Tecumseh student and Life Scout, John Burchett, drew applause when he presented his Eagle Scout project to the Tecumseh Local School District Board of Education (BOE) during its regular meeting on Aug. 23 in the Tecumseh High School Arrow Conference Center. All BOE members were present.

Burchett’s novel Eagle Scout project will memorialize Tecumseh Alumni killed during combat. He has been working on the project since March. Burchett says he has received some guidance from former Tecumseh Agricultural Education teacher and veteran, Dave Finfrock.

According to Burchett, his project has consisted of raising money to pay for six small memorial stones to be placed at the base of the flag pole in front of Tecumseh High School. Each stone will honor a fallen soldier. Burchett explained that research showed, prior to 2012, a total of six Tecumseh alumni had been killed in action, all in Vietnam. Burchett is still raising money for his portion of the project.

Curriculum Coordinator, Cecil Foley, presented the BOE with a breakdown of Tecumseh Local Schools’ 2015 results on the Ohio “State Report Card,” a measure of how each school district is meeting state standards. According to Foley, the district’s scores were sometimes alarmingly low, however, the lower scores are due, in great part, to yet more changes in Ohio’s testing structure.

Several BOE members expressed deep concern about the scores, discussing the problem at length.

“In essence we had a few things going against us, as did districts all across the state,” explained Foley, pointing out that the Ohio State BOE is “still revising its (education) standards.”

High School Principal, Ivan Gehret, told BOE members that using old textbooks is not helping matters. “Our history text books end with Bill Clinton as President. The books are older than the students. Our teachers do a great job searching for resources to supplement the material, but our students deserve to have books that aren’t older than they are.”

According to Foley, the district will use the “Measures of Academic Progress” (MAPS) program will give teachers a new resource to help get students on track with the new state standards.

In other business, the BOE adopted a resolution naming September as “Voter Education Month.” They also voted not to provide career-technology education to seventh and eighth grade students; the district will receive a waiver from the state instead.

BOE members also approved requests for the AFJROTC to attend two out-of-state drill meets. Donations of grass seed and two trees for the Donnelsville playground were accepted, for a total of $290.00 in donations.

Student activity accounts were approved as presented, but BOE member, Corrinne Scott, asked that more information about the accounts be provided for future reference.

The request the push the Kindergarten start date back to the end of September was approved.

The BOE reviewed and approved the monthly financial reports. It also approved and accepted a number of personnel changes.

The meeting closed with a recommendation that the high school government class host a “Meet the Candidate” event in conjunction with “Voter Education Month.” A parent raised many concerns about the security of students in the Latch-Key program.

Finally, Kerry Cassell, the representative from the district’s Teachers’ Association, raised concerns about an email teachers received the first week of school, telling them the BOE had decided to stop paying for any professional development conferences and meetings the teachers requested to attend, but are not required by the district. The teachers would receive a paid professional day to attend conferences.

“At the last meeting, it was decided that Mrs. Crew would bring more information about how much it costs to send the teachers to conferences and other (professional development) events before the (BOE) made a final decision. But when the teachers came back to school, we got an email saying that the decision was already made...even though that wasn’t supposed to happen until this meeting. I respectfully ask that the BOE reconsider. There are professional development events required by the state, but not the district...so, according to the email, teachers would have to personally pay for those state-required conferences and meetings.”

When Cassell asked how much money was paid by the district for teachers to attend professional development events, District Superintendent, Norm Glissman, responded that it was “somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000 to $50,000” and that the district “sacrifices around $100 a day for a substitute whenever a teacher takes a professional day” to attend a professional development event.

Glissman provided the New-Carlisle News with the following after the BOE meeting:

“(This is) the amount of money spent for registrations, mileage, etc... and for the cost of substitute teachers which allows the teacher to attend (professional development events).”

• 2015-16 $21,369 Professional Development $87, 375 Substitutes
• 2014-15 $36,308 Professional Development $77,600 Substitutes
• 2013-14 $31,319 Professional Development $75,875 Substitutes
• 2012-13 $46,789 Professional Development $89,843 Substitutes
• 2011-12 $47,146 Professional Development $81,640 Substitutes