(VIDEOS OF ALL 25 SPEAKERS [3 MIN EACH]) TIMKEN VERSUS "BEING ABSORBED" INTO McKINLEY - SOME HARSH WORDS FOR SUPERINTENDENT ALLISON!

FINAL UPDATE (02/15/2015 - 9:00 AM)

VIDEOS

PROTESTERS AT ENTRANCE

SCHOOL OFFICIALS

SUPERINTENDENT ALLISON
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BOE MEMBER MILLIGAN
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BOE MEMBER GISSENDANER
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BOE MEMBER ROSS-FREEMAN
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BOE MEMBER RINALDI
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BOE PRESIDENT BRAHLER


CITIZENS

BILL TRBOVICH
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REBECCA SCHREWSBURY
 ========================
ISIAH BINGHAM
 ========================
GAIL WHIPKEY
 ========================
PAMELA LAGODICH 
 ========================
CHRISTOPHER BARTON
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ANTHONY ROBERTSON, SR
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MICHAEL BOYDSTON, SR  
 ========================
ERIC RESNICK 
(a don't miss video)
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DR. ADRIENNE O'NEIL 
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JODI ROBERTS
 ========================
ANGELINE BONNER
(1986 grad lives in Illinois) 
 ========================
DEBORAH HODGE
 ========================
NANCY GEORGE
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SAMUEL MUHAMMED
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  CLEO LUCAS
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CHRIS SONNTAT
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MIKE MULLAY
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JIM REINHARD
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 CASSIDY JACOBS
 ========================
 CHRISTINE DYE
 ========================
RENEE SIMMONS
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MARGE LORETTO 
 ========================
HARRY HUGHES 
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GUST CALLAS 
 

Canton City Schools' (CCS) superintendent Adrian Allison, when he rolled out his initiative to "merge" Canton's Timken High School and McKinley High School tried - in the minds of many Timken supporters - to sell them 'a bill of goods."

Merger was the operative word used by Allison from the get-go.

Pro-Timken activist Eric Resnick  (a former CCS board member) was not buying and said so rather bluntly "in-your-face-style" to Allison in a meeting of a community leaders breakfast forum on January 20th.

Resnick called Allison proposal an acquisition in rejecting the "M (merger) word."

• (LINK to video of Resnick and Allison exchange)

As The Stark County Political Report entered Timken High School at last night's February 9th board of education (BOE) meeting, yours truly encountered two picketers who were mouthing the Timken supporters theme of the night that came from speaker after speaker after speaker.

"Let's be clear about this Allison recommendation.  It is not a merger; it is a takeover of Timken by McKinley!"

Last night it became obvious early on that the Timken side effort was not going to be "Come now, let us reason together on a 'merger.'"

Rather, it was, "this is not a merger, it is a takeover and we're damn mad and we are not going to take it!"

It appears to the SCPR that - to the Timken folks - for them to hear the M word in pretty much the equivalent of being "F-bombed" by someone.

They seem to get enraged whenever Allison and other school officials use the M word.

Beyond the offense of thinking that their intelligence is being questioned by the persistent use of the M word.

Today's SCPR blog is structured first to give Allison his say. Then the board of education members.

Most importantly (i.e. than putting up the Allison video and the BOE videos),The Report publishes in this blog "each and every of the 25 speakers" who took advantage of the opportunity to have his/her say on the issue before the 150, more or less, who attended last night.

One Timken graduate (Class of 1986) came all the way from the Chicago, Illinois area to speak her mind.

As readers will note on seeing the three minute videos of last night's Public Speaks (most speakers, but not all, rejecting the M Word approach). The "preserve Timken movement" seemingly is no longer open to using merger as an operative term.

FIRST, ALLISON (About 15 minutes in length)

The core of Allison's presentation was to convince Canton schools' Timken branch constituents that he has heard their objections to the "original" Phase III plan (i.e. the "M" of the high schools) and has modified the proposal and it is now time to move on with adoption and implementation.

Again, as will be seen in the constituents presentations later on in this blog, he was apparently unsuccessful in mollifying the objectors.



BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER
RICHARD MILLIGAN (about 10 minutes)



BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER
LISA GISSENDANER (about 3 minutes)



BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER
IDA ROSS-FREEMAN (about 1 minute)



BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER
JOHN RINALDI (about 4 minutes)



BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER
RYAN BRAHLER (president, 1:30)



CONSTITUENTS OF CCS (all about 3 minutes)

BILL TRBOVICH



Central message:  "Slow down the process!"

REBECCA SCHREWSBURY

Central message:  "Allison's plan takes away choice"



ISIAH BINGHAM

Central message:  "Saving money, could cost district money with departure of 200/300 Timken students who feel like consolidation plan makes them 'inferior' students."



GAIL WHIPKEY

Central message:  "CCS State of Ohio per student aid is going up; consolidations risk deteriorating quality of schools (study shows)"



PAM LAGODICH

Central message:  "Board's 'choice' should be to vote 'no' on consolidation; it takes a village working together to make consolidations work and the villagers are upset."



 CHRISTOPHER BARTON

Central message:  "2013 Timken graduate who is a success story.  Timken prepared him well to be an aeronautic/avionics student at Kent State University."



ANTHONY ROBERTSON, SR 


Central message:  "CCS has wasted years in preparing for bringing Timken and McKinley together.  His group has a plan that will work.  Will CCS officials sit down with and consider his group's plan."



