Friday, January 15th, 2016

Districts fare well on report cards

By Claire Giesige
The first half of the 2015 Ohio School Report cards was released on Thursday with Marion Local and St. Henry school districts receiving the highest local scores while Celina saw a drop in graduation rates.
The Ohio Department of Education said in the release that a "one-time delay in the report card time line (was) due to the transition to new assessments and unexpected, multi-week delays caused by the late delivery of PARCC assessment results." Next year's results are expected by Sept. 15.
Mercer County Education Service Center Superintendent Shelly Vaughn said the most accurate statistics on the partial report were the graduation rates, with the caveat that special education students attending schools for longer than 5 years were counted against districts.
Marion Local Schools Superintendent Michael Pohlman said he was very pleased with the district's 100 percent 4-year graduation rate and 96.9 percent 5-year rate.
However, he said the 96.9 percent rate can be misleading as students on a special education plan may be educated through 21 years of age.
"But it's my understanding, the way the state does the reporting ... that counts against your graduation rate," he said. "In my mind, this is what's best for the child. And yet we're sort of dinged by the state on our graduation rate."
Pohlman's district also scored the highest in the county on ACT participation at 90.7 percent and students receiving honors diplomas at 34.7 percent.
"A lot of that I credit our students for their hard work and our teachers for their dedication, and I give a lot of credit to the families for valuing their children's education," he said.
St. Henry Local Schools tied Marion Local's 100 percent 4-year rate and also tied with Fort Recovery for the highest 5-year rate at 98.7 percent.
Celina City Schools had the county's lowest graduation rates with a four-year rate of 92.9 percent and a five-year rate of 93.9 percent, both the equivalent of B grades. This was a drop from last year's A ratings, superintendent Dr. Ken Schmiesing said.
"We did drop in those areas from the 2013-2014 school year," he said. "But looking at the students, talking about 200 students, you're talking about one student making the difference between a B and an A. We continue to offer a lot of opportunities to our students. ... I know there is a lot of work at the high school to make sure they meet their graduation requirements."
One such opportunity is Aladdin Alternative School, a former charter school that recently merged with the Mercer County ESC. Graduates from Aladdin Academy will count toward Celina's graduation totals in 2016. In the past, the district could not count Aladdin students from Celina as graduates, Schmiesing said.
Schmiesing noted the district's K-3 literacy rating went from an F to a B, crediting increased efforts to report literacy progress.
"That's something when I interviewed for this position that I saw as an accountability piece as far as reporting to the state," he said.
Parkway schools had the lowest rate of students receiving honors diplomas at 10.6 percent. Superintendent Greg Puthoff noted the rate is typical for the district.
"I think that's about normal for Parkway," he said. "One of the hard parts (of the honors diploma) is three years of foreign language. For a lot of our students, it's hard to fit that in their schedule if they have other interests, like FFA. ... We have high expectations on that honor diploma."
Vaughn said the state evaluation system is convoluted and the scores don't tell the whole story.
"It's a mess. The state report card is a mess. School district officials want to be held accountable for student achievement. That's our job. But this has become such a convoluted mess that it really doesn't work," she said. "Legislators have acknowledged that, education officials have acknowledged that and they're working on it."
She said the ESC is working on a Mercer County district report card to give residents a clearer picture of their schools' performance.
"We're measuring what matters," she said. "The superintendents have been collecting meaningful data and we're putting it together. Our hope is to release that in January so we can show the public accurate data and show them data that is relevant and understandable."
The ODE has announced it will release the remaining components of the district report cards on Feb. 25. Information on gifted student services, district financial expenditures, career-technical planning and dropout recovery will be included in those numbers.
Report cards can be viewed at reportcard.education.ohio.gov.

Graduation rates:
                                        
District4-Year Grad rate5-year Grad rate
St. Henry100 (A)98.7 (A)
Marion Local100 (A)96.9 (A)
New Bremen98.5 (A)98.8 (A)
Coldwater98.2 (A)96.2 (A)
Minster97.3 (A)98.1 (A)
Fort Recovery96.9 (A)98.7 (A)
Parkway95.5 (A)97.5 (A)
St. Marys95.5 (A)94 (B)
Celina92.9 (B)93.9 (B)


Note: Results are in percentages.
Additional online story on this date
Fischer's big fourth lifts Minster over New Bremen
MINSTER - Minster's Alli Fischer was a non-factor for much of the night during Thursday's game with New Bremen.
The 5-foot-4 sophomore was the biggest factor when the game was up for grabs in the fourth quarter. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
Program launched to offer free lessons for underprivileged kids
MERCER - Dance classes are popular but often can be an expensive activity for area children.
Lisa Grunden of Celina has started the Leap of Faith Project to extend the opportunity to those who couldn't normally afford it.
CELINA - Initial findings will be released today about skeletal remains found Jan. 3 in a state park about 1.5 miles south of the city.
Mercer Coun
NEW KNOXVILLE - After years of meetings and preparations, county officials are proceeding with plans to spend more than $1 million on water drainage and sewer systems for a new terminal at the Neil Armstrong Airport.
Manure from Wenning dairy polluted creeks in Wabash River Watershed
A local dairy farm for the second time in less than five months has received a notice of violation for polluting state waters with manure, Mercer County Soil and Water Conservation District board members learned Thursday.
Two area professionals were selected by The Ohio Academy of Science to encourage youth to pursue careers that foster innovation and entrepreneurship.
ST. HENRY - The inside game for Marion Local played a key part in the Flyers picking up a 47-34 win over St. Henry in Midwest Athletic Conference girls basketball action Thursday at Redskin Gymnasium.
CELINA - Held to just three field goals in the second half, Celina came up on the short end of a 37-31 defensive struggle with Defiance on Thursday night at the Fieldhouse.
Area Roundup
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
Fort Recovery jumped out to a 12-4 lead on Versailles and never looked back to improve to 11-2 and 5-0 in MAC play with a 47-37 win over the defending Division III state champions Thursday night at Tiger Gymnasium in Versailles.