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Welcome to Ohio SchoolWatch www.ohioschoolwatch101.com "A Community Organization Dedicated To Better Schools" Become a member of OhioSchoolWatch Membership is Free! Our Mission: *** We are a proactive grassroots, community-based collective striving to promote transparency and fiscal responsibility, as well as compliance with Ohio State mandated regulations within all school districts. The ultimate aim of which is the overall elimination of red tape and wasteful spending while concurrently promoting safety in all our schools. We are a progressive outlet committed to amplifying the voices of everyday people. Our organization involves volunteer participants and allied collectives organized along the principles of open and transparent decision-making processes, open public meetings and forums, and consensus building. The price of ignorance is extremely high! For that reason, we remain committed to being ever vigilant and watchful.******** SchoolWatch Fights for: •The entire community – not just special interests! transparency and fiscal responsibility in schools •Educational and Property Tax reform •Fair contract negotiations in collective bargaining situations •Adequate funding for State mandated services •Alternatives to property taxation in funding of schools •Students to receive free appropriate educations •Safe schools and healthy educational environments •Uncovering school waste and mismanagement, corruption, and fraud *** A Message from the Founder of SchoolWatch I know there are a lot of good things about many school districts; we have some excellent teachers and coaches, etc. But, there are also a lot of things that need improvement, i.e., ineffective personnel; (administrators, Special Education Directors, school principals, school psychologists, district physicians, consulting legal council), just to name a few. In my opinion they have not been responsibly servicing our children, and they have not been held accountable. I have known many families whose concerns were not appropriately addressed in many school related issues. *********************** IT’S TIME TO TAKE BACK OUR SCHOOLS! This cannot be achieved by calling meetings by invitation only! This is a major undertaking and can only be achieved working collectively with the entire community’s involvement, in a totally open forum. And that in essence is what SchoolWatch is about – Making your school districts better than ever. George Deabold Founder, Chairman and Executive Director of SchoolWatch *********************** Welcome Neighbor Enjoy getting to know your neighbors and using the free resources available here. Register and become a member where you can participate in our forums and chats, post your classified ads for free, share your favorite photos from the area, keep track of events coming up in your community, and much more. Bookmark it and use it often. The more you use the website, the better it will be!! The BIG NEWS is that this website is password protected for added security! - created specifically for every resident. Complete the form and click the submit button. You'll receive a password via email, which you can personalize for your use. The password and login are case sensitive. Your privacy is important to use, which is why we require an active email address in order to create an account for each and every user. Once registered, you will have Full Access to all resources, including: - Adding photos to the neighborhood photo gallery
- Participate in the many discussion and information forums
- Advertise events using the Neighborhood Calendar
- Request volunteers for your fundraiser
- You can even coordinate your Bunko group
- Find/advertise handyman or lawn care
- Form carpools, walking, dinner, exercise groups, golf, etc.
- Whatever your interest, you're sure to find a neighbor interested as well.
Participation is the key to the success of this website, tell your neighbors and use the website a lot. Please note: This site is fully password protected; access is available only to this community's residents. This is for your protection - please know that your registration information is for the purpose of this site registration only and will not be shared or used for any other purpose.
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News Feeds
| Education Law News |
Let special needs students transfer if needed, group says (The San Luis Obispo Tribune)
A Southern California advocacy group has filed a complaint with the state on behalf of local special-needs students, alleging that families are not easily able to transfer their children into districts where needed services are available. The complaint from Camarillo- based KPS4Parents, Inc. asks the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education and local school districts to rethink how classroom ...
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Breaking the rules (The Fort Collins Coloradoan)
Tucked behind the green, manicured lawns and attractive homes in Woodland Park Estates lurks an ongoing debate about a simple porch gate.
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Educational Advisor To Senator McCain To Be Guest on VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness Channel's 'Teach Your Children ... (PRWeb)
Lisa Graham Keegan, Educational Advisor to presidential candidate, Senator John McCain to be interviewed by Rich Weinfeld and Michelle Davis, on VoiceAmericaTM's Health & Wellness Channel. (PRWeb Jul 6, 2008) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1077004.htm
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Metro Communities (The Des Moines Register)
A roundup of news from across the Des Moines metro area
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More Labor Pages (Heritage Foundation)
Last week, with the backing of big business groups, organized labor, and disability rights groups, the House of Representatives passed an amended version of the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] Restora tion Act (ADARA, H.R. 3195). Though touted by supporters as a moderate compromise, the legislation greatly expands the class of Americans who are "dis abled," and thus legally entitled to ...
