Niles schools get preliminary rating of ‘effective’ from state

By Jordan Cohen

The superintendent says the district still needs more academic improvements.

NILES — A preliminary Ohio Department of Education audit has designated the Niles School District as “effective.”

The rating is one step below the top designation of excellent. The final official audit is to be released Wednesday.

Superintendent Rocco Adduci emphasized that the figures and designations are only preliminary. Adduci said the district still requires substantial improvement academically.

“We’ve moved up a few notches, but we’re not where we need to be,” the superintendent said.

Niles schools have been under the state’s Continuous Improvement Program since 2005 because of low testing scores. Since then, a 30-member committee consisting of representatives from the schools and the state has been working on improving academic results.

The committee had urged creation of a curriculum director position as essential for getting the district out from under continuous improvement designation. Robert Marino Jr., former middle school principal and president of Niles City Council, was appointed to the position in June.

Adduci said Niles was the first school district in Ohio to have a diagnostic evaluation audit by the Department of Educational Reform, a division of ODE. The audit, which the superintendent said he requested, is ongoing.

One of the areas Adduci cited in need of improvement is the drop in testing scores for pupils with disabilities compared with the rest of the student body.

“We have a disparity of 40 percentage points and we need to improve that,” the superintendent said.

Adduci previously said he hoped the district could emerge from the continuous-improvement category this year.

In another item, the board approved a new three-year contract with the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, representing 100 nonteaching employees.

Adduci said pay increases for the OAPSE members are the same as those approved in the contract with the Niles Classroom Teachers Association: 1 percent for the new school year, 2 percent in 2009 and 2.75 percent in 2010.