It appears that my postings here have been doing what I intended them to do. They have brought out emotions, they have brought opposing opinions they have gotten people to begin to post to agree with me, oppose me and hate me. However all most posts have nothing to do with me but how we educate the children of our community. My sole intention is to get more people involved and bring our education system into the digital age. If I step on anyone's toes it may or may not be intentional. I am seeking responses whether they are good or bad. It would be ideal if people focused on the subject at hand, but there are some out there who show their ignorance by chastising me rather than arguing the concept of the post. I too have been guilty in my response to them for doing the same thing and I apologize for that. I am not taking back what I said, but I am apologizing for it just the same.

I do a lot of reading and research so at times it makes it hard for me to tell when I am long winded for most of the things I read stretch on for pages and pages at a time and I don't tend to think they are long. Actually most posts compared to those are quite short.

This is most likely going to be a long opinion in this section so those of you who do not like to read long posts should move on to another opinion in this forum. I know I have a tendency to write long drawn out posts but I must say don't blame me, blame my English teachers in High School and College that always told me the essay was too short. They also told me to explain myself thoroughly when the opportunity presents itself. So here goes!

Another levy is going to be on the ballot in May and we should all think hard on this "new" levy they are going to present. It should be well defined and not generalized on what this levy is going to be used for. We need the breakdown on every area it will be spent.

From one perspective, one would say we are in a forward progression in a high quality education for our children and I would say that there is some truth to that. However, which perspective will do us the most good and which one will lead us to a more economic method of educating children but reimburse the educator fairly for their efforts?

Since the inception of this state testing we have progressed up to the point to where two of our buildings have achieved the excellent rating and I have to admit the training and education they receive at Wait is a major contributor to the Excellent achievement at Campus. The students receive and excellent foundation from Wait and they should be commended for their work just as much as Campus receiving the Excellent rating.

This state testing has been going on for over 15 years now and we are still struggling to get over that last hurdle which is to lead us down that path of Excellence with Distinction.

At what cost?

The method they use to teach our children has been around for over 50 years. As they have followed this methodology of teaching and it's guidelines, we have discovered that modifications in this concept had to be made. But is the path they have taken with these modifications taken us in leaps and bounds to a higher quality education and how is it that we score this higher quality education. How can one really tell if our children are receiving that education? Do we have to accept their word for it? How do we rate it? How do we really test for it?

I don't believe the state testing gives us the answer. I don't think making children memorize the answers to the State test questions is giving them a high quality education. You know they do this for they have the children practice the test throughout the year and award them for high scores and marks in Study Island. If you look closely at Study Island what appears is a program that doesn't teach but guides you in knowing the answers to questions. When you get them right or a level finished, you get to play a game. A lame game, but a game nonetheless. I pity the parent or teacher that thinks those games are cool (and secretly laughing at them for even thinking so. Anyone impressed with those game are really showing how little computer experience they have).

Now to test whether or not your children are receiving a high quality education is not based on the testing the State gives, it is not teaching the children how to take the test, do you know what really gives us the answer?

What tells us how high of a quality of an education our children is the past. Not the present, not the future but the past.

The best way to tell is to look at the percentage of students that have gone on to college in our district. It doesn't stop there. We then look at the percentage of those students who have actually graduated college and then the percentage of those that landed a high salary career with that education.

If these numbers are high across the whole board, then we are excelling at providing a high quality education. If the numbers are low and progressively drop then we have not provided a high quality education and we have failed instilling the desire for a higher education. The proof is in the end product. The end product is the college graduate. The state should base our success on the number of students we have that graduate college. That is where the real success is gauged. If a student is really learning and the teacher has instilled in the student the desire to learn, and if we provide them with the materials and tools they need to accomplish this, then you are truly giving a child a quality education.

The number of students who have gone on to professional careers (even if it's political, just kidding), indicates our success. Our goal is to get 90% or more of the students who attend our school district to go on and graduate from college. If we do that, then I would consider us a successful district. Heck if we can get 60% of our high school graduates to graduate from college I would consider our district successful. The way we teach now I believe is incapable of achieving those kind of results. We are spending so much on Salaries and Benefits that we will never be able to provide the materials, technology or tools to make that happen.

