PART "2" OF A MULTI-PART SERIES: AN EDUCATORS' "POLITICAL BATTLE, ROYALE?" CANTON CITY SCHOOLS, STARK ESC & THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION?

The "silver lining" of this SCPR series for Stark County board of education voters is to see for themselves the ugly underbelly of "politics at play" in the oversight (the board members themselves) and administration (superintendents and their staffs) of our taxpayer funded public schools.

First, readers of this blog need to - in order to get the full breath and scope of The Report's dissection of boards of education and school administration - make sure they have read previous blogs.

Here are links to those blogs:

• September 15, 2015 blog,

And let the SCPR credit Stark County auditor Alan Harold for pushing to get the story out about the unseemly way that:

• the Canton City Schools (CCS) Board of Education, in the corporate sense (meaning majority voting pattern),
• the Stark County Educational Service Center Governing Board, in the corporate sense (ESC, which includes yours truly's spouse),
• the upper level management of the CCS (with a focus on the treasurer and superintendent), and
• the upper level management of the ESC with a focus on the legal and superintendent aspects of the regional service center

appear to The Stark County Political Report to have handled what yours truly has tabbed as being "the Allison matter."

But make no mistake about it, the CCS/ESC debacle is only "the icing on the cake" of what The Report thinks has been a decades and decades long deficiency in oversight functioning of the ESC board, the 17 local boards of education and the respective administrations; especially in the superintendent to superintendent connection between local school districts and the county level superintendents going back many years.

Yours truly first started out as a community engaged citizen in the early 1980s in attending and engaging Lake Local School District and Lake Board of Trustees members.

Accordingly, as far as Stark County schools are concerned, yours truly goes back to the Herm Sims administration of the Stark County level of school administration.

Additionally, yours truly has the huge advantage of having been married to Mary for 49 years now who is:

• a 35 year retired teacher as an elementary school teacher in the Akron Public School system,
• a ten year long consultant with the former Carson-Dellosa education publishing company,
• one of Ohio's very first board certified teachers by the National Board Professional Standard - Early Childhood Generalist,
• an adjunct professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Akron,
• a member of the Lake Board of Education (1991 - 1995, elected again in 2006)
• a member of the Stark County Education Service Center in 2007 and is unopposed for an additional four years in the election upcoming on November 3rd,

The Olsons have had three daughters graduate from the Lake Local School District and go on to achieve advanced professional degrees from various universities both in Ohio and across the nation.

In today's blog, the focus is the insights that the SCPR has garnered since the early 1980s base on the foregoing recitation so as to be in a position to credibly assess the state of boardmanship and superintendency in the Stark County school system.

One of the SCPR's latest treatments of Stark County school systems has to do with the situation in the Canton Local School District in which there has been in place in the opinion of The Report a board of education that is in lock step with the recently retired superintendent.

Readers of this series would do well by themselves to read the blogs on the Canton Local situation to get a sense of how The Report covers local school boardmanship, the links:

• August 15, 2015,
• June, 17 2014,

Moreover, there are other Stark County local school districts which have come under the scrutiny of the SCPR and in future blogs yours truly will refresh those coverages so as to underscore The Report's continuing interest in the quality of Stark County educational leadership from the superintendents' standpoint and from the board of education membership standpoint.

Over decades of exposure to and involvement with local boards of education and the county level board of education (now, education service centers), yours truly has one overwhelming take-away on the functioning of boards of education vis-a-vis superintendents, to wit:

Superintendents of education, though not elected by the public to anything, are every bit the politician of those folks from Stark County's cities, villages, townships and, of course, boards of education who do have to account to the public in the American process of getting elected by majority/plurality of registered voters in their respective districts.

Moreover, by and large, many if not most of these superintendents cultivate a political relationship with individual members of board of educations designed to dampen member zeal for pursuing incisive questioning of the recommendations of superintendents to ensure that the recommendations are in the public interest as opposed to any parochial interest (e.g. the superintendents' ease of operation, teacher unions, undue athletic prominence, et cetera).

In this ongoing series, sparked by the CCS/ESC controversy, the SCPR will be sharing with the Stark County public how "education sausage" is made among and between superintendents of local school districts, their respective boards of education as they interact with educational officials at the county level.

The Report has already had input from everyday Stark Countians with stories of how their superintendents and boards of education have not given "the public interest" the first priority it must have inasmuch as public education is financed by the Stark County taxpaying public.

Readers can add to this series by sending your anecdotal "education at the local lever story" to tramols@att.net.

CLOUDY DAYS IN OFFING FOR CANTON CITY SCHOOLS' "BRIGHTER TOMORROW?"

