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

(VIDEO) IT IS WISE FOR CANTON CITY SCHOOLS TO BEGIN BUILDING TRUST. THE APPOINTMENT OF BOARD MEMBER WILBUR ALLEN, III RAISING QUESTIONS OF WHETHER OR NOT BOARD VIOLATED OHIO'S SUNSHINE LAW.

On September 8th, the SCPR wrote that the appointment of new board of education member Wilbur Allen, III may be the harbinger of a political takeover of the Canton City Schools by Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II.

The Report's read of the line-up on the Canton BOE is that Members Nadine McIllwain (the president), Eric Resnick and the new appointee Allen are all Mayor Healy allies and that they may be working with him to effect a de facto take over of the Canton schools by Healy.

The mayor of Cleveland has de jure control of the Cleveland schools specially authorized by the Ohio General Assembly.

The Report hears that Healy also wants to take over the Canton Recreation Board and its finances.

A group of Cantonians is investigating the procedures/communications employed by the Canton BOE in bringing Allen onto the board.  Their focus is on the board president Nadine McIllwain, and they are saying that:  "It is clear that there was communication between McIlwain and Allen."

The Repository has reported the following of Allen's account of the matter:

“I wanted to be considered,” Allen said in a recent interview regarding his school board appointment. “I wasn’t given any assurances. There was a process, and that is all that I knew. When I found out was when (the board) voted. Up until that time, I did not know, and I was not told.”

And although Allen, who hadn’t regularly attended board meetings, showed up June 14 with his family in tow, he said he had no idea he was about to be named to the board.

  Moreover, here is a copy of an e-mail sent by President McIllwain to Allen:

From: Nadine McIlwain <retired6105@sbcglobal.net>

To: "Wilbur Allen, III" <wallen@allsaintstemple.org>

Cc: John Spitzer <john.h.spitzer@gmail.com>

Sent: Sun, June 13, 2010 12:42:40 PM

Subject: Fw: Re: peace of mind needed

Wilbur, I suggest that you resign from the Coming Together Board effective immediately. You can send an email to Rabbi dated June 13.

Thank you so much.

The mission of Coming Together Stark County is to serve as a catalyst and agent to promote inclusion and open opportunity for the diverse population of Stark County.

Nadine McIlwain-Massey
Executive Director
Coming Together Stark County
GOODWILL BUILDING CAMPUS

408 9th Street S. W. Suite 215

Canton, OH 44707

ph: 330 454-5880 fax: 330 454-9465 alt: 330 705-6366

nmcilwain-massey@comingtogetherstarkcounty.com

www.comingtogetherstarkcounty.com

Allen was selected for the board on June 14th.

Here is an interesting note about the above e-mail provided by the investigating group:

Mr. Olson,

Below you will find an email exchange that was obtained by our group thru a public records request to the Canton City Schools Board of Education Mamber Nadine McIlwain. Our concerns are growing as this email was excluded from our first public records request which we forwarded on to you some time ago. Omitting this email is clearly against Ohio Public Records Law and is a major concern of ours.

The Repository has editorialized (Board needs to correct mistake, September 7th) that the Canton City Schools Board of Education needs to re-interview the candidates and select anew, to wit:

The operative word is "public," and the board's unadvertised June 10 interviews were illegal. Its best course is to re-interview all of the candidates in public, then take a new vote, after announcing in advance that it will do so.

The board also needs to look at whether any votes have been taken since Rev. Allen joined the board that would have been different without his vote.

On Saturday, yours truly attended a work-study session of the CCS BOE and on the way into the meeting asked member Richard Milligan whether or not the board was going to address the matter of Allen's appointment.  He said the board was not.

Like many boards of education, it appears that that the CCS BOE has sewn seeds of distrust with the manner in which this appointment was handled.  Combine this event with other disatisfactions with the board and administration on the part of constituents of the district and the distrust is likely manifold.

Apparently, the board knows it has a trust problem.

On Saturday last, at the work-study session the board had Corky O'Callahan from the Santa Rita Collaborative in.  As seen in the video below, O'Callahan specializes in engaging school boards with their constituent communities in order to rebuild lost trust.

While the Canton City schools are not in immediate financial jeopardy, it appears they will be sometime in 2013.

So the with Cantonians questioning the procedures applied in the Allen appointment coupled with other public grievances accumulating over the years, it is indeed wise for the CC BOE to get moving on rebuilding trust.  2013 is over two years away, but rebuilding trust, once lost, is a long-term process.

Just ask the folks in the Northwest School District (Canal Fulton, New Franklin, North Lawrence and Lawrence Township).  Northwest could not pass a levy to save their educational lives for about a period of ten years because of squandered trust by previous boards of education.

The SCPR pauses here to recognize Northwest superintendent William Stetler for conceiving of and masterminding the "apparent recovery" of Northwest trust in an unprecedently short period of time using the O'Callahan formula.  It was a miracle!

But how often do miracles happen?

It appears that the CC BOE is ready to adopt the Northwest approach (Plain schools also used the O'Callahan approach).  They had better get cracking on trust rehab real soon.  And they better hope that the Canton schools do not have any additional major mistakes (the handling of the James Irwin matter) in the schools (i.e. the board, the administration and staff) relationship with the voting public.

And the good Lord knows, political meddling (if in process) by Mayor Healy, II will only exacerbate existing problems.

Here is a video featuring Canton City Schools Treasurer Jeffrey Gruber and Mr. O'Callahan.

IS MAYOR WILLIAM J. HEALY, II LURKING IN THE BACKGROUND WORKING HIS WILL WITH THE CANTON CITY SCHOOLS?