Some believe it would be better to pass a levy to accommodate the inadequacies of the Board and Administration rather than make them reform and change the way we teach.

Now we have Charter schools, Private schools and Public schools. Do the students who attend Charter and Private schools have the same education that Public schools students have? Do they have better teachers? What is their advantage over public schools? Does more pay for the staff and administration mean our students will receive a better education?

I don't think so. Sure a quality teacher will be a better educator. But if you don't provide the tools, materials, technology and safe environment, the quality teacher will not have the opportunity to BE the quality teacher.

Now we take a teacher who has been trained and educated to teach students based on a philosophy and curriculum that was outlined over 50 years ago. That is how we are told to teach children in a public school. Charter schools and Private schools don't necessarily follow this method.

So, we are taking children who know how to manipulate games systems, computers, cell phones, MP3 players and Ipods, and we have them step back in time to learn the way our parents learned in the 50's. We have the students leave behind the technology they use whenever they are not in school and fall into a studious method which is way slower than their world outside of the classroom. Then we wonder why it is so difficult to reach our goals.

We look at the problem from so many different angles, we analyze it in so many different ways, we complicate the issue with so many studies that we have overlooked the simple, direct answer that makes our goal even more attainable. Change the way we teach to parallel our children's environment outside of the classroom. Incorporate their external world of computers, cell phones and other electronics into the curriculum. Why is the system fighting this? Why are they taking so long to come to this conclusion.

Now we have those who are over 60 who have their own personal computer. Those that have learned how to use it are marveled at this machines ability and how it brings a world of information to you within seconds. They get it. They get more than you can imagine. Some have done and will begin to do things they never thought was possible.

The younger generation, those say 35 and below have virtually grown up with a computer around the home. Those between 35 and 60 have their moments but don't seem to be into them as much as those below 35 and those over 60. I don't know why that is. I'm still trying to find an answer to that.

Now let's have those who use the computers to play games or do amazing work. Would you settle for a computer that is ten years older to do the same thing? Would you still have the same enthusiasm to play those games with a computer ten years older? Then why would believe the materials, tools and computers we have in our district are any different? Why would you believe they are even capable of educating our children today. Did you not upgrade to achieve better scores or game play?

Businesses have welcomed computers with open arms and their desire for them to do more with less is very strong. Computers have thrived in the real world and will continue to do so. Larger and greater storage capacities and access to information will grow exponentially over the next few years and it will be a great misfortune if we don't have the foundation to support this world in our public schools. The infrastructure we have now is but a stepping stone to what we will need to do in the future. Our current foundation can be modified and retrofitted to accommodate our needs but without the computing power in the hands of the students our mission is bound to be a failure.

Studies have shown that a smaller class provides a student with a higher quality education and produces a better student. Based on what? I don't think it is a higher quality education, I think it means that in order to teach our children and get them to learn the way we have been teaching for the past 50 years, you need a class size of 16 children or less in order to do it. Further proof that our obsolete and outdated method of teaching is costing us more and more each year and requiring the district seek funding from the community to keep it afloat. This is disturbing.

Now I believe that if you reformed the way we educate and heavily use computers to supplement the teacher's abilities, the need for 16 students in the classroom would no longer be required. You see, it is the way we are currently teaching that is causing us to reduce the class sizes. It is not because the teacher can't handle more students, it is because our children have become so adaptive to the outside world and all it's technology that having to attend school that uses little if any technology at all to teach makes it hard to learn. We are basically shielding them from the technology that helps them learn.

Now we have some students that need an accelerated method of teaching and there are those that think we are going way to fast. Now we have to make sure we teach fast enough not to lose those students and we have to make sure we don't teach to fast so we don't leave behind lose those who can't learn as fast. This is very difficult to do. We punish those who learn to fast and we punish those who learn to slow. If this is what we are doing, then how are we going to insure that all students have achieved a quality education? How can we be sure they have? The fact that the state will start having students take the ACT test rather than the OGT test will begin to show us one would think.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to teach every child at their own pace and achieve remarkable results? Would you want your child to have this chance to learn at their own pace and actually learn rather than just memorizing questions and practicing OAT tests?

