While job news hasn't been all that rosy lately, Cincinnati Public Schools plans on hiring an additional 55 staff positions to help with the district's enrollment increases that exceeded expectations. State law and union contracts require a certain minimum staff-to-student ratio which mandates these hires to a certain degree. Most of the new positions will be regular classroom teachers and special education teachers. Read full article here.
Northern Kentucky University is one of 33 universities nationwide to receive a grant to train librarians for high-poverty areas. The grant is nearly $1 million and comes from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. The grant will expand online library programs and support 50 library staff members working in rural areas of Kentucky with high rates of poverty. Read full article here.
Madeira city schools strive for greener energy pastures with a significant gift from an anonymous donor and inspiration from a Northern Kentucky neighbor.
The Ohio Foreign Language Association awarded 2009’s “Non-Educator Friend of Foreign Languages Award” to the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati in recognition of the Foundation’s grant money and planning efforts related to a innovative Hebrew language learning program. Raymond Walters College, Sycamore High School, and the Jewish Foundation have forged a unique program that allows high school students to take college-level Hebrew courses. Beginning and intermediate Hebrew is offered through the University of Cincinnati. Students earn high school credit and college credit simultaneously, fulfilling UC’s foreign language requirement or earning credit that will transfer to any university. June marked the end of the two-year pilot; the program will continue under Ohio’s Post Secondary Enrollment Options Program (PSEOP). “We’re so happy that the Jewish Foundation has been honored in this way,” stated Debbie Page, chair of Raymond Walters’ Foreign Language Department. The program is a direct result of the Foundation’s interest and dedication.” In their description of the award, OFLA stated that a similar partnership could aid in the teaching of other less-frequently studied languages. The program benefits everyone involved. Students expand their foreign-language options. The local Jewish community sees their heritage preserved among the next generation. And professional relationships have been forged among Foundation members, local educators, and parents of high schoolers. The Hebrew program is free of charge to all greater Cincinnati high school students. To find out more about PSEOP through UC, go here. Writer: Elena Stevenson Source: University of Cincinnati
In most cities, parents pay thousands of dollars to give their children a Montessori education. In Cincinnati Public Schools, students get the same education, emphasizing self-directed learning in a prepared environment, for free.
The upcoming Strive Community Forum on Education has gotten a big boost with the announcement that Ohio First Lady Frances Strickland will be the keynote speaker at the June 26 event. Strickland, an education advocate and Kentucky native, is also scheduled to lead one of the forum’s breakout sessions at Xavier University. Strive is a public-private collaborative aimed at improving education in Greater Cincinnati. Based in downtown Cincinnati, was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks Foundation, an education initiative funder. Strive is focused on developing Cincinnati’s urban core, including cities in Northern Kentucky, through identifying better education strategies from birth through some form of college into a career. The community forum is free and open to the public. It will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at the University’s Cintas Center, and lunch will be free for people who pre-register. The forum is being hosted jointly by Strive and Xavier’s Community Building Institute. The forum’s goal is to get feedback from the Greater Cincinnati community on how to move education improvement forward. Among the breakout sessions theme are: “Increasing the Pace of School Improvement,” “Academic Rigor and Teaching Excellence,” and “College Access and Success.” See the entire schedule here. Strickland has a doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Kentucky, where she met her future husband, Ohio governor Ted Strickland. She is a former public school educational psychologist and a children’s book author, who wrote The Little Girl Who Grew up to Be Governor about former Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins. To register, contact Nancy Hackett at 513-745-3264, or hackettn@xavier.edu Writer: Feoshia HendersonSource: Laurel Bauer, Media Relations Coordinator Xavier University
After several years of waiting for state funding, three Northern Kentucky educational institutions have joined for a new project to broaden Gateway Community and Technical College’s reach into the urban core, with a new planned campus in the heart of Covington. Gateway, in partnership with the Kenton County Public Library and Covington Independent Public Schools, announced they’ll join efforts to make this happen. The planned urban campus will comprise Two Rivers Middle School, 502 Scott St., that will close this to middle school students summer and a brand new building adjacent to nearby the library set to open in 2014. The library and this new building would be connected by walkways and doors with both the library and the college using the space, according to the college. Lynda Jackson, Covington Schools Superintendent, said the partnership was a “win-win” for the school district and college. “We are moving the middle school to the Holmes High School Campus this summer, and we were concerned that the middle school would be vacant. Having Gateway at that site will mean the building will continue to be used to educate residents of our urban core.” Gateway has worked to get funding from the Kentucky legislature for several years and in 2008, lawmakers approved $21.3 million to build it in a “contingency budget” that depended on excess tax revenues. Now Kentucky is facing one of its largest budget deficits in history $1 billion over the next two years, so it’s unlikely that state funding will come any time soon for Gateway. That’s when the local officials started looking for creative ways to get things done. The library had been planning a major renovation project similar to what Gateway was planning. The work together was the smart seemed the smart thing to do, said Dave Schroeder, Library Director. “When we began thinking about our renovations plans and the college’s building plans, we discovered that we would be building between 14,000 and 18,000 square feet of space that the college was going to build. We agreed that we should pursue a joint plan that would save approximately several million dollars in construction costs,” Schroeder said. Gateway’s had 3,130 students in 2007, the latest figures available. It has expanded in recent years and has campuses in Boone County, Covington and Edgewood. It also has an urban learning center in Covington and a center in Park Hills. It’s not been decided when Gateway will start classes at Two Rivers but, it could begin as early as this fall, the college said. Writer: Feoshia HendersonSource: Gateway Community and Technical College News Release
For the first time in 15 years the Cincinnati Public School district is going to experience a gain in enrollment as academic standards continue to improve. The schools seeing the largest increases are the 'excellent' rated schools by the state of Ohio. Parents are citing improved standards and financial savings as the primary reasons for their shift. School officials are currently unable to predict next year's total enrollment numbers, but are confident they will see an increase due to the recent activity. Read full article here.
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