments in HB 119.

Campaign Finance Reports for School Board Candidates

January 8, 2008 - TPS board selects "conflicted" Steel to lead the board by a 3-2 vote. Steel, Sobecki and Ford, all supported with significant TFT resources in their election efforts, unite to elect Steel as president. New board member Sobecki nominated Steel for president. Steel has been dogged by conflict of interest issues from the beginning with good reason. His wife is a teacher with TPS and any votes he participates in regarding the TFT contract has a direct impact on his family and its income and benefits. While the Ohio Ethics Commission does not see this as a violation of state statutes, it is a conflict of interest. However, if Steel has ever received health care benefits from TPS through his wife's employment while he voted, deliberated, discussed...contract issues, he has violated state statutes. In December 2006, the Coalition called upon Steel to authorize the release of documentation that would verify whether he has or has ever had health care benefits through TPS. He did not act. A letter was sent to the board on December 12, 2006 asking the board to act.The previous board under President Barnett did not act.

Darlene Fisher brought the conflict of interest issue up at the organizational board meeting and still 2 other board members besides Steel decided to elect Steel to a leadership position before he provided the appropriate documentation. In fact, former mayor and current board member Jack Ford came to Steel's defense saying he had provided the board with an Ethics Commission advisory opinion that says he can vote on the contract. Ford believed Steel did his due diligence. Contrary to what Ford may think the opinion provided was from 1982 (82-003)and three other opinions on similar issues have been written since 1982. The opinion offered by Steel did not cover health care benefits which were discussed in two of these opinions.Read the email sent by Steven Flagg to the Toledo Board of Education on this issue.

To Steven Steel - authorize the release of all documents which would show whether you have benefits and just as importantly whether you have ever had benefits while a member of the Toledo Board of Education. We want to see the entire record and not just a statement saying you currently don't have health care benefits. Did you have benefits before you were elected? If so, when was the enrollment/change form submitted that withdrew you from your wife's health care coverage through TPS? You want the community to trust you? Provide us the documentation so we can come to our own conclusions!

December 31, 2007 - WTVG carried a story this evening about Board expenses for conferences and travel. From the story:

Steven Steel is the current president of the school board. He believes attending such conferences are an essential tool for bettering Toledo pubic schools. Steel said, "I think as board members, it's among us to keep abreast of the cutting edge, best practices of being board members of urban districts of districts in general, what's going on in education."

But as it always seems the case with TPS, others question the validity of such statements"

Steven Flagg is with the Urban Coalition of Toledo. He says, "What purpose are we getting out of their attendance? These are tax dollars and they need to be justified."

While all board members sign off on who attends which conferences and how many, Flagg questions the entire process. "As far as professional development goes, what exactly are they developing and what skills are they developing? If one individual needs it, why doesn't the rest of the board need it and how does the rest of the board actually benefit from the development they've gained?"

Read the entire story at WTVG web site.

December 21, 2007 - TPS places renewal levy on the ballot. This levy is a strict renewal. It currently generates about $16 million in revenue. The amount will remain the same. While a renewal levy can only raise the same amount of revenue (millage is established based upon current assessed valuations), there will be some who will pay higher taxes. Revaluation of property every 3 years does not change the total tax bite, it does change individual assessed taxes depending on whether the individual taxpayer's increase in property value is greater, equal or lesser than the overall percentage increase in assessed valuations. If the total increase in the TPS area is say 10% and the taxpayer has an increase of 12%, there will be a tax increase to the individual taxpayer. Conversely, if the increase is lower than the average increase for all, a tax decrease will be realized. More on this in the new year.

November 30, 2007 - Former Board Member Terry Glazer lashed out against the TPS building plan in a Blade story and said the the promises made to the community are being broken. Now that the issue has come to roost on the door steps of the Lagrange area, Glazer becomes a critic of the plan. The Coalition has raised the issues to Glazer and others over the past several years. We do concur with his concerns. However, we are concerned about all areas of the city. Decisions made to date will impact the future of the plan and money may not be available to meet Glazer's concerns. But we need to face the facts now and revamp the plan! Read the Blade story. Also, review our assessment and recommendations for the building plan made public in 2004 and 2006. More information is available by clicking Rebuilding Schools to the left on this page.

November 27, 2007 - This evening at the Toledo Board of Education Regular Meeting TFT President Fran Lawrence proposed a teacher-led, teacher driven Academy called GEM (Gaining Educational Mastery) for approval that evening and implementation beginning with the 2008-09 school year. We understand that Board President Steven Steel had a resolution prepared by Lawrence for Board approval. Other Board members had concerns and fortunately the Board as a whole acted in our best interests and did not vote on the proposed resolution. Some of the Board members had not even seen the whole proposal. Further Lawrence took the "wrong" approach. Instead of working through the Board's committee structure and having the plan thoroughly reviewed and analyzed, she took it directly to the public and asked the Board for approval. This is not the way to develop collaboration. While the proposal certainly should be reviewed, there may be some "gems" in the proposal, we don't see the ability of the district to extend the ideas to other schools without significant cost to TPS. This school would only impact about 300 elementary school children. A drop in the bucket to those in the other academic watch and emergency schools - TPS has about 18,000 students in these grade levels. Read the proposal....

