State Punishes Two Local Districts for Community School Performances

Nine community school