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Questions And Answers – Tuesday, 1 June 2008 (Scoop.co.nz)
1. JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) to the Minister of Finance: What is the full and final cost of the Government’s purchase of Toll NZ Ltd’s rail and ferry business?
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Rhode Island top court overturns lead paint ruling (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Rhode Island's top court on Tuesday overturned a landmark lower court ruling that found three former manufacturers of lead paint liable for creating a public nuisance by covering up the health risks of lead paint.
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Sherwin-Williams Wins Appeal of Lead-Paint Verdict (Update4) (Bloomberg.com)
July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sherwin-Williams Co. and two other former makers of lead paint won a Rhode Island supreme court decision overturning a verdict that may have cost them as much as $2.4 billion to clean contaminated buildings.
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EP Global Communications, Inc. Welcomes Thomas M. Brinker, Jr., CPA to the Company's Board of Directors (Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance)
EP Global Communications, Inc., the parent company of Exceptional Parent magazine, is pleased to announce the addition of Thomas M. Brinker, Jr. to the Board of Directors. Mr. Brinker was voted in on Monday by the Board of Directors at their scheduled Board meeting.
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BRIEFS (Coshocton Tribune)
COSHOCTON - The Coshocton Port Authority will be closed Friday, July 4, in observance of Independence Day. Normal operating hours will resume at 8 a.m. Monday, July 7.
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| Local News Ohio Department of Education |
Ohio streamlines school lunch aid (FOX 19 Cincinnati)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state is making it easier for children of low-income families to enroll in a program that offers free school lunches.
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State-test passage rates shrink in local schools (The Columbus Dispatch)
The state says the test was no harder and no easier than last year's. So why did fifth-graders do worse on the May reading exam than their peers a year earlier? Of the 49 central Ohio school districts, 46 had a lower passage rate. Officials have no great answer on the fifth-grade reading exam or the 13 other subject tests on which students struggled.
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Mark Coticchia, a Case Western Reserve vice president, to be Ohio Board of Regents' economic-development adviser (The Plain Dealer)
The head of technology transfer at Case Western Reserve University has landed an additional job at the Ohio Board of Regents.
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Obituary: Transplant recipient Jan Barney, 52, championed organ donations (The Sacramento Bee)
Jan Barney, a cornea-transplant recipient who spread the word about organ and tissue donation as a public speaker and state Department of Motor Vehicles employee, died June 25 at age 52.
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Local Motorcyclists to Escort Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall (The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register)
Members of the American Bikers Aimed Toward Education Ohio Region 1 will band together for a second time to escort the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall into the area Wednesday.
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Students have harder time with state tests (The Columbus Dispatch)
Central Ohio school districts did worse on state tests in 2007-08 than the year before, preliminary data suggests. Districts had lower passing rates on at least 14 of the 23 tests taken by third- through 10th-graders last school year.
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Ohio Streamlines School Lunch Process (WHIO-TV 7 Dayton)
The state is cutting the red tape for low-income families whose children qualify for free school lunches.
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Medina County Health Department Launches Toll-Free Number (Akron Beacon Journal)
The Department’s new toll-free telephone number is 1-888-723-9688. It will be staffed Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The telephone operators will transfer callers to the appropriate public health program.
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Ohio streamlines school lunches (NBC 24 Toledo)
Monday, July 07, 2008 at 9:33 a.m. COLUMBUS, OHIO (AP) -- The state is cutting the red tape for low-income families whose children qualify for free school lunches.
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Mansfield man selected to lead Ohio Department of Veterans Services (Mansfield News Journal)
MANSFIELD -- Bill Hartnett believes he is a good fit as director of Ohio's first cabinet-level veteran's agency.
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| National Special Education News |
More school vouchers success expected (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
When Georgia started its voucher program for special education students last year, state education officials and lawmakers were unsure how many students and private schools would participate.
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Mauritius: Remedial Education enters Std III Classrooms Next Term (AllAfrica.com)
The diagnostic assessment introduced in the second term is being followed-up. The ministry of Education is coming with a plan for Standard III under-achievers as from the 3rd term. Its aim is to raise their level.