Wouldn't it be great if the cost to teach this way only cost half of what it cost us to educate children now? Wouldn't it be great if we could reduce the burden that Salaries and Benefits have on our education system? Wouldn't that be ideal?

Now here is the paradox. As long as we continue to approve levies that will cover the cost of Salaries and Benefits, the cost to educate our children mushroom as the years go by because of salaries and benefits. This will insure us that the reform we need will never materialize because we will never have the funds. There is a breaking point that we will encounter (which we may already have with this economy), that will prohibit growth in educating our children.

There was a time when there were no school fees. There was a time when the parents didn't have to supply reams of paper, tissues and other items for their children. However, Salaries and Benefits have risen so much the parents have to foot that additional bill.

Businesses discovered near the end of the 80's and beginning of the 90's that computers would increase potential and profits and they all began to downsize and streamline their businesses to make them more efficient and more profitable. Why have we not done that in our schools? Why have we not followed the business example and applied that concept to education? Because the method we use to teach dictates to us that in order for us to teach based on a concept developed 50 years requires that we create small class sizes to make it work. In order to have small class sizes we have to hire more teachers. When we hire more teachers and make class sizes smaller, we run out of room. We have to start putting in trailers to accommodate the smaller class sizes. We then cry that we need bigger buildings with more classrooms that will require more electricity, heating, cooling, restrooms, teachers, administrators and the list goes on and on.

Now imagine if we introduce technology that allows us to create a larger class size (for we will no longer teach on the concepts developed 50 years ago), increase the students ability to learn, increase the speed in which we can deliver their education, make information and data easier to deliver, make the buildings more efficient, provide the teachers with better reporting and assessment of a students ability? Isn't that worth striving for and isn't that a goal we should be trying to achive?

As long as we provide the funds to keep going the way we have, we will be stifling our children's quality of education. We will limit their ability to be all that they can be.

Now there has been a drive by the district to build a new high school. Several years ago our School District and City Administration came together to discuss the future of our district. There may be a couple on the Board who remember this and there may be a couple on City Council who may remember this.

They discussed building a new high school and it was to be built where the Neff construction is currently going on south of the main intersection. I questioned as to what they would do with the old high school? I was informed that the building would be renovated. Huh?

I thought the building was on the verge of being condemned and unusable and that is why we needed a new building. It was hard for me to believe we were out of space for we had around 900 students in that building back in '68 and that is when the building was nearly half the size that it is today. If we aren't going to raise the building and just renovate it, why don't we just renovate it to accommodate the high school students? Student's learn and achieve many great things in schools that are practically rubble in other nations. Just because you build a new high school doesn't guarantee that the quality and scores are going to go up. This has been show to us by other districts that have built new high schools and their scores didn't go up. On the other hand, in our current building the students have achieved high enough scores to rate our students as Excellent. Even Ravenna did it in their old building. They aren't even in their new building yet.

To move students in the 60's and 70's, we used a double bell system that prevented us from feeling like sardines in the hallway.

Now they can't tell me the double bell system won't work for the new scheduling for the school district will require a bell to ring while students will be in class. Single 40 minute classes will change during the 83 minute classes.

Bringing technology to the individual student will allow us to increase class sizes which in turn will eliminate our need for the shabby trailers we are now teaching our students in. We need to get each student a district assigned computer that they can take home with them nightly and bring it back the next day. We need each student to have the same opportunity as the next. Students with their own individual computer have a far superior advantage over those students who don't have access to a personal computer. Many students have to share their computer with the family, which in turn greatly reduces the child's time to work with a computer.

We need to reform our method of teaching because if we stay the course we are on now, we will not be able to afford it. Our current method of funding can only go so far before it over taxes the community and forces people to move, which will then lower property values which will then reduce the amount of taxes collected which will then prompt another levy which will tax us more which will make more people leave which will lower property values again which will reduce the amount of money the district will receive again, which will prompt another levy and so on and so on and so on. Where does it stop? How do we kill this vicious cycle? It cannot go on and on. Levy 2003, levy 2005, levy 2007 are great examples. By the way, levy 2007 was to eliminate school fees for those from K-8 and reduce course fees. That never happened. Levy 2009 (failed), tried again 2010, and if they do modify the levy, and it passes, what next, levy 2012? Maybe a levy sooner because we have stayed the course that is obviously unaffordable and expensive?