We recommend a serious discussion of this concept before moving forward.

November 1, 2007 - The Toledo Journal endorses Catlin and Myers for Toledo Board of Education - we agree with their choices and editorial. We also urge support of Catlin and Myers on November 6, 2007. From the Journal -

Students attending Toledo Public Schools will enjoy better futures and the district as a whole will move dramatically in the right direction with the election of Cheryl Catlin and Chris Myers to the board of education. read more....

September 13, 2007 - Superintendent John Foley and Board President Steven Steel yesterday announced a community taskforce to address under achieving schools. This announcement felt like deja vu all over again. Time after time TPS officials have resorted to this tactic to address public criticism - not to address the issues. Time after time the result has been recommendations that are never implemented. What makes this time any different. In addition, the Blade covered the story in their usual "softball" manner and did not ask any hard questions. The Blade education reporter time after time brings "old news" into a story where it has no relevance. First we'll discuss the Blade coverage and then the TPS taskforce. Read the Coalition response...

September 11, 2007 – At the last regular board meeting (8/21/07), the Toledo Board of Education approved about a million dollars in memorandums of understanding (MOU) - summary and detail. Prior to this time the board did not review and approve such agreements such as the retroactive payment MOU that currently indebts the district for almost $20 million.

The Urban Coalition brought this issue to the public’s attention and Board Member Darlene Fisher worked to establish a new procedure that assured board oversight. With the current procedures, it would preclude the passage of the current retroactive pay MOU (cost estimates) that currently stands at $20 million and counting.

The Urban Coalition made several recommendations including an “executive summary” that showed the economic and policy impact of each MOU. The district has implemented all of our recommendations except the policy impact statement. We still believe this important! Why? Because it will give each board member a complete and easy way to understand all the implications. Additionally, if disputes later arise, there would be documentation from management’s perspective of their intent. During the superintendent search debacle, the Harner negotiations brought up a clause in the retroactive pay MOU that needed interpretation. The legal counsel had to go to the ex-treasurer to determine its intent. Providing a policy impact statement would eliminate such problems and assure appropriate documentation of purpose and intent.

By assuring that all MOUs go before the board for approval, the information becomes known to all as a public record and provides an opportunity for the community to review how their dollars are spent. The board and administration knows that there will be public scrutiny!

September 4, 2007 - Coalition spokesperson Steven Flagg sent the following email to the Blade Editorial Staff today.

The press plays a valuable role in reporting and helping to shape the opinions of individuals in our community and country. It is important that citizens openly question the press when they get it wrong. Certainly an editorial is just an opinion, but unlike the rest of us their opinions get printed and read by thousands with very little opportunity in most cases for the rest of us to correct the inaccuracies and bias found is such editorials. Fortunately, the internet has made it such that a larger audience can be reached and given another side of the equation.

We are not likely to be considered kindly over at the Blade - not that we have been for some time now. Nonetheless, a citizen should not have to worry about retribution for exercising their constitutional rights...but then again.

Your editorial, Clean house at TPS forgets a lot of history and begs the question: Do you know Jack!

The editorial in question was viewed by many in this community as a blatant endorsement of former Mayor Jack Ford. And this "endorsement" was done without thorough vetting of his ideas and just as important those of the other candidates. In last week’s edition of the Free Press a debate was announced and to date Ford still has not responded to their invitation. This would be an excellent opportunity to debate the other candidates and inform the community of his ideas – in detail. Which begs the question: What makes you think Ford will listen once elected if he won’t even talk to the community now about his plans? Read the rest of the email.

August 27, 2007 - We continue to look at the report cards that were released about 2 weeks ago. Just as we heard several years ago that TPS was the best of the urban schools, we keep hearing how big a failure community schools, AKA Charter Schools, are in comparison to TPS. This comparison is unfair to community schools in many cases. Why? Well, TPS has had years to work on their curriculum and instructional delivery and many community schools are fairly new. TPS spends almost twice as much as community schools due to local tax revenues and has staff dedicated to professional development and curriculum issues - not the case with community schools.

So now let's take a look at some simple comparisons. TPS has 49.25% of their buildings better than Academic Watch whereas local community schools have 45.16% of the schools above Academic Watch. When you take out the two community schools that TPS runs the percentage goes to 48.28%. Albeit, TPS has more schools in excellent and effective but the numbers are far from stellar! (see chart) In addition, 3 of the excellent rated schools are academies with additional resources that make the cost per student even greater than the TPS average.

