Know Knothings Win on “Synecdoche”

The Know Knothings spelling team representing the Heights High Parent Connection Council won the 18th Annual Reaching Heights Adult Community Spelling Bee held April 23, appropriately at Heights High.

Click here for complete round-by-round results.

Veteran spellers Anne Kugler, Fran Lissemore, and Jim Wright outspelled the Thomson Hine team of Tom Aldrich (a 16-time speller) and Kevin Murphy.

The two teams, the only contestants left in the Bee after six rounds, battled through three more rounds. The Know Knothings misspelled oppugn (a verb meaning to challenge the accuracy, proriety, probity or other quality of), and laloplegia (paralysis of the muscles involved in speech), before correctly spelling synecdoche (a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole or vice versa). Thomson Hine missed on trichinosis (infestation with or disease caused by certain nematode worms contracted by eating raw or undercooked food and especially pork), vorago (an engulfing chasm or abyss), and finally porraceous (having a clear light green color of leek leaves).

Twenty-four teams participated in the Bee, which raises money for the Reaching Heights School Team Grant program. Grants provide crucial seed money to help teachers in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights public schools bring greater creativity and innovation into our classrooms.

Reaching Heights presented its annual Friend of Public Education Award to John Carroll University in recognition of its work with the Gearity Professional Development School, as as a major partner in the Many Villages academic tutoring program. History professor and Associate Academic Vice President James Krukones accepted the award on behalf of the university.

Reaching Heights is grateful to Bee judges interim CH-UH Superintendant Christine Fowler-Mack, Cleveland Heights Municipal Court Judge Deane Buchanan, Heights Library Director Nancy Levin and artist and community activist Christie Borkan. Big Fun impressario Steve Presser served as Master of Ceremonies, and Notre Dame College Associate Professor Tony Zupancic was the Bee pronouncer. The Bee will be back for its 19th edition in 2010.

New Twist on an Ancient Art

Oral story telling–the most ancient of techniques–is being reinterpreted by 2nd graders at Oxford Elementary School as they use 21st century technologies to create digital stories. Read more in the Oxford Outlook, one of 7 Neighborhood Newsletters from Reaching Heights.

Strickland’s Plan for Education Funding

The League of Women Voters of Ohio offers the following look at Governor Ted Strickland’s plan to reform Ohio’s education system:

Governor Ted Strickland’s proposed fiscal year 2010-11 budget includes an education reform plan to modernize Ohio’s education system to ensure that students learn the skills to be successful in the 21st century. Governor Strickland says the plan creates a constitutional school funding system that will adequately support Ohio’s schools when fully implemented.

The plan proposes a new Ohio Evidence Based Model (referred to as OEBM or EBM), to determine state aid. When the plan is fully implemented in 8-10 years, the state’s contribution to fund schools will increase from the current level of 52 percent to 59 percent. The plan also increases accountability and transparency through a variety of new reporting requirements and oversight by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE).

Governor Strickland and his administration have developed this evidence-based model over the past year with input from business, education, and community stakeholder groups, and from citizens. The Governor hosted a series of community-based “Conversations on Education” from July through December 2008 to listen to ideas from the public about how to create and fund a world class and relevant education system for all Ohio students in the 21st Century.

Governor Strickland’s proposed plan completely changes the current school funding system, which is now based on a “foundation level” of per pupil support (base cost per pupil). The new “evidence-based” system provides state aid based on ratios for classroom teachers; art, music, and PE teachers; administrators; nurses; media services; counselors; etc. Funding is also included to support students with special needs, those who have limited English proficiency, and instruction for gifted students. A targeted poverty index and Instructional Quality Index are included to compensate for the effects of poverty on student learning, and provide support for highly qualified teachers.

The plan also lowers the charge-off (local share of education costs) from 23 mills to 20 mills. It allows school districts that are not at the 20 mill floor to convert millage to the 20 mill floor with voter approval, so that districts can experience growth on 20 mills when property values increase. Any millage that remains above the 20 mill floor will be converted into mills that operate like emergency levies. These changes, according to the Governor, address the impact of HB 920 on school district budgets.

The proposed budget is expected to increase funding for primary and secondary education by 4.7 percent in FY10 and 4 percent in FY11, for a total increase of $925 million for education over current funding levels.

The Governor’s plan will be clarified further through the language of the budget legislation, which is expected to be introduced in the Ohio House over the next few weeks.
by Joan Platz, Education Lobbyist, League of Women Voters of Ohio

For more information please visit the OBM’s web site, which includes a number of documents that describe the Governor’s proposed education plan. http://obm.ohio.gov/SectionPages/Budget/FY1011/ExecutiveBudget.aspx.