Our current method of teaching is cost prohibitive and the gains we have received over this type of education since the introduction of state testing has shown that it is not very practical. It has finally reached the point to where it is basically cost prohibitive to continue on this way. We need our Board, Administration and Staff to recognize this and make the changes we drastically need to reduce the cost to educate a child.

We need our current school board and administration to begin to make some daring and adventurous decisions that will lead us into a technology driven education system. One which will inevitably be cost effective. They need to make this move now and they have to design this next levy to have this main focus and need. We need to stay the course of reducing staff and using the available funds this will generate to move our children into the age of technology in the classroom. Computers are not to replace the staff, they will just give us the ability to increase the class size and really deliver a quality education to our children.

We need to increase class size and reduce staff to for current funding to sustain our district during this recession and into the future. It is a radical idea but it is currently the most logical move. Our community has shown that they are unable (not unwilling), to afford a large or even a medium levy. Especially the ones that are continuous. It should be evident at this point that if the Administration and Board had placed a greater focus on reforming and changing the way we teach now over 2 years ago, we would not be in the predicament we are in now. We would most likely have a surplus of funds.

For those who were paying attention to the economy 4 years ago, what we are going through with the economy now, is not a surprise. It is a surprise to those who didn't pay attention or didn't care to pay attention, but there are many of us out there who saw it coming. You can go back to 2005 and find my postings on the Record Pub and see where I said it was coming. To say no one saw this coming is and just (I'm sorry about this), showing that you weren't paying attention to what was happening in our economy.

Maybe just maybe, the failure of the levy was the wake up call we all needed. Maybe it was destiny that it failed twice. Maybe the failure is telling the Board and Administration that it is time we take a hard look at what we are spending and make the proper and necessary cuts we need to go digital and reduce our costs.

Whether you want to believe it or not, education is a business. Their ability to educate and turn out a high quality student is no different than a business turning out a high quality product. If you can turn out a high quality product at a very low cost you win with high profits. If we turn out a high quality student at a very low cost, we as a nation will experience a great profit from this in Engineers, Doctors, regrettably Lawyers, and other highly qualified professionals. More students will seek ongoing education after high school. A plus for all.

Our Administration should not only have the ability to guide our staff in education but also have a business mind to find ways to reduce cost and make the funding we are currently providing work.

If you increase your workforce to large numbers, it forces you to look for cheaper resources to create an end product. Why? Because you need to for you need the profits to pay salaries and benefits. If you use cheaper resources (the districts lack of tools, materials and technology), then the quality of the product (educated student), suffers which in turn makes it more difficult to produce the end product. Frustrations will develop and it will appear to the educator that we really don't care if they have the tools, materials and technology to do their job well.

In the past 20 years, the greater companies out there owe their success not to the administration but the employees. Companies such as Microsoft, Intel, AMD, just about any electronic or digital company owes their success to their employees. The employees developed the processors, the electronics and the processes to create the products. As the employer provided the tools, materials and technology, the product improved in quality and the company advanced rapidly. Why are we not applying this concept to our education system? Why are we holding back and thinking the more teachers we have higher the quality of education. If the aforementioned companies used all their capital for Salaries and Benefits, and little or none for tools and materials, then progress would have been painfully slow and hard to come by. Pretty much what our school district is experiencing isn't it? Progress that is slow and hard to come by or accomplish?

Why do we teach the way we do? Because that is the way we have always done it. Even in our private households we make change. If the way we have always done it starts to cost us more than what we get out of it, we do the most practical thing we can think of. Seek a levy for additional funding to fund it. Solution, We either give up the way we do it now and reform education, or throw in the towel and let the state step in and educate our Administration and Board on how to properly use public funds.
rk for us better.

Isn't is time our school district step back and rethink on how we educate children. Does putting a levy supply the answer? Are they trying to pass this levy to put the problem of change the responsibility of the Administrators and Board members of tomorrow? Are they incapable of seeing what we really need to do and that is why they don't do it? Is it they are afraid they can't make it happen? Is it because they don't think they have the ability to make it happen? Is it because they don't see it? Is it because they don't have what it takes to make it happen? Are they going to hold on to values and concepts that have continuously proved over the last ten years they are obsolete and outdated? Are we as citizens going to let them?

