THE MESSAGE TO ADRIAN ALLISON? SLOW DOWN ON McKINLEY TAKEOVER OF TIMKEN?

VIDEOS

CANTON CITY SCHOOLS
AT
JANUARY 20, 2015
COMMUNITY LEADERS FORUM

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LEADER INPUT WITH ALLISON’S RESPONSE

COUNCILMAN KEVIN FISHER

DR. ADRIENNE O’NEILL

ATTORNEY GUST CALLAS

TAGGART’S ERNIE SCHOTT

COUNCILMAN RICHARD HART

MALONE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT DAVID KING

It is appearing more and more that Canton City Schools (CCS) superintendent Adrian Allison has a hearing public.

The predominant message that The Stark County Political Report is hearing from stakeholders is that the "acquisition" (community activist/former board member Eric Resnick's word) by school officials/a majority of board members of the Canton City Schools' Timken High School to be totally absorbed in the more highly renowned and titled McKinley High School.

A week ago yesterday, Allison invited what he terms as being community leaders to a breakfast meeting (muffins and coffee) at the McIllwain Center located at the schools' administrative complex on - where else - (only kidding) 305 McKinley Avenue.

Last week the SCPR focused on the major dissident to seeming "fast track" that the administration and school board have embarked upon in "merging" (if one opts for Allison's descriptive term rather than Resnick's pejorative one) Timken and McKinley into one secondary school.

(Video LINK to Resnick/Allison tete-a-tete; also SCPR blog LINK commenting thereon)

Most of those present (The Report's take) supported Allison's/the board's timeframe.  But not all.  And Resnick was not the only "cautioning voice."

The major question now is whether or not Superintendent Allison will pause to listen even if it means postponing the scheduled February 25 meeting which as of now is supposed to be "the drop dead date" on  CCS Board of Education voting "yes" or "no" on what is formally known as Phase III of the school systems "Brighter Tomorrow Plan."

Here is an indicative e-mail that the SCPR received about a perceived need "to slow down the process," to wit:

Interesting enough, the e-mail is from a McKinley alum.

And noted in the above e-mail there is an allegation of politics being played.  Undoubtedly, there are many Cantonians who buy into "this is politics as usual" scenario.

Moreover, there is the Hall of Fame Village (adjacent to the formerly name "Fawcett Stadium/McKinley High School) project thing.

The SCPR was present with camera in hand on January 20 when Allison made his presentation to about 40, more or less, community leaders.

The Report starts its "video-run-through" with the Hall of Fame issue.

To the SCPR, the most disturbing thing about Allison's presentation of Phase III was his outright dismissiveness of the signifIcance of the Hall of Fame project and an apparent disinterest (or, at least, a low priority) by Allison and the BOE about the effect that shutting down of Timken will have on efforts of Canton and Stark County leaders to revive downtown Canton.

Here is Allison had to say about any coordination between the CCS and the HOF Village project.  In a word:  "none."  Which, the SCPR thinks, should be alarming to all.



The SCPR wholeheartedly agrees, though, with Greater Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce president Denny Saunier's word of admonition on the schools connecting to Greater Canton concerns on a nexus with the the HOF complex and a continuing presence in downtown Canton, to wit:



From this point on The Report's video track starts at the beginning of Allison's presentation.

In Part I Allison's focus is on four factors in implementing Phase III of the Brighter Tomorrow plan:

• efficiency,
• necessity,
• cutural, and the
• law

The one which is causing the big fight between the administration and the BOE is the "cultural" factor.

In the Resnick blog, one gets a full dose of this fight from the Timken perspective.

It appears to the SCPR that most of the community leaders assembled on January 20th at the McIllwain Center were pro-merger community leader supporters.

Later on in this blog will focus on the community leader feedback - leader by leader, except for Resnick who has already had "his day in the sun" of a SCPR blog - with video footage of their respective comments.

Of course, The Report has already presented Canton Chamber of Commerce CEO Denny Sanuier's reaction/input above.

That reaction was, the SCPR believes, prompted by Allison's discouraging comments about CCS's lack of liaison with the HOF Village project.

Here is Part I:



And Part II:



And Part III:



Finally, Part IV - Phase III Decision Timeline



The important part of the presentation and the one which should have taken up most of the superintendent's time and attention was the reaction of the community leaders who made the early morning (7:30 a.m.) trip to the CCS McIllwain Center.

Considering the schedules that community leaders have to meet, he correctly allocated one hour for the session.

However, he took way too long for his presentation.

Accordingly, the SCPR thinks that he and board members present (Brahler, Rinaldi, Milligan and Ross-Freedom) were denied the opportunity to hear a spontaneous exchange between the community leaders present and Allison.

In this section of today's blog, the SCPR honors the community leader participants in creating a separate video for each and every one of them in their back and forth with Superintendent Allison.

KEVIN FISHER

• Ward 5 councilman
• talks about brand name value of McKinley

(Canton City Council, Ward 5)



DR. ADRIENNE O'NEILL

• Long time Stark County Educational Partnership president
• keep a competive factor in play
• maintain presence in downtown Canton

GUST CALLAS

• Repository "intellectually dishonest" on Phase III timeline matter,

ERNIE SCHOTT

• the owner of Taggarts Ice Cream Parlor and Kennedy Barbecue.
• commends CCS BOE for effort to save taxpayers money

RICHARD HART

• Canton councilman at large,
• questions on cost to CCS on home schooling and charter schools

DAVID KING

• president of Malone University,
• keep the focus on the students

There is no doubt that the Timken/McKinley merger is a hot topic that has the potential to create yet another division in Canton.

