Page 1 THE STANDARD IS EXCELLENCE HOME HE INTER OF T The W S ROVER Rootstown 2019 Communicator Rootstown Local Schools • 4140 State Route 44 • Rootstown, Ohio 44272 • (330) 325-9911 News From Around the District The Season of Giving, Part 1 By Alexis Gearhart Rootstown Elementary Students decided to spread some holiday cheer this year by organizing a collection drive for local animal shelters and rescues. This started as a small project involving one 4th grade class, and then grew to the entire grade level, district, and community members! Students, staff, and parents worked hard to collect shelter supplies, fabric to make tie blankets, and ingredients to make homemade dog treats. On December 20th, all four classrooms turned into blanket and treat making factories! At the end of the day, 120 tie blankets were made and over 500 treats were hand-rolled. Along with the blankets and treats, we collected 151 cans of cat food, 57 bags of dog treats, 24 bags of dog food, 31 paper towel rolls, 16 toilet paper rolls, 11 large bottles of bleach, 11 large bottles of laundry detergent, 6 boxes of latex gloves, 22 containers of disinfectant wipes, 5 boxes of trash bags, various chew toys, and a $250 donation from Thrivent Financial! Teachers, Alexis Gearhart, Cody Apthorpe, Christy Duvall, and Nicole Strope along with sever- al parent volunteers, worked extremely hard to make this project a success for the animals at Rose’s Rescue, Portage County Humane Society, Paws & Prayers, and One of a Kind Pets! We hope to see this project continue to grow each year, teaching kids the importance of kindness and empathy. Thank you for all of your support through donations, time, and talents making this event so successful, and improving the lives of our local fur babies! Consider providing a forever home by adopting a dog or cat. Thank you for truly making a meaningful difference within our community! The Season of Giving, Part 2 By Aubrey Burrell During the holidays, a group of Student Council members created a committee to collect donations for the Haven of Rest. The Haven of Rest is a homeless shelter in Akron. They began by determining the Haven of Rest’s biggest needs based off of their website, then made a flyer to distribute to the entire school. They collected donations for two weeks, and sorted all of the donations. Before putting them into bags, the donations filled up the entire classroom. They collected bath supplies, diapers, teething rings, clothes, food, coats, hats, gloves, and lots more. These were then delivered to the Haven of Rest. It was a huge success, and completely led by the committee! Superintendent’s Message It is hard to believe we are already in the second half of the school year! The first half of the 2018-19 school year was filled with numerous student achievements and growth both in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. The second half of the school year, I’m sure, will be filled with even more student achievements as well as students partaking in Ohio’s State Tests this spring. The Rootstown Local School District’s Board of Education will be asking the Rootstown community to renew a 2.5 Mill Permanent Improvement Levy on May 7th of this year. This is NOT a new tax and the monies that this levy generates will Andrew Hawkins be used to address our current curriculum, technology, transportation, and facility upkeep needs. Superintendent Finally, I would like to invite you to the March 18th Board of Education meeting where I will be presenting the annual State of the Schools address in which I will share information about what is going on in our schools and what lies ahead for the Rootstown Local School District. Thank you for your continued support of Rootstown Local Schools. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding our school district. Go Rovers! ANDREW HAWKINS SUPERINTENDENT Page 2 News From the Treasurer’s Office This spring, Ohio’s new governor will present his budget, which could include a new formula for funding education. It is no secret the current funding formula needs revision. Over the last year, State Rep. Bob Cupp (R-4th Dist.) of Lima and State Rep. John Patterson (D-99th Dist.) of Jefferson formed a bipartisan committee to address the issue. They have traveled across the state presenting their research and gathering feedback from local Superintendents and Treasurers. They will release recommendations in February, about a month before Gov. DeWine releases the new budget. Rep. Cupp has been involved in education for many years. Every Connie Baldwin December, the Ohio Dept. of Education compiles financial informa- Treasurer tion for all the school districts across the state of Ohio. Known as the Cupp Report, this profile data reveals state averages as well as data for comparisons with other districts. In 2018, the average spending per equivalent pupil in Rootstown was $10,496.93, while the statewide average was $11,953.14. The majority of the general fund goes directly into the classrooms totaling $6,351.25 per pupil with an additional amount of $513.21 for pupil support. The remainder provides non-classroom expenses such as administration, transportation and building operations for a total of $3,632.47 per pupil. The majority of the general fund (60%) was spent directly in the classroom on instructional salaries and supplies. Pupil support includes such items as student counseling, psychological services, health services, library services, and some extracurricular activities. Building operations totaled 19% and includes transportation, utilities, and improvements and repairs not covered by the Permanent Improvement levy. Another 13% was spent on administrative and secretarial salaries as well as the cost of the day-to-day operations of the school building offices—15% below state average. Lastly, 3% was spent on staff support for classroom aides, curriculum services, and continuing education to improve staff effec- tiveness and productivity. The average expenditure per pupil in Rootstown is only 87% of the state average, which is a good value for our taxpayers and provides a high quality education for our students. (Source: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/School-Payment-Reports/District-Profile-Reports) CONNIE BALDWIN TREASURER Assistant Superintendent’s Message Terri Hrina-Treharn - Assistant Superintendent, (330)325-2014 Spring Testing The state tests this spring, including retakes for high school students, will be administered during two test windows. The first test window will be for English Language Arts and will occur from April 8th to April 29th. The second window for all mathematics, science, and social studies tests will take place for our district from April 17th to May 8th which includes make-up days. More specific information about when your child’s Terri Hrina-Treharn grade level will test can be found to the left, and Assistant will be posted weekly on the district website again Superintendent as it has been in the past. R-Stars!!! Hopefully you have seen our postings on social media or have been a parent lucky enough to get a phone call to hear your child has been chosen! This is an incentive we are doing again this school year. Once a month I “pop” into a classroom in each building and ask the teacher if they have any “R-Stars.” The teacher lets me know which student has been chosen as the R-Star as well as why that student was chosen. Students then get their picture taken with the R-Star, receive an R-Star t-shirt, choose a prize, and I call their parent/guardian right then and there to share the good news. Please check out our R-Stars for this year so far! Page 3 From the Office of Special Education Marcy Spence - Director of Special Education, (330)325-4144 Reflection and Reading Comprehension Happy New Year! At the beginning of each New Year, it is common for all of us to reflect on the rapid passage of time. As the familiar expression goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun!” In the special services department, the first semester has certainly flown by fueled by student learning that has been exciting, targeted, rigorous and individualized – in other words, fun! To recap, during the first semester of the 2018-2019 school year, much has been accomplished and from the perspective of all involved, it has been a fulfilling process. As detailed in the last publication, the special services department continues its commitment to implementing the process of educating our students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. While this process is evolving, preliminary input from staff reveals increased opportunities for our intervention specialists to collaborate and co-plan with grade level teams and, where appropriate, deliver their specialized instruction in the general education setting. Marcy Spence Another area of focus this school year, transition planning for our identified students, age 14 +, is off to an excellent start! Director of Special With the assistance of the district’s new transition specialist, our school guidance department, input from the Mahoning Education County Educational Service Center and specialized, grant-funded online programming, our students are receiving systematic instruction in exploring/planning college and/or career opportunities. Targeted areas include post-secondary education and training, competitive and integrated employment and independent living. Looking forward to the new, exciting educational initiatives that are sure to come our way this year, it seems advisable to pause and take stock of one of the fundamental foundation issues that impact our disabled students, understanding what they read. Inherent in successful read- ing comprehension skills is the critically important role vocabulary, or simply put, words, play in cultivating successful and engaged readers that comprehend, learn from and enjoy what they read.