We all know drastic reform needs to be done and implemented. Are the teachers who know they can't do it preventing it from becoming a reality?

I don't know. It is difficult at best to decipher why we are going the way we are when it has proven time and time again to be nothing more than self destructive. I'm not young and I'm not necessarily old either (56 is not old if you compare to my Uncle who is 96), but I do know that we are not going to be able to sustain levy after levy. I think we have reached the breaking point.

So, it has to lie on the shoulders of the Administration and Board to come up with the answers because even though the community speaks, they are not listening and they are just grabbing at straws to try to make what we are doing now work. It has failed, it is failing, and now it will become even harder to make the way we always did it work.

I hope the board really reconsiders putting on a levy until they are absolutely positive that this money will truly move our district forward in the right direction. Maybe the levy failing is a sign in how we teach needs to be looked at hard. Maybe it is a sign to them and us, that we have to change. We put if off too long. We should have instituted a change over five years ago.

I don't have all the answers and maybe I don't have any answer at all. I just know levies put hardships on people who have children attending our schools and it makes it hard on citizens who don't have children attending the schools. Ours is a community that is made of people from all walks of life on all different income levels. Our School district needs to make radical changes that will help our community help to support them.
Hopefully, more of the community will begin to get involved and maybe, just maybe the board will let the community in and express themselves without restriction in the public meetings they hold.

To be honest with you, the public that speaks in the Public Comment time frame allotted are way more entertaining than Administrators (sorry for this Admin), going on about nothing more than modifying concepts that have shown to have little or no effect in improving the ability to educate our children.

We need new fresh ideas with new fresh technology rather than people doing nothing more than modifying old techniques based on a premise that worked 50 years ago.

Everyone in our community needs take the time to visit our schools and see how little we are providing our children in ways of materials, tools, technology and maintenance of our buildings. You need to get involved.

There are nearly 15,000 people in our community and it is nothing less than shameful that we don't have at least 500 out of this number attending the board meetings. I know these meetings at times are more painful than a root canal but we have to attend them and who knows, maybe one of these days someone from the district will get up there and present something that will truly be interesting and make a difference.

Let's hope our board comes up with something and maybe think twice before putting this levy on the ballot in May. Upon learning of the upcoming deficit in the district, they rushed into a decision of placing the levy that they had on the ballot and it failed them. They didn't seem to understand the public directive and put in on again in February. Not only did they waste funds to do this, but they put off the inevitable again. Now they are putting it on in May and costing the district more additional funds. I have this feeling it will fail again. If it is a levy that is going to promote and insure funds for Salaries and Benefits again and very little for technology, materials and maintenance, I will push to fail it again. I will really go out of my way to make sure it fails. I'm sorry but their spending of $1.4 million over the forecasted revenues of 2008-2009 has really got me riled and fed up. They have yet to account for what they spent it on and it caused the deficit of the $900,000 for the end of 2010 that prompted them to seek a levy to begin with.

I hope that they don't think we are just going to accept a levy because it is smaller. They can't think we are that stupid and ignorant. For some reason I think they think we are. I guess we will just have to wait and see what they are going to do.

It better be good. It has to be something geared to getting materials, tools and technology to the students. Funding for Salaries and Benefits should be secondary. 85% of this levy should be going to Technology, tools, materials and maintenance. In addition, I hope they take the initiative and renegotiate a union contract with the teachers that will require a greater contribution by the staff in medical benefits, eliminating supplemental contracts if any that pay teachers for assignments during their normal working hours.
Our children are our greatest asset. If we don't take the initiative to move our children into the digital world of education, our future is very bleak. The children will not be able to compete in our future world market.

I want our children to have the best materials, tools, technology and teachers and receive an education that will make future accomplishments easier to obtain. I would like to see Streetsboro become the model that all public schools can follow to achieve success and I would like to see our teachers compensated for this achievement. When it comes down to it, it is the teacher that inspires our children. Not the School Board or Administration. If our teachers had the materials, tools and technology to perform their job, then the job would be a lot easier and the desired results and goal would be easier to achieve.

Martin Fleming