 MICHAEL BOYDSTON, SR

Central message:  "Timken High prepared the Boydston daughters to make their way in the world.  Any rework of Canton's high school set up needs to include 'their entire community;' not just the work of one man (an obvious reference to Allison)"



ERIC RESNICK

The SCPR dwells on Resnick in this blog a tad more than other speakers.

He is an obvious leader if not "THE" overall head of the "Keep Timken the Way It Is" movement.

Earlier in this blog, the SCPR linked to a video in The Report's January 20th community leaders' breakfast hosted by the CCS.

As shown in that video, it is apparent to the SCPR that he has animus towards Allison.  But Allison should not take offense.  The Report's take is that Resnick demonstrates animus toward anyone who sees things differently than he does.

It was hard to detect ill-will towards Allison and the CCS BOE from most of last night's speakers, but not so - the SCPR thinks - with Resnick.

A few examples from his three minutes of fame last night:

• Allison and the CCS BOE hurrying the plan through in five weeks "is an injustice,"
• Allison is now contradicting himself, to wit:
• What was good on November 15th (i.e. expanding educational programming at Timken) is on February 9th now "an injustice and [- get this -] an abomination,"
• Really? When did Allison ever say "abomination?"
• Allison, Resnick says, is presenting "a half-baked plan that changes almost daily"
• Would Resnick rather Allison present "a half baked plan" that is cast in concrete?
• Allison, Resnick says, is playing the role of an unbecoming, unthoughtful salesman that has no place in the CCS,
• Allison's plan presentations are full of:
• "half-truths and nuances" indicative of "results driven advocacy; not thoughtfulness,"
• Allison's "proposal is all about robbing Timken to pay McKinley and mostly about athletics [that] runs counter to best practices for high poverty districts and ... unconscionable at any price,"
• (color added for emphasis)

 Wow! no?

The video:



It will be interesting to see whether or not Resnick's approach "plays in Peoria" (err Canton-at-large) which is to say outside the Timken High School family?

If Resnick carries the day, it is hard to see how Allison stays on as Canton City Schools superintendent, no?

Wouldn't a rejection of Allison's plan be tantamount to "a vote of no-confidence?"

DR. ADRIENNE O'NEIL
(Stark County Education Foundation)

Central message:  Timken has national and international renown in career technical education; do not harm that reputation.



JODI ROBERTS

Central message:  Costs of conversion to one high school are sheer speculation and have not been adequately accounted for.



ANGELINE BONNER
(1986 Timken grad, now of Illinois)

Central message:  "Don't throw the baby [Timken High School] out with the bath water [the problems which need fixing."



 DEBORAH HODGE

Central message:  "Fix Phase I & II before moving onto Phase III."



NANCY GEORGE

Central message:  "Slow this down, plan this out, really listen to your teachers and people who education licenses and certificates."



SAMUEL MUHAMMED

Central message:  Ramp up Timken to provide superior services to Canton's socially and financially disadvantage as a way to save the school's place in the community.



CLEO LUCAS

Central message:  "Separate is never equal.  Its been known for 15 years that Canton needs to be a one-high-school city."



CHRIS SONNTAT

Central message:  Make courses and services available throughout CCS secondary schools.



MIKE MULLAY

Central message:  "Create win-wins in high school consolidation retaining the best from Timken and McKinley."



JIM REINHARD

Central message:  "Canton is the third poorest school district in all of Ohio.  There are 'bigger fish to fry' (the SCPR's expression; not Reinhard's) that fighting over having one or two high schools."



 CASSIDY JACOBS

Central message:  "Can't fix by tinkering when the overall approach is flawed."



CHRISTINE DYE

Central message:  "Daughter has benefited from Timken education in field of Robotics.  Slow down, think out eliminating Timken."



RENEE SIMMONS

Central message:  "It is unfair to close Timken on students who would have chosen another school had they know that closing Timken was in the offing."



MARGE LORETTO

Central message:  New high school needs to include Timken name, colors and traditions.



HARRY HUGHES
(1953 Timken grad)



Central message:  "Keep Timken open.  Canton schools are in chaos."
GUST CALLAS

Central message:  "Don't do what I did on prior reorganizations and get mad.  Support what is best for the students."



CONCLUSION

So does the SCPR have an opinion on the Timken/McKinley matter?

Indeed.

First, The Report agrees with those who want to slow down the process.

What is the hurry?

Prior consolidations were not rushed through.

One urgent factor in compelling immediate consolidations and its attendant efficiencies might have been the concern by Superintendent Allison and presumably the BOE members could have been the cessation of State of Ohio guaranteed money for distressed urban districts.

But that evaporated last week when Ohio education officials published a database showing that CCS will not be losing the financial guarantees over the next three years.

It will in fact be getting more State of Ohio taxpayer money.

While the CCS and all Ohio school districts whether financially strapped or not have a "operating in good faith" obligation to taxpayers to be as efficient as they can be, they have an equal if not higher obligation to ensure that the graduates they produce are prepared for higher education and/or immediately employable.

The CCS should use the financial buffer they now how by virtue of the new money coming the district's way to extend the study of whether or not to bring Timken and McKinley together.

For the SCPR, one of the more powerful arguments is - in the context of educating new generations of Cantonians - "smaller is better."

Canton schools, because of many complexities of family, social and financial factors that students bring to school with them need to get the teacher to student ratio to the lowest that school finances can abide.

So, yes, CCS officials:  Slow the process down.

What appears to be a pell-mell rush to have one large high school might well deprive financially and socially disadvantaged Cantonian children of the greatest opportunity they will ever have to be educationally equipped to compete and thrive in the American economic system.

The SCPR thinks that those who say "smaller is better" are making the more persuasive argument.