The Stark County Political Report believes something "political" is going on with the Canton City Schools in the context of at least some members of the school board. 

And if there is a school district in Stark County that needs to be especially diligent to keep politics out of its decision making, it clearly is the Canton City Schools.

The district as evidenced by its current performance report done by the Ohio Department of Education (see below) is struggling big time.

Yesterday, Melissa Griffy Seeton of The Canton Repository dropped a bombshell.  In Canton City Schools Board Vote in Question, Griffy Seeton describes the failure of school board officials to notify the general public (as required by Ohio's Open Meetings law) of a board meeting held on June 10, 2010.

The June 10th meeting was to interview candidates to replace the outgoing James Carman, Jr. who has moved out of the Canton City district.

Griffy Seeton reports that the successful candidate (Wilbur Allen, III) coming out of the - perhaps - "illegal" June 10th board meeting, is an employee of the Canton mayor's office.

Hmm?

So the question becomes:  why the notice problems with the meeting?

Griffy Seeton reported that Board President Nadine McIllwain said:

“It was my understanding that the board did not have to have a public meeting for the interviewing of candidates.  My impression was that it was exempt.”

Sounds to The Report like McIllwain was looking for justification for not having a public meeting.  Public officials should be looking in the other direction.  A decision not to notice the public when elected officials assemble should be based on something stronger than an impression.

 "My impression was that it [the meeting] was exempt" [from the notice requirement].

Impression from whom?  Names please, Ms. McIllwain?

A source tells the SCPR that McIllwain is aligned with board members Eric Resnick, and now Allen (connected to McIllwain at Coming Together) as political allies with Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II.

Hmm?  Allen:  a Mayor Healy (Canton city administration) employee? Resnick: whom The Report also knows to be a Healy ally.  McIllwain:  whom the source says is a Healy supporter.

Interesting connections, no?

A Mayor Healy connection always merits further scrutiny.

What does a mulling over the connections suggest?

The SCPR suspects that Mayor William J. Healy, II is working behind the scenes to gain de facto control of the Canton City Schools. 

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is under the control of Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson.  And we all know what pathetic shape the Cleveland schools are in.

The website describes the relationship between Mayor Jackson and the Cleveland schools as being:

Cleveland’s current school governance structure was created by Ohio House Bill 269 in 1997, and took effect September 9, 1998.  The Board of Education is made up of nine voting members appointed by the Mayor of Cleveland from a slate of nominees selected by a local nominating panel, established under State law.   At least four of the nine members must have significant expertise in either education, finance, or business management.  Board members must be residents of the School District, and at least one of the nine members must reside in that part of the School District that is outside the City of Cleveland (Bratenahl, Linndale, Newburgh Heights, and parts of Brook Park and Garfield Heights). 

State law also provides that the presidents of Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College serve as nonvoting ex officio members of the Board.

Why would Healy aspire to gain de facto control of the Canton schools?

The Report's analysis:

Could be for one or or a combo of several reasons.  One could be to divert attention away from the huge problems with Canton government finances as he has to stand for re-election next year.  Another might be to satisfy his huge ego ("Gee, if Mayor Jackson controls Cleveland's schools, why aren't I in charge of Canton schools")  Or, maybe he genuinely thinks he can help drag the Canton schools out of the educational doldrums.


Could it be that this meeting-noticing snafu is the beginning of a revelation that Mayor Healy is a man behind the curtain a la the Wizard of Oz?

Does anyone believe Allen's tale that he showed up at the June 14th meeting with his family unaware that he was going to be appointed to the board?

And there is the account of applicant William Smith (in an interview with The Report) that he was vanished from consideration merely because he could not attend notwithstanding that the board knew that Smith had a three month standing family obligation to attend to.

The SCPR believes that one thing readers might garner from Griffy Seeton's account is that the "fumbling, bumbling" was tied to some kind of sensitivity of somebody (if not, somebodies) in the mix.

Now the question is getting to the bottom of the real story.

It seems to the SCPR that there has to be more to the notice debacle than appears on the surface.  And Healy taking control via proxies of the Canton City Schools may well be the answer.

The SCPR has long contended that Mayor Healy is a calculating, manipulative politico who cares more about his political status and future than the well being of government and the public confidence and trust in government processes.

If the SCPR is correct in surmising that Healy is a Wizard behind the curtain of of the Canton City Board of Education action in appointing Allen;  such should be a surprise to no one!

SCPR "ELECTION 2009 SERIES" (VOL 26): GROSS OVER McILLWAIN FOR CANTON CITY SCHOOLS SCHOOL BOARD (FULL TERM)

Nadine McIllwain has been on the Canton City Schools Board of Education for eight years.  Under her watch (recognizing she is one of five board members), McIlwain et al  have been effective stewards of the school system.

Next year Canton schools face a $3 million plus deficit.

Who is responsible?

Even in the face of tough economic times and continuing state of Ohio funding cuts, the SCPR ascribes a large part of the blame on the lack of foresight and choices that sitting board members have made; especially those who have been around awhile (e.g. Nadine McIllwain).

Canton voters should be looking for candidates who understand the long term ramifications of their choices as board members and put them in office.

It appears that Tim Gross, who is running against McIllwain, may well be such a candidate.

Take a look at the video below which features McIllwain who appeared at the NAVE (Canton's neighborhood consortium) candidates night held in early October.  Gross could not make the candidates night, but did answer a SCPR questionnaire.  The essence of his answers are featured over his picture in a Q&A format.