The Lucas Board of Education hosted a reception for Superintendent Dan Freund before wishing the best to outgoing board members and welcoming new members. They also discussed school crossing concerns posing a risk for young students.
A handful of Lucas residents attended the Tuesday night “Meet and Greet” for new Superintendent Dan Freund in the school library with desserts and lemonade. It gave Freund a chance to visit with parents and community members and talk about the upcoming year for the Lucas schools.
Freund stressed that the Lucas schools are facing a tough road ahead, as are all the schools in Ohio.
“Our biggest challenge is dealing with the teacher evaluation system, Common Core curriculum, and the testing the kids have to encounter,” explained Freund. “It’s a huge challenge to deal with it in such a way that we don’t just become a school of testing. We want to be able to have our staff members really see a child and not just a name on a grade book or a statistic on a data report.” He said this will be the ultimate task for teachers during the coming years.
“You’d like to be able to control some of your own destiny and your plan, but the plan is happening for us,” explained Freund of the Common Core curriculum.
As for what Freund has found different or surprising in Lucas so far, he noted that he’s been quite impressed with the senior citizen community in Lucas.
“They are a very active group and that’s been a pleasant surprise. I had no idea there were 30-40 people really in tune to the community and the kids.”
The regular board meeting followed Tuesday night’s “Meet and Greet.” The meeting was the last for board members Deana Vail and Tom McFarland. Each received a gift of a representative school bell and plaque for their service to Lucas schools.
Incoming board members John Parman and Melanie Kline-Switzer were in the audience in preparation of the organizational meeting on Jan. 7.
One topic not on the agenda was a concern that some parents are dropping their children off at school on the opposite side of the street from the school. The children walk across traffic to school.
Some near-misses have been reported of children crossing and nearly being hit by cars going the other way. It was suggested that any board member or teacher who sees this happening should immediately try to get the attention of the driver and warn them of the danger.
Anyone dropping off a child should pull up and through the parking loop for a safe drop-off immediately in front of the school buildings. If issue continues, there was discussion of having a sheriff patrol car on scene during these drop-off hours to warn and possibly ticket drivers.
Board President Roger Maglott noted that possible charges could include Child Endangerment. Council member Deana Vail recommended sending a note home with students reminding parents to use common sense and not have children cross traffic.
Also in the meeting, Freund reported that he received the elementary schools results on the third grade state OAA (Ohio Achievement Assessment) reading test.
“Our kids scored 78.4 percent which is pretty remarkable. The high score was Shelby with a 92 percent and Lexington had an 83 percent. We were far above other schools in the county,” explained Freund.
“This is the year that we’re supposed to retain kids in third grade who haven’t passed that test,” Freund told board members. “It’s going to be interesting to see what the state does with this. The pass rate in the state was 56 percent, which means about one-third of the kids in the state won’t pass that test at the end of this year.”
Freund feels there will be some kick-back statewide when so many third graders could be held back because of these test results.
“Its poor policy,” said Freund. “We want our kids to read, but to put that kind of anxiety and stress on an eight-year-old…the ramifications and consequences haven’t been addressed yet…”
“We want to be able to have our staff members really see a child and not just a name on a grade book or a statistic on a data report,” stated Lucas Superintendent Dan Freund.