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School facing special education legal challenges (Bucks County Courier Times)
BUCKS COUNTY TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL - Such challenges are typically resolved by offering additional education to special education students as compensation, an administrator said.
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Jindal won't call special session (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
BATON ROUGE -- Without offering details, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday he will turn his attention to addressing changes in education, health care, economic development and taxes but he will not call lawmakers back into a special session this year.
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East Ramapo school board cancels tonight's special meeting (The Journal News)
SPRING VALLEY - A special East Ramapo Board of Education meeting set for 8 tonight has been canceled.
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Tanzania: District Seeks Teachers for Special Needs (AllAfrica.com)
The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has been requested to send special teachers for children with disabilities in Mwanga district, Kilimanjaro.
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Let special needs students transfer if needed, group says (The San Luis Obispo Tribune)
A Southern California advocacy group has filed a complaint with the state on behalf of local special-needs students, alleging that families are not easily able to transfer their children into districts where needed services are available. The complaint from Camarillo- based KPS4Parents, Inc. asks the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education and local school districts to rethink how classroom ...
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Governor approves special ed funding (Herald & Review)
SPRINGFIELD - More than 200 Illinois school districts could be in line for a total of $21 million in state funding for special education programs.
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Unusual feat: All special ed teachers filled for Beaufort County schools (Island Packet)
When school opens in the fall in Beaufort County, all of the district's positions for special education teachers will be filled, an uncommon occurrence, say school officials.
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Bill waives LEAP in special education (The News-Star)
The Ouachita Parish School System and the state Department of Education have classified Colby Brown as a special education student since he was 4 years old.
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| Highly Qualified Teachers |
County no longer pays into law director salary (Star Beacon)
Ashtabula County has informed Conneaut it no longer will make a $5,000 contribution toward the salary of city Law Director Lori Lamer.
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Kindergartners urged to learn key languages (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The first-graders in Grace Yuan's class are playing “Jeopardy,” eagerly responding to clues about animals and their habitats, diet and movements.
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Schools Roundup: Money Where Your Mouth Is Edition (DCist)
If you’re not already familiar with the way teachers in D.C. get paid, it basically works like this – the longer you teach, the more you make. DCPS teachers are compensated on a seniority-based scale (pdf), something that was designed to encourage retention, but unfortunately also means that teachers are paid for their loyalty, not their performance. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee ...
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Renovations will make it more fun to play at the YMCA (Naples Daily News)
The Village People were right: It is fun to stay at the YMCA — especially if you’re a youngster between the ages of 1 and 5. The Child Development Center at the YMCA of the Palms in Naples will get even more fun for more kids once renovations, which recently began, are completed.
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School layoffs, cuts hit Suttons Bay (Leelanau Enterprise)
Shell shocked. That's how Suttons Bay teachers, some with more than a decade of service, felt after their positions were cut from the district's 2008-09 budget.
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Teachers head to space camp (Orange County Register)
Hands on training will help them teach science, math, technology.
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State tightens rules for charter school teachers (Wausau Daily Herald)
MILWAUKEE The state Department of Public Instruction has tightened the requirements for charter school teachers.
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State tightens requirements for charter school teachers (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Depending on your view, new steps by the state Department of Public Instruction will either assure that charter schools across the state have quality teachers, or threaten some of the best things going on in those schools.
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Rhee to Fire 250 Teachers Who Missed Certification Date (Washington Post)
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced yesterday that she plans to fire 250 teachers and 500 teacher's aides who were unable to meet a June 30 deadline to obtain certification.
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Funding urged to ensure new teachers given full-time jobs (The Herald)
Headteachesr yesterday called for more funding to ensure newly-qualified teachers find permanent jobs in Scotland. The call came after a recent survey which showed that although 93% of probationer teachers are now in employment, only half are working in full-time permanent posts.
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| Ohio Local School News |
Keno games to hit Ohio on Aug. 4 (Dayton Daily News)
Gamblers looking for something new in Ohio will find Keno games in more than 1,000 bars, restaurants and bowling alleys when the Ohio Lottery Commission kicks off play on Aug. 4.
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Ohio town split over teacher accused of preaching (Boston Herald)
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - Demonstrations on the town square show how divided people are over the school board's decision to fire a science teacher accused of preaching his...
