Ontario faculty and board members as well as the public, discussed the new Ohio’s Teacher Evaluation System and new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at the Ontario Board of Education meeting on Tuesday evening.
Director of Operations Curt McVicker opened the discussion with a presentation about the new teacher evaluation system. McVicker explained this evaluation system assesses teachers’ performance based on informal and formal observations (50 percent) along with student growth measures (50 percent).
Ontario Schools piloted this new evaluation system for the 2012-2013 school year. McVicker noted that the system will be implemented for the upcoming school year.
Superintendent Lisa Carmichael added to the presentation and mentioned that it took principals anywhere from 9 – 11 hours to evaluate one teacher. “It’s very time-consuming,” she said. “So that’s something we’ll have to look at, especially at Stingel Elementary, which has 60 teachers.”
McVicker suggested that the new evaluation system encourages a lot of communication among the faculty because of the mandated district-wide department meetings that would be held.
In relation to the piloted department meetings, he stated, “We had a group of teachers talking about content, what they instruct, how they instruct, and when I started to see and hear the collaboration and the working toward consistency, that was the biggest thing I got out of the meeting—it wasn’t so much the standards, it was the conversation.”
Board member Mary Bennet agreed that the collaborative aspect that is gained from the meetings is invaluable.
McVicker said that the Ohio Department of Education recommended that Ontario Schools begin the transition to the CCSS during the 2011 school year and begin full implementation of those standards and teacher evaluation system by the 2014-2015 school year.
Board member, Sam VanCura, was absent from the meetings; however, he addressed the issue of the CCSS in a letter to the board and stated, “I am adamantly opposed to the Common Core and opposed to continue loss of control for the Board of Education. We need to make our own decisions. I question the standards and believe we need some serious debate.”
The board then welcomed public participation and the hot topic of the CCSS continued when Regina Theisen, 11th grade English teacher at Ontario, addressed the issue. She stated that she was part of pilot program and that she felt very removed from teaching actual content and from her students.
She added, “That student growth measurement looks very different when you’re a teacher. If a student refuses to participate, to get them to grow is extremely difficult. Fifty percent of teacher evaluation relies on students who refuse to participate.”
Member of the public, Marianne Gasiecki, also discussed CCSS. She stated, “We’re going to have teachers who are no longer inspired because they’re told they can teach only a certain thing. They will be facilitators.”
She added that CCSS is a complete “dumbing-down” of the children. “Everyone is going to be learning the same thing at a low level. If our own legislators have taken the time to research this and say this is not good, that should be the first warning sign.”
In other news at the meeting, Veronica Cain, former substance abuse coordinator, was hired as new high school guidance counselor. Carmichael explained that Cain she worked with Sharon McCormick, former high school guidance counselor, last year to learn all of her new duties and responsibilities.
Taylor Stichter was also hired as a fifth grade teacher at Stingel Elementary.
The Board is also looking to have a special meeting to discuss a new school bus routing software called Transfinder. With this new software, the district will have new bus routes. Carmichael mentioned that with its first run-through, the program shortened some of the routes. Because of this, personnel will be affected. She stated that one bus driver’s position, possibly two, will be cut.