UPDATE:  10:00 AM

At Wednesday's (January 14, 2015) Canton City Schools' Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Adrian Allison (superintendent for little over a year) (LINK to prior SCPR blog featuring Allison in video) unveiled a plan to merge Canton McKinley High School (adjacent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame) with Timken High School which is located in downtown Canton close to he intersection of Tuscarawas St W and McKinley Avenue.

The SCPR received a communication from Canton City Council Vice President Frank Morris, III which voices his individual concerns (i.e. not speaking for council as a whole) about the announced plan to merge which The Report publishes in this blog (see below) in its entirety (restructured for clarity sake).

The theme of the email as the SCPR interprets it is that the Canton City Schools and Superintendent Allison are "out-of-touch" with the greater Canton school community and therefore have created more "turmoil" for an already struggling city.

Although Morris disclaims speaking for council as a whole or other councilpersons, the SCPR does not totally buy that line.

Morris certainly has the strength of personality and character to be "a lone wolf, the SCPR thinks that he does express the sentiments of councilpersons other than himself.

It appears that Allison and the BOE have stumbled and bumbled their way into a  communication/relationship problem and consequently there may have to be a major rework of Phase III the CCS "Brighter Tomorrow" concept.  (LINK to Phase I, LINK to Phase II)

The Allison invitation:

The Morris email response:

Mr.  Allison

 I respectfully decline your offer to attend the meeting to discuss your Brighter Tomorrow Phase III plan. 

Canton City Schools called for a special meeting to unveil this plan before having conversations with community leaders. 

If our opinions or concerns were truly relevant to your plans you would have consulted us prior to scheduling the special meeting. 

I do not disagree with the concept that Canton may very well only need one high school however your disregard for the turmoil this will create in the community is unacceptable. 

Canton City School Board and yourself have laid out a plan for the future and neglected to include the residents, and taxpayers of the district.

I have believed for years that our school district has lost all concern for our neighborhoods in the city. 

Now the school district is going one step further by:

• stripping the identity from the elementary schools and junior high schools. 
• One mascot, same school colors, 
• the loss of neighborhood schools, 
• vacant schools, and 
• children being bused out of their neighborhoods 

are examples of a lack of concern for our neighborhoods and is proving to be detrimental to Canton.

The merge[r] of the high schools maybe the only alternative based on our population and limited resources. 

My issue with this is the lack of communication between the district and the community. 

This is going to be a heated debate between Timken supporters and McKinley supporters which is going to divide our city. 

You took it upon yourself to exclude many elected officials, community leaders and the general public in coming up with this plan. 

If you would have made an attempt to gain public support prior to unveiling this plan my attitude would be different. 

I am not speaking for my colleagues on Canton City Council on this issue as I am sure we will all view this differently. I am expressing my concerns as taxpayer, parent and ward councilm[a]n. 

You didn't ask for my input before you went public so don't ask for it now.

Respectfully,
Frank Morris
Ward 9 Councilmen

Morris (completing - this year - his second two year term) is:

• a Perry High School graduate
• a Democrat who represents Ward 9, and
• majority leader of council, and a member of the:
• Rules Committee (Chairman), 
• Parks & Recreation Committee
• Community & Economic Development Committee
• Public Property Capital Improvement Committee 
• Judiciary Committee

A most disturbing implication of Phase III of the CCS Brighter Tomorrow Phase III is that Canton's long term decline is projected to continue in terms of population base and a concomitant reduced student population thereby, for financial reasons, necessitating the shrinkage of the CCS school complex.

Phase III is, the SCPR thinks, a sort of a "in your face" (i.e. "Here is reality folks!") to Canton's political/government leadership and "a vote of no confidence" that they are going to be able to turn Canton around in the immediate near future.

This apparent reality is a tough "pill to swallow" in particular for members of Canton City Council in view of the struggle they are "up to the necks in" as they search for ways and means to stop the bleeding (e.g. $300,000 plus to the Canton Citywide Comprehensive Plan, $5 million to the Hall of Fame Village project, loan/TIF for the Onesto project, 12th Street corridor project, Mahoning Road corridor project et cetera) and ultimately restore Canton to a pathway of health and growth.

The SCPR thinks that Morris is correct in saying that Canton with the selling of Phase III of Brighter Tomorrow, there is going to be a new doses of turmoil in Canton political and government circles.

It does seem that the CCS BOE is on an island by itself and is not communicating with Canton's political leadership effectively.

Morris is right to make an issue of the failure of communication, coordination and inclusion.

The question is whether or not the superintendent and the BOE members have the skills to adjust and correct the glaring error they have stumbled and bumbled into.