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Ohio town split over teacher accused of preaching (FOX 19 Cincinnati)
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (AP) - Demonstrations on the town square show how divided people are over the school board's decision to fire a science teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs in the classroom and burning crosses on students' arms.
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Ohio extends resident tuition rates to outside vets, families (BizJournals)
An executive order Gov. Ted Strickland signed Tuesday offers a higher education incentive to military veterans, allowing them and their families to lock in lower state-resident tuition rates when attending college in Ohio.
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Ohio college plan to benefit veterans (The Columbus Dispatch)
Gov. Ted Strickland signed an executive order this morning that will allow all military veterans, their spouses and children to go to an Ohio college at in-state tuition rates.
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Ohio streamlines school lunch aid (FOX 19 Cincinnati)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state is making it easier for children of low-income families to enroll in a program that offers free school lunches.
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Ohio town split over middle school teacher's acts (Akron Beacon Journal)
MOUNT VERNON: This small city in central Ohio is dotted with churches of just about every denomination. ''You can't drive two blocks here without running into a church,'' said Sam Barone, the executive director of the nonprofit Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County. ''There may be communities elsewhere in the country that may be considered areligious, but this isn't one of them.''
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State-test passage rates shrink in local schools (The Columbus Dispatch)
The state says the test was no harder and no easier than last year's. So why did fifth-graders do worse on the May reading exam than their peers a year earlier? Of the 49 central Ohio school districts, 46 had a lower passage rate. Officials have no great answer on the fifth-grade reading exam or the 13 other subject tests on which students struggled.
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Ohio town split over middle school science teacher accused of bringing religion into classroom (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio - This small city in central Ohio is dotted with churches of just about every denomination. "You can't drive two blocks here without running into a church," said Sam Barone, the executive director of the nonprofit Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County.
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Ohio town split over middle school teacher's acts (AP via Yahoo! News)
This small city in central Ohio is dotted with churches of just about every denomination.
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| National News on Reading and Math |
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| National Autism News |
Chelation for Autism Research (WHOI Peoria)
By Jen Christensen Tuesday, July 08, 2008 at 8:38 p.m. The government wants to test chelation, a treatment for lead poisoning, on children with autism - even though there's no evidence it leads to improvements.
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'Autism and Faith' resource guide available (News Transcript)
The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Pediatrics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, has announced a new guide, "Autism and Faith: A Journey Into Community," is now available.
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Fringe autism treatment could get federal study (The San Luis Obispo Tribune)
Pressured by desperate parents, government researchers are pushing to test an unproven treatment on autistic children, a move some scientists see as an unethical experiment in voodoo medicine. The treatment removes heavy metals from the body and is based on the fringe theory that mercury in vaccines triggers autism - a theory never proved and rejected by mainstream science. Mercury hasn't been ...
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Summary Box: US plans controversial autism study (AP via Yahoo! News)
QUACK RESEARCH? The government wants to test chelation, a treatment for lead poisoning, on children with autism — even though there's no evidence it leads to improvements.
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Battling Autism: Could Stomach Woes Be Part of the Problem? (Carteret County News-Times)
(ARA) - Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is on the rise, now affecting approximately 1 in 150 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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State puts autism agency on probation (Lincoln Journal Star)
A contract agency accused by the state of financial impropriety has been put on a year’s probation. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release Tuesday that the Autism Center of Nebraska will be strictly monitored.
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Autism Center On 1-Year Probation (KETV 7 Omaha)
DHHS placed the Autism Center of Nebraska on a one-year probation that includes strict monitoring and oversight.
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Son's autism tests Iraq refugee's resolve (CNN.com)
Like millions of others, 37-year-old Wafaa al Nuaimi fled Iraq in the hopes of giving her three children a chance at a better life. But what separates her from the sea of humanity fleeing unimaginable violence is her dedication to her 8-year-old son, Mustafa, who has autism.
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New ways to diagnose autism earlier (American Psychological Association)
Associated Press July 08, 2008 With the number of autistic children growing, researchers are targeting new technologies to help detect the disorder at ever-younger ages in hopes of reversing some of autism's worst symptoms.
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Investigating the Environmental Origins of Autism [EarthTalk] (Scientific American)
Dear EarthTalk: What’s going on with all the cases of autism cropping up and no one seems to know why? It stands to reason it must be something (or some things) environmental, yet every study allegedly turns up no conclusion? What are the possible causes? -- Jessica W., Austin, TX [More]
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