The Hall of Fame city has all too many ruptures in relationships that have materialized over the decades of Canton's continuing decline.

The Report has the sense that the CCS BOE and Superintendent Allison are not effectively managing the implementation of the Brighter Tomorrow concept.

They need to step back, regroup and take whatever time is needed to ensure that all stakeholders in the reorganizing and restructuring of Canton's schools is bought into by the vast majority of Cantonians.

If they rush "pell mell" forward and the "rush to judgment" is just that, Canton may be set back even further than it is on getting things going in the right direction.

RESNICK INJECTS "ANIMOSITY" INTO CANTON COMMUNITY LEADERS MEETING?

The Stark County Political Report is not quite sure how former Canton City Schools board member Eric Resnick got on yesterday's invitation list sent to community leaders.

But he did.

For media, Resnick being present at any public meeting is like "manna from Heaven."

For Canton City Schools (CCS) Superintendent Adrian Allison, it had to be "a time that tries men's souls."

Allison made a presentation yesterday to some 40 or so Canton-based or interested persons singled out by te superintendent as being community leaders.

After the presentation, Allison opened up the session into a Q&A which most of us is a Question & Answer time.

But with respect to former CCS board member Eric Resnick's participation, it might be more fitting to think of his and Allison's segment as being a Question & Animosity time.

As readers of this blog know, the SCPR is sympathetic to citizens who actively participate in public meetings.

However there are a few that even the SCPR find hard to abide.

Resnick is one and there is another one who hangs out in Massillon official circles.

One characteristic of folks like Resnick and the Massillon guy, the SCPR thinks, is that they are "my way or the highway" people and therefore The Report deeply discounts their input when it comes to assessing the value of their public arena participation.

The Report's take on Resnick is that he lives in a world of his own defining and if one does not share that definition you are just flat out wrong.

The Report sees Resnick as a doctrinaire type (way left of center politics) who seemingly cannot image in his wildest dreams that anybody might see things differently than he does.

The SCPR has been acquainted with Eric Resnick for about ten years or so.

And he has been a subject of a half a dozen blogs since this blog got started in March, 2008.

Yesterday, Resnick, at the aforementioned meeting, made a rather sobering suggestion to the effect that the CCS Board of Education may have violated Ohio's Sunshine Law (i.e. decisions can only be "open to the public" meetings) in coming to a decision to "merge" Timken High School into McKinley High School.

To boot, Resnick took issue with and scolded (as arrogant types are apt to do) the media for using "merger" rather than "acquisition" in writing about Canton City Schools' Brighter Tomorrow Phase III initiative which, again, is the phase that deals with the high schools being merged into one.

Below is the entire exchange between Resnick and Superintendent Allison.

Things to look for (not covered elsewhere in this blog) in Resnick's questions and comments: (SCPR's interpretation)

• Superintendent/BOE being hostile and disrespectful in the merger (if The Report may disagree with Mr. Resnick) of Timken with McKinley,
• Superintendent Allison was being deceptive (the SCPR's word/phrase; not Resnick's) on November 15, 2014 at a CCS BOE work session in which Resnick says Allison never mentioned the phase including a Timken/McKinley merger,

For the record, Resnick was corrected by prominent Canton attorney Gust Callas to the effect that "no, Eric, merge is the correct term. We at Black, McCuskey ... have 'merged' firms and the name after the 'merger' remains Black, McCuskey ... ."



Resnick has the potential to be an effective "hold them accountable" factor if he can rein-in his "my way or the highway" attitude.

Notwithstanding the SCPR's disenchantment with Resnick, he did raise a important point (the Sunshine Law thing) that board/school officials need to answer.

It is interesting to note however that Resnick did not mention yesterday the opinion of some that the CCS-BOE may have violated Ohio Sunshine Law in the appointment of a board member on June 14, 2010 when Resnick was a board member.

Maybe Resnick had misgivings about that process and the SCPR is having a run of bad luck in finding online documentation of same.

The Report is just a tad suspicious that the-then board member Resnick had nothing publicly to say about the June 14, 2010 appointment when it became a matter of controversy in September, 2010.

If he didn't, it does not invalidate his current Sunshine Law compliance concerns.

However, most of us expect that one who sounds off like Resnick did yesterday to have a track record of consistency.

Maybe he did object or express reservations about the 2010 appointment process back in 2010 and it is merely of case that the SCPR can't chase it down.

Credibility is everything to school boards and school officials and they need to respond to and, if need be, correct on this suggestion of legal impropriety.

But not the merger/acquisition language thing.

Resnick's oration on comparing/distinguishing the two words was just "old fashioned" silliness that apparently bespeaks Resnick's compelling need for everyone to speak as he does,  to do as he does; even if on the most inane of things.

It is a credit to Superintendent Allison and the CCS BOE that Resnick (who appears to be billing himself as the spokesperson for "Keep Timken - Timken" folks) was invited to the community leader breakfast (muffin and coffee) meeting.

But it is difficult for the SCPR to think of Eric Resnick as being a community leader.

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.