Board Update

Good Evening:

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This week I am officially unveiling my new and improved website at www.danlangshaw.com. If you have a chance please check it out and share with your friends and neighbors in the school district. Communication with constituents is very important to me and on my website you will see that I have centralized a lot of useful information about me, the school board, and district. You can also like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

LAST WEEK IN YOUR SCHOOL BOARD

The School Board met on November 21st for its’ November Regular School Board Meeting. Some highlights from the meeting. State Representative Mike Dovilla recognized the school district for its Excellent designation by the Ohio Department of Education for the 11th straight year. He also recognized outgoing Board Members Cheryl Hannan and Len Reinhard for their years of service with a commendation. High School Principal Mic Becerra recognized the achievements of a number of students and staff from the high school. The board approved the district’s 5 year forecast and assumptions. Board approved the November 2011 policy updates. The Board approved also various other agenda items, and such other matters that came before the Board. The Board had a brief executive session to discuss the employment of personnel.

SKI Box Program
If you didn’t see in last week’s North Royalton Post Newspaper there was a nice article about the Ski Box program that we have started in the North Royalton City School District to help with suicide and bulling prevention in all our buildings. Ski Box program gives students a venue for expressing themselves and receive the help they so desperately need. In each building there are wooden boxes, secured with a lock that allows students to jot down notes about their issues or their concerns for their friends. These boxes are checked daily by district staff. I started in March of this year after finding out about the ski boxes from State Representative Anielski working with the rest of the board and district administrators to get this started for this school year. I am so proud that all our buildings have ski boxes. This program is already making a positive difference in the lives of our students. To see the full article here is the link: http://pns.live.mediaspanonline.com/royalton/localnews/Ski-Boxes-NR-11-26--panfil-

HB 136 Update
As you may know back on Sept. 21st, the House Education Committee passed HB 136, a proposal that would offer vouchers to students in every Ohio school district, regardless of the district’s academic performance. The bill passed 12-10 primarily on a party line vote, with Rep. Nan Baker (R-Westlake) and Rep. Marlene Anielski (R-Walton Hills) voting against the measure along with Democrats. HB 136 has the very real possibility of stripping even more state funding from the high performing school districts like ours. This past week the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a good article about the impact of this bill which can be found at: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/11/ohio_house_bill_136_would_incr.html

HB 136 is especially confusing given the public backlash against state budget which cut millions of dollars from local districts already fighting to control costs and deliver a quality public education

HB 136:
• Expands vouchers to students in all school districts, regardless of the academic report card rating of the school building or district. The only qualifier for eligibility is household income. Students whose family income is less than $95,000 would qualify.
• Allows students currently enrolled in private schools to be eligible for the voucher (phases in over four years).
• If the private school tuition is less than the voucher amount, it allows parents to bank the excess dollars for college tuition and textbooks at any private school or college in Ohio.
• Deducts funding for the voucher from the resident school district’s funding (aggregate amount deducted from district cannot exceed a district’s state aid funding.)

Please continue to contact our lawmakers in Columbus and share with them your concerns about HB 136 and to tell them to vote No! There is an effort to bring this to a vote in the coming months and we need to stop this bill!

State Senator Tom Patton
24th Senate District
Senate Building
1 Capitol Square, 1st Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 466-8056
SD24@senate.state.oh.us

State Representative Marlene Anielski (Broadview Heights portion of our school district)
17th House District
77 S. High St
12th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Phone: (614) 644-6041
Fax: (614) 719-6956
district17@ohr.state.oh.us

State Representative Mike Dovilla
18th House District (North Royalton portion of our school district)
77 S. High St
12th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Phone: (614) 466-4895
Fax: (614) 719-6957
district18@ohr.state.oh.us

Need your Feedback
In December I will be doing a month long online survey to get your feedback on things you like to see the board focus on or issues you are concerned about. Your feedback and comments are extremely helpful so I can effectively represent the needs of you, your family, our community, our taxpayers, and our students. So please start thinking and I will give you the link to my survey in early December.


THIS WEEK IN YOUR SCHOOL BOARD

This week there are various meetings and events.

North Royalton Educational Foundation Meeting on November 29th at 3:00pm @ North Royalton Board of Education Office Conference Room, 6579 Royalton Rd., North Royalton, OH 44133.

Weekly E-mail Updates
If you have any friends or neighbors who would like to receive my weekly e-mail updates please let me know and I will be sure to add them to my e-mail list.

Follow me on Twitter or stay in touch on my website
You can follow me on Twitter @Langshaw4board. You can also check out my website at www.danlangshaw.com

My Contact Info
If you ever have any questions or concerns please feel free to give me at call at 440-596-0078 or e-mail me at dan.langshaw@northroyaltonsd.org.

Have a great week!

Dan Langshaw
North Royalton School Board Member
440-596-0078
www.danlangshaw.com

“Putting Students First”