District waits to join state lawsuit

by Laura Bednar

Dec. 17 board of education meeting

The Independence Board of Education will postpone its decision to join the Vouchers Hurt Ohio Initiative of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding lawsuit.

The coalition brought a lawsuit against the state over the EdChoice voucher program, which provides students from designated public schools the opportunity to attend private schools through state funding.

Superintendent Kelli Cogan said she doesn’t want joining the lawsuit to start a “public versus private” community debate. She said she didn’t feel comfortable having the board vote to join until information explaining the lawsuit is disseminated throughout the community.

“The lawsuit will move forward regardless of whether Independence joins it or not,” she said. “The government is not addressing the fact that it is unconstitutional to fund schools this way.”

Cogan said board members should share their voucher concerns with state senators to ensure they understand the impact on public school districts.

Board President Tony Avila said if the district loses funding as a result of the voucher program, the community will be asked to shoulder the burden.

Board member Lynne Laski said she is “an advocate for public education” and would support going after every dollar the district can get from the state. She added that a few community members told her the district should join the lawsuit before proposing a levy.

Student presentation

Independence Middle School students Liam Barstow, Trip Derryberry, Lucy Lu, Dominic Marek, Nicole Mehosky and Sydney Swansiger gave a presentation about the middle school program WEB, which stands for “Where Everybody Belongs,” and the school’s news channel, WIMS. 

In the WEB program, eighth-graders help incoming students transition from elementary school. Lucysaid a student must be recommended by a fellow student or teacher to join WEB, which hosts an orientation day for fifth-graders to become familiar with the school. Dominic said WEB members help fifth-graders find their lockers and homerooms on the first day of school and have a monthly lunch with the orientation group to catch up.

The WIMS news station is a semester-long class in which students learn to be part of a newscast and read the morning announcements. The station is completely student-run, and participants conduct interviews, create screen graphics and learn to work together.

WIMS member Sydney said students “get to learn for themselves” by putting on the regular newscast.

District updates

Assistant Superintendent Tom Dreiling said the two scoreboards in the middle school gymnasium were replaced with one new scoreboard after parts for the aging machines became unavailable. The new scoreboard was funded in part by a $6,800 donation from the athletic boosters. The district paid the remaining $3,115.

The bleacher project at the football stadium is complete, and Dreiling will present a report on its quality after a walk-through with the bleacher installation company in the spring.

Cogan has continued meeting with staff, teachers and students to hear their vision for the district. Once the district’s mission, values and goals are determined, Cogan said the board will hear a presentation in February outlining the results.High school students told Cogan they wanted to familiarize themselves with the high school before they transitioned out of middle school. Cogan said the district recently invited seventh- and eighth-graders to the high school to shadow current students, their classes and participate in a pep rally.