Middle school teachers to get more training

By RICK ROUAN

neighbors@vindy.com

The township school district will petition the Ohio Department of Education for two waiver days at its two middle schools to train teachers on the team-teaching concept it will implement next year.

The school board voted 4-0 Monday night to request the waiver days for June 8-9. Middle-school students would have the two days off. Teachers would attend sessions with a national expert on team teaching, which the school will implement as part of a realignment of its middle schools.

“We have used waiver days a couple times in the district,” Superintendent Frank Lazzeri said. “This is one I feel strongly about.”

The district has been tackling a realignment of its middle schools for months now, and the final plan is still a work in progress.

Under the new plan, students will move from 42-minute periods to 56-minute periods, and teachers in core subject areas, such as English and math, will work together to develop a curriculum that is interdisciplinary.

“They’re going to be crossing content areas,” said Dr. Linda Ross, the district’s director of instruction.

Through the plan, high-achieving students will have opportunities to tackle more challenging assignments, and students who need extra help will receive it, Ross said.

The team-teaching concept, which has been put into place in Austintown as well, will help the district improve its state report cards over time, Ross said.

The request for waiver days came late this school year because the district has been working to finalize the realignment.

Lazzeri said the training days are necessary to prepare teachers for the changes ahead.

“In order to have a smooth transition into the middle-school teaming concept next year, every teacher needs to be developed,” he said.

The board also voted to join the Coalition for Fiscal Fairness in Ohio, a lobbying group that seeks “to recoup the loss of commercial property-tax revenue for school districts in Ohio.”

Joining the group costs $10,000 each year, Treasurer Richard Santilli said.

Santilli told board members about 10 schools in the state already have joined the group and that six others are researching it.

“It’s a good group to be in,” he said.

Many of the issues plaguing school districts have to be addressed at the state level, said Mark Fulks, board president.

“An individual school board has little or no weight,” Fulks said.

Paying professional lobbyists to represent the school districts in Columbus could help the district going forward, and if it doesn’t, the district can bow out of the organization, said Kenneth Beraduce, a board member.

“The biggest thing is to give us a voice in the Legislature,” Beraduce added.