So, we get pretty similar results from community schools as we do in TPS but for about half the cost. Which is a better return on investment - TPS or Community Schools?

We would like to look at the community schools in the area on a common report card, but the data is not readily available, if at all, to produce a weighted average Performance Index score to compare against the PI for TPS. But we'll keep looking and see if an even better comparison is available.

Here is the view from supporters of Community (Charter) Schools - The Buckeye Institute

• The Financial Impact of Ohio’s Charter Schools
• Using the Ohio Proficiency Test to Analyze the Academic Achievement of Charter School Students: 2002-2004
• Dispelling the Myths of Charter Schools in Ohio
• Setting the Record Straight on Ohio's Charter Schools - Charter school opponents typically forward a misleading three-point criticism. They say the schools fail to advance academic achievement. Charters “drain” or “siphon” scarce resources from traditional public schools. And the schools supposedly lack accountability. All three claims are false.

August 22, 2007 - Jack Ford joins Urban Coalition - well not really but it sure looks like he agrees with us!

From the Blade today:

Board member Jack Ford said “radical change” has to be considered along with holding all district employees - including the superintendent - accountable for poor performance of its schools.

During Ford's tenure he never spoke up for the children of Toledo and the need to make radical changes which the Coalition has always said was needed. Now after the table has been set, the food is on the table, Ford gets appointed to the school board by leading the majority of the board to believe he would not be a candidate this fall and swoops in to say "radical change" is needed!

Is this a change of opinion or the beginning of a stump speech?

Okay, Jack what radical changes would you make?

Also from the Blade today:

Mr. Ford went a step further after the meeting and said Mr. Foley needs to "get rid of some folks and he has to make it clear that the performance we had is not acceptable."

So Jack, who would you fire? Why have you not supported Darlene Fisher's call for board goals and evaluative criteria for superintendent Foley?

Actions speak louder than words. So far Ford has been good at rhetoric and taking advantage of other's work and effort.

August 22, 2007 - Urban Coalition communications chair Steven Flagg made comments before the Toledo Board of Education last night.

I’m here this evening to praise the district regarding two issues before the board....more.

August 20, 2007 - We have confirmed through our sources that the regular meeting agenda for Tuesday, August 21st of the Toledo Board of Education does not have a resolution authorizing a levy to be placed on the November 2007 ballot. At the finance committee meeting on Wednesday, August 15th there was no discussion of a levy resolution. Normal board protocol is to review all business for regular board meetings in the established committees.

However, it has been a regular occurrence in the past for TPS administration to bring forward resolutions (called walk in resolutions) for board approval without following proper protocol and with little, if any, review by the board.

August 16, 2007 - John Foley, TPS Superintendent, opened the press conference at 10:30 AM, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 by saying that he was disappointed in the results but that TPS had just missed being in Continuous Improvement (CI). As it has been reported TPS attained a 79.1 Performance Index and that an 80 is required to make the CI rating...read more...

TPS presentation (apples to apples comparison as TPS called it) provided at press conference.

August 13, 2007 - TPS officials will hold a press conference tomorrow morning at 10:30 am at the Toledo Early College High School located at UT on the Scott Park campus to release 2006-07 state report cards. TPS will announce that the district is in Academic Watch. We verified the results with three local sources and one at the state level. Apparently there was an appeal of the results but the state denied the appeal. We are checking into the reason that TPS appealed the preliminary results.

TPS did not meet AYP (adequate yearly progress), did not meet the required 15 standards to make continuous improvement and had a performance index of 79.1 which is just below the required 80 to make continuous improvement. This is as we predicted and reported to the community here at this site on August 2, 2007 - see below.

This comes as little surprise to us. TPS has not made substantial improvement for years and has not addressed the perennially under-performing schools such as Pickett elementary. We'll take the numbers apart for you when we have the complete results and those of other districts.

August 4, 2007 - TPS has a new website under design and based upon the information layout, we can see some still have not learned to collaborate on important projects, especially when it comes to communicating with citizens and taxpayers. Here is the layout - click here.

Based upon the layout, TPS seems to have forgotten the 78% of families and citizens of Toledo that are not parents or students. There does not appear to be any section to layout public information and other relevant documents such as for the school building program. It again looked as though they developed the information layout based upon discussion with a limited number of participants. There are a number of community members that could have assisted them in their efforts but we are not aware of any call for suggestions, input, etc.

Some important items such as budget and financial information are missing. TPS keeps asking the community for input on the budget (July 24th hearing where one individual attended), but how can you provide meaningful input if you don’t have access to how they budget, what is included in the budget and what are the actual results vs. the budget……There are more issues!

August 2, 2007 - Grade cards are due out on August 14th. We thought it might be interesting to make our predications of the state of education, according to the ODE, in the Toledo Public Schools. Here are our thoughts and fearless predictions:

A little over two months ago we made comments to members of the community and some members of the press, regarding what TPS would grade out when the report cards are released. On August 14, 2007 (it appears a large Ohio newspaper - not the Blade - is requesting information sooner under the Ohio Open Records Act) the state will release grade cards. Always tough to make predictions, but here is what we said two months ago.

TPS will not meet the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) requirement. This is a moving target that goes up each year based upon the previous year's scores. It is tough for any district to meet this standard. However, it is easier when districts such as TPS pre 2003 had a low base to start with. TPS will not be able to maintain their continuous improvement grade based upon meeting AYP standards.

TPS will not meet the necessary standards test to meet continuous improvement. There are 30 standards (tests, attendance and graduation rates) for the 06-07 grade cards. It takes 10 standards to meet academic emergency and 15 standards to meet continuous improvement. We would estimate that TPS will meet at most 6 standards, but expect 4 to 5 as the actual standards met. Our estimate would put TPS in academic emergency based upon this requirement alone.

The only area where TPS has a chance to make continuous improvement is the PI (performance index). Last year TPS had a score of 80.1 needing an 80 to make continuous improvement. This year will be close and if TPS does make this requirement it won't be by much. Our belief is the district will not meet the 80 level. We expect the district PI to be mid 70's or better.

What does all this mean? TPS will most likely drop from continuous improvement to academic watch based upon the districts PI.

August 1, 2007 - It has been a busy summer and we have been negligent in posting information, news and analysis over the past month. Some interesting events have occurred, but we were busy in the interim gathering information. Over the next couple of months we have some interesting items for you - so stay tuned.

June 26, 2007 - The proposed TPS budget is now available for review. We don't have many comments to make at this time as we look into the details. We do wonder how the district factored in the costs of keeping the old DeVeaux, Brynedale and Keyser school buildings open. It certainly will cost significant extra dollars. We also wonder how a district can have a $2 million carryover just a couple of weeks ago and now is projecting an $8.7 million carryover (surplus) in the current budget document. We'll have more once we analyze the budget in detail. TPS FY 2008 Budget Summary document.

June 1, 2007 - The interviews for the TPS board vacancy created by the resignation of Deborah Barnett were held this morning. We taped the interviews and have edited them into 4 sections for the candidates interviewed. We apologize for the audio - TPS does not make it easy to to get a microphone near the speakers. Also, they did turn the audio up later, but the interview for Ford was first. Sykes is always difficult to hear as he never moves the microphone up so that you can hear him speak. We also have the initial resumes for the candidates and an addition that Jack Ford sent to the board office on May 31, 2007 after the initial application process.

• Richard Brown
• Francis Dumbuya
• Jack Ford
• Lisa Sobecki

• Candidate Resumes
• Ford 5-31-07 Submission

April 27, 2007 - Here is the correspondence received with regard to our open records request. The information is not in chronological order, but in the order received by us. Apparently this is a compilation from several sources. It would appear that Board Members Sykes, Barnett and Torres did not have any email correspondence to contribute. This is especially disconcerting when you realize that Sykes and Torres were appointed by the board to lead negotiations.

You can read the correspondence for yourself and come to your own conclusions. Through our review of the correspondence, we have the following observations:

It appears that the Board did not provide a formal offer to Harner. We find this odd as most organizations public and private would have provided an offer letter. It was not until April 11, 2007 that TPS actually put together a complete list of salary and benefits (50 days after the Board voted to enter negotiations).

The Board or its agent did not contact Harner until March 9, 2007 after Harner questioned why he had not been contacted. The Board voted to enter into negotiations on February 20, 2007. It took 17 days for the first contact!

There is no mention in the correspondence that Harner wanted to live in Ottawa Hills or send his child to Maumee Valley Country Day School. Sykes apparently lied about this issue in the Blade to “pump up” his case and hit the hot buttons of Toledoans!

The correspondence shows that Harner was concerned about his daughter’s education. It shows a concerned parent trying to provide the best education for his child. It appears that after researching the available options, Harner found that TPS could not offer the courses his daughter needed. Is it right for the Board to ask that he put his job ahead of the welfare of his child? Is it hypocritical for the Board to ask for residency in the district when so many administrators and teachers live outside the district?

Of course we understand the difficulty when it came time to ask Toledoans for a new levy when the superintendent lived outside Toledo or his child went to private school. However, the correspondence shows that Harner was cognizant of the situation and was trying hard to find compromises.

The correspondence shows that Harner was aware of the rumors that Board members and others were attempting to undermine the negotiations so that Foley would be the next superintendent.

We also found that Sykes was noted as tied to the hip of Sanders and that they wanted Foley to be superintendent.

Conclusion: We have stated from the beginning that we believe Sykes wanted Foley as superintendent. He has from the beginning attempted to undermine the negotiations. Since he was unable to get the Board to hire Foley, he used delay as a way to discourage Harner from accepting the job. It looks like he got his way!

April 25, 2007 - Harner withdraws as next TPS superintendent. We're hot on the trail to determine what happened here, but we fault the leadership of Larry Sykes who led negotiations. Sykes is a guy that likes things his way and he has never wanted Harner as superintendent - his favorite has always been John Foley. Negotiations were authorized by the board on February 20, 2007. Almost 11 weeks have passed. This deal should have been completed before March was over! As time passes, negotiations can fall apart over a lot of issues including the feeling of being wanted. In addition, Paul Vallas, Philadelphia superintendent announced April 12, 2007 that he would not return as superintendent. Did this have anything to do with his decision? An open records request has been made and we will report what we find.

April 18, 2007 - What are the duties of a School Board Member?

An interesting debate is shaping up as the result of local citizens coming together and developing a position description for school board members. Here are some details.

Here are the links to blogs by Lisa Renee Ward – Glass City Jungle and Maggie Thurber – Thurber’s Thoughts where the position description was presented and discussed.

http://glasscityjungle.com/wordpress/?p=1129#more-1129
http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/04/job-description-for-board-of-education.html

Link to Free Press article where Ms. Thurber discussed the group – The times they are a changing - http://www.toledofreepress.com/?id=5280

Link to comments made by Johnny Hildo in The City Paper
http://www.toledocitypaper.com/view_article.php?id=780

Response by Lisa Renee Ward - http://glasscityjungle.com/wordpress/?p=1182#more-1182

And now a board member, Darlene Fisher, has weighed in with her thoughts on this issue - http://talkingtps.com/defining_the_role_of_school_board_members

This whole issue brings up many questions such as:

Should the public have input into what they believe an elected official is responsible for?
By developing a job description that is available to the public, will this result in greater accountability by the elected official to the public?
Will it be easier for the public to “grade” elected officials now that a job description has been developed?

March 22, 2007 - The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) controversy continues to spark debate. Should the Toledo Board of Education approve all MOUs? We think that a process is absolutely necessary to assure that the educational bureaucracy is not running itself. It sure looks that way from our perspective. 1800 pages of MOUs since the last contracts were negotiated back in 2001 seems like a lot to not have board oversight. We agree with Board Member Fisher who has expressed concern. Ms. Barnett stated in a recent Toledo Journal story that she won't talk about the MOUs because they were brought up in executive session. Ms. Fisher stated in the same Journal article, "Anything related to MOUs, in my opinion, is public knowledge because they become part of contracts." We couldn't agree more Ms. Fisher - keep up the pressure!

March 22, 2007 - In the March 21, 2007 edition of the Toledo Journal Board President Deborah Barnett said she could not understand the newspaper's thinking. She said if the Journal believed there was a problem at TPS, it should wait until the board announced that it has a solution to the problem. Wow! Perhaps that explains Barnett's four years on the board. She has been waiting until TPS has solutions! We've often felt that Barnett was uninformed and uninterested. This statement seems to sum up our sentiments!

March 21, 2007 - The Blade reported today that TPS Interim Superintendent John Foley has asked the board to go job hunting. We don't think anybody can blame the man for wanting a new job. The board passed him over as its permanent superintendent and in the process embarrassed him with the callous treatment. Mr. Foley should never have been invited to a special board meeting on February 20th. No one should have to sit through a meeting where they were viewed by many as the heir apparent and then in a stunning surprise to most all find out another was selected. While we have had many disagreements with Mr. Foley over the years, no one with 30 years of service should have been treated that way. We would guess that Board President Barnett did not think through this and direct Mr. Foley to stay home.

March 10, 2007 - The Toledo Journal gets there first with an interview with superintendent-select William Harner - read here. It has some interesting views such as “My leadership style is being in a teacher’s classroom. I’ll be in classrooms, hopefully, most of my days.” We wonder what Fran Lawrence, TFT President, thinks about that.

Then we have this little tidbit: There is speculation now, however, that the selection process was deceptive. Some in the community believe the board chose Dr. Harner to satisfy a public demand for fresh leadership but that it will subsequently contend that it could not meet his contract demands and will look to Mr. Foley to remain, by default, in charge. There is no doubt a couple of board members, the president of TAAP, the parent involvement coordinators and parent congress members such as Lisa Sobecki and Chris Varwig, and others would love to undermine the process and get Foley to stay - we will have to watch this closely!

Finally we bet board members Steven Steel and Larry Sykes shuddered when they read this: “That’s what I was out there defending, their right to have an opinion and to publicly express it,” the former battalion commander said. “That’s one piece of how I look at the world. The other piece is they’re customers, one way or the other. ... Every community has a group that represents some cause or people that are near and dear to their hearts.” Many of us that have been advocating for the kids and citizens of this community hope Dr. Harner is sincere. Let's get him on board and begin the dialogue!

March 3, 2007 - The Blade does a story saying that the comments about the 3 superintendent finalists, Harner, Maher and Foley, were mostly positive - Comments on TPS finalists mostly positive Really this should be no surprise to those of us who participated in the interviews. We were instructed by the facilitator and the search firm to state what we thought were the positives about each candidate. They were not interested in how we would rank the candidates nor were they interested in any concerns we might have. They did ask us to list additional questions we would like to ask and that the board would perhaps ask those questions. Of course, that did little for the person with the question since any questions we submitted were asked in executive session.

There was a controversy that swirled from the Blade request for the evaluation forms. During the introductory comments describing the process, no mention was ever made in my group that these forms would be subject to an open records request. We were told that putting a name on your form was optional. Further, we were told that the comments we made would be put in a summary form and that the board would not see the actual sheets. Well, when the Blade asked for the forms, they first provided them without names. When the Blade persisted, the district released the forms with the names. Give the Treasurers' office some credit as they did call or email everyone that there names were being released. Needless to say, some people who had given their names were upset. I blame the search firm, Nancy Noeske and the facilitator, wanna be board member Lisa Sobecki for the problem. Both should have known the records were subject to release in their entirety, but neither of them mentioned it to anyone when people asked about including their names on the forms. We also learned that the board members were given the sheets with names on them as well - apparently there was a problem transferring the comments to a summary sheet. I hear there were a lot of folks upset about releasing their names!

February 21, 2007 - We thought we should bring you up to date on the Sunshine Complaint against the 3 for Children Coalition by Steven Flagg on behalf of the Urban Coalition. On February 1, 2007 Judge James Jensen DENIED defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint filed June 28, 2006. Read complete decision here...

In the decision Judge Jensen, Lucas County Common Pleas Court, writes, "In their motion to dismiss, Defendants allege that Plaintiff's amended complaint fails to state a cognizable claim under the Open Meetings Act because he does not "adequately allege that the board conducted a prearranged, private meeting where public business of the public body was discussed." In response, the Plaintiff argues that his complaint alleges all facts necessary to support its claims."

After some discussion of applicable case law, Judge Jensen writes, "Here, Plaintiff's complaint alleges (1) pre-arranged (2) discussions (3) regarding the coalition "3 for Children" and the coalition's "Position Statement" (4) by the majority of the Board. Of the four elements set forth in Schuette, only the third is problematic. However, the Court could infer from the existence of a position statement authored by the majority of the Board and from the coalition's name - 3 for Children - that the "meetings" of the members of the coalition relate to public business of the Board, a public body."

While this certainly is not a victory, R.C. 121.22(A) provides "this section shall be liberally construed to require public officials to take official action and to conduct deliberations upon official business only in open meetings unless the subject matter is specifically excepted by law." Take a look at the 3 for Children Coalition's position statement and decide for yourself. But it sure looks like this is official business when you lay out a manifesto as to how you will operate. It is on to the discovery portion of the case where we believe enough evidence will be produced to support our compliant. See June 8 & 30, 2006 entires for more information.

February 20, 2007 - In a surprise to everyone especially those in attendance at the special board meeting, William Harner was selected as superintendent over interim superintendent John Foley. Actually the board voted to enter into negoations with Mr. Harner. You can download the video from the meeting here.

February 20, 2007 - The proposed constitutional amendment to change how public schools are funded in Ohio is flawed. It won't lower property taxes. It won't hold districts accountable for what they spend and how they spend it. It will do an end run around the elected legislature which is responsible for state spending and state priorities. It will lead to increases in state taxes and/or reduction of services in other areas. It will put the educational bureaucracy in charge of determining how much is spent. It is a bad, bad idea! Here are some links to other articles and what others have to say about this amendment that would put the fox in charge of the henhouse.

• Full text of constitutional amendment
• Columbus Dispatch - OEA to vote on contributing to school-funding campaign
• Columbus Dispatch - Bad and expensive - High price tag is just one reason to reject school-funding proposal
• Buckeye Institute - Getting It Wrong for Ohio’s Future
• Warren Tribune-Chronicle - Schools: More money not the answer
• Buckeye Institute - Proposed Education Amendment Let's the Fox Guard Ohio's Henhouse
• Toledo Blade - Ohio petition drive OKd for proposed constitutional amendment for school funding
• Cincinnati Enquirer - School funding change pushed
• Dayton Daily News - Proposal for school-funding amendment sparks debate
• Toledo Blade Editorial - Different circus, same clowns

February 15, 2007 - Steven Flagg participated in a group interview process with the candidates. He shared his thoughts on the process with Kevin Milliken on his Eye on Toledo Show. You can listen to the interview here.

February 13, 2007 - The Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel stakes out their claim that a levy is need and board members Robert Torres and Darlene Fisher are in the way - so to speak. In their 2/9/07 newsletter they state, " TAAP has made it clear that the employees have acted responsibly and that the ball is now in the court of the two Board Members who seem not to be concerned about the future of the Toledo Public Schools." Read TAAP comments here...

We beg to differ. If we continue to raise taxes in Toledo, we could actually have a negative long term impact on TPS. Toledo already has the highest city income tax in our area. Further, TPS has the second highest effective property tax millage in the Toledo area. When you take into consideration other issues such as crime and maintaining public services and then tack on what would be about a 25% increase in property taxes you will see even more flight to the "burbs". Now how would a lower tax base and even fewer students help TPS. When you realize that more than half the administrators in TPS live outside the district, I guess we can see how it is in the best interests of TPS (at least employees) to tax residents even more. We believe that Fisher and Torres are acting responsibly and in the best interests of the entire community when they question a levy and its impact.

February 12, 2007 - The Toledo Free Press has an op-ed piece written by Steven Flagg titled Unity is Just a Five Letter Word. "The message from new Toledo Board of Education President Deborah Barnett was unity, but the actions of the 3 for Children coalition of Barnett, Larry Sykes and Steven Steel formed Jan. 7 were a slap in the face of cooperation, collegiality and consensus building among board members, as well as a rebuke to the citizens that elected these three board members." Read more...

February 12, 2007 - Ralph Trease who is a member of the Coalition has a great letter to the editor titled TPS belligerently 'stays the course' in the Blade today. It is worth a read.

February 8, 2002 - The Cincinnati Enquirer has a great series of articles about the difficulty in contacting school boards and getting to speak before such boards. Read more...

They can put TPS right at the top of the list. At one time, you had five minutes to speak before the TPS board, but they quietly changed that a couple years back (behind our backs) to 3 minutes. They also restrict the use of employees’ names even though court decisions have said that a citizens first amendment rights trump the privacy rights of public employees. In July 2005 Board President Sykes banned Steven Flagg from speaking at the board because he turned around at the end of his comments and suggested to the audience that they vote for change in November (you can read more about this issue by referring to the August 11, 2005 entry in our archived comments). Later in the fall he banned Coalition members Twila Page, Charles Brown and Alicia Murphy from speaking on a variety of "trumped up" accusations. No one on the board at the time challenged this action even though board policy prohibits any individual board member, even the president, from acting on such issues unilaterally. And the animosity has continued and the ability to communicate with board members is further restricted. At the January16, 2007 Policy Committee meeting President Barnett stated that citizens would no longer be able to ask questions and participate in the committee meeting. All questions were now to be submitted in writing. Now citizens will have to wait for responses and then write another letter ad nauseam.... In 2001 the board asked us all to take our issues to the appropriate committee where we could work out the issues. The idea was to get the issues resolved before it became an issue at a regular board meeting. The process did not always work, but many issues were resolved and the public never heard about the situations. Now we are back to the stone ages with a Board President who wants to work out the issues by sending chiseled messages in stone back and forth. To President Barnett: have you forgotten who you were elected to serve?

February 7, 2007 - The Toledo Journal has a great article about any upcoming levy title For the Teachers. Read more... The Journal also has a great article on teachers compensation. Read more...

Here are the links for information included in the Journal story from the Manhattan Institute - http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-is_34.06_per_hour_underpaid.htm and http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_50.htm

You can also view an analysis the Urban Coalition did last October that analyzed hourly wage rates for TPS teachers - http://tpsinfo.com/documents/tps_teacher_compensation.pdf

Here is another article on teacher salaries - http://tpsinfo.com/documents/Viewpoint_24_2006_06_22_Kirkpatrick_Teacher_Salaries.pdf

There is also a great discussion and more information posted at Swampbubbles.com.

January 31, 2007 - UT running/managing TPS is the topic today. This time we have to agree with the Blade. UT needs to get its act together and get this merger completed before they set their eyes on TPS. And who are these community leaders that thought up this idea. Sure the TPS board has problems but a takeover by UT is not the answer. Can UT help the school system? Of course a partnership makes tremendous sense. But where has UT been the last decade? This smacks of politics and not a positive step forward. Dr. Jacobs should work on his own problems and our great civic and elected leaders (where have they been in helping TPS the last several years) should work with the elected Board in finding ways to create effective partnerships. We find it amazing that no one from the TPS board was invited or seemed to know the talks had been held. More of the same old tired way of doing things in TO-LE-DO!

January 27, 2007 - The Toledo Board of Education had their first retreat aimed at improving board relations at the Jean Ward Pavilion at Wildwood Preserve Metropark. Right out of the box there was a disagreement. Seems as though the meeting room had been set up so that any visitors or the press had to sit about 40 feet away from the table where the board members were to conduct their "get along" retreat. Board member Fisher objected since she sees the public as her boss. "We cannot have the public sitting way back there. This is a public school system," she said. Board member Sykes, no friend of the public, objected later saying, "If someone walks into my house and starts moving furniture without discussion on it, I have a problem with that." Sykes sits on the Metroparks board and apparently thinks the Metroparks are his. Funny, we thought they belonged to the citizens of Lucas County. But this is just Sykes being "Sykes". He has shown contempt for the public during his entire tenure on the board and it has grown more visible since the election of Fisher and Torres in November 2005. It looks like the board is off to a good start on their way to reconciliation. Chris Myers did a citizens report on Swampbubbles.com and there are pictures of the configuration of the meeting layout. You can read his report here. It is truly amazing that the current board lead by Barnett and her two sidekicks in the 3 for Children coalition think so little of the public and their responsibilities to all citizens that live within the TPS system.

January 23, 2007 - The first meeting of the Toledo Board of Education's new Community and Public Relations committee was today. And as we expected, Board President Barnett who chairs this committee believes that an advertising campaign, improved customer service, and a new Web site will fix TPS' image and attract students. Hey Ms. Barnett did anyone tell you that successful students is the best advertising campaign for TPS. Any good marketing executive will tell you that an advertising campaign will get people to try your product but unless that product is good, there just isn't anyway you'll get repeat business. Certainly a new web site won't hurt. But if they maintain (or shall we say fail to maintain) the web site like they have in the past, it won't be useful and will only create more problems and frustration. A customer service plan is great if you are truly committed to customer service. It has to be well thought out, with an effective plan for implementation and more importantly the support of all employees which requires training and daily diligence. Is this just another great TPS PR campaign ahead of a levy campaign?

President Barnett and many in the district have bought the thought process, that the only problem with public education is the public's perception of public education. If only TPS could market their way out their problem. As to the advertising campaign, is this just a way to use public dollars to promote a levy campaign expected later in the year? And just how much is this going to cost the taxpayers at the expense of the classroom? While writing this post, we noted that the acronym for this committee is CPR. If this is just a coincidence, it may still be rather prophetic if this is the best that can be done to turn around a declining system. Successful students will promote the district not a fancy ad campaign that is primarily aimed at getting voters to believe the hype so they will vote new money for paying retroactive salary payments to employees that should have never been done in the first place. While we are at it, let's remember that only Sykes and Barnett remain from the board that made this ill advised and financially imprudent decision!

January 22, 2007 - Get all your news about the TPS superintendent search at tpssearch.com.

January 17, 2007 - The longer it goes on the more we have to pay. The past Toledo Board of Education made a financial commitment to their collective bargaining units regarding retroactive payments that are simply unsustainable. The longer is goes, the greater the liability to TPS (and of course the taxpayer will pick it up). If a levy should pass in November 2007, almost the entire first year of the levy's proceeds will go toward the retroactive payment - that will be before any money can go to the classroom. My oh my, look at the mess they have themselves in. Is any body going to vote for a levy when all the money is going to go to retroactive payments and increased teacher compensation? It will cost taxpayers $15 million upon levy passage and another $3 million will be rolled into the wage base making the first year payout about $18 million! See our analysis....

January 10, 2007 - The Toledo Blade editorial today, A conflicted TPS board, was an interesting read. All too often the Blade gets their facts wrong! The editorial states, "It became apparent at the recent meeting that Ms. Fisher still doesn't grasp the team concept. She brought up that Mr. Steel's wife, Catherine Hernandez, is a TPS teacher who also was a member of the teachers union board of directors. That's old news, and whether it's a possible conflict of interest for Mr. Steel is a moot point. Ms. Hernandez resigned from the union post when her husband was elected." Well Ms. Fisher was not questioning Mr. Steel on his wife's role on the TFT board, although there is evidence that she is still very active in TFT affairs, it was about Mr. Steel getting health care benefits from the district. Please read the December 14, 2006 entry below. Also see supporting documentation:

• PPS 12-14-06 News Release and 12-12-06 letter to Toledo Board of Education

January 5, 2007 - Last evening the Toledo Board of Education held their winter organizational meeting where they determine officers and committee assignments for the year.The message was unity, but their actions were a slap in the face of cooperation and a rebuke of their responsibilities as elected officials. As has been the case for many years, a majority of the Toledo Board of Education embraced the status quo despite the November 2005 message from voters that they wanted change. More...

• 2007 Toledo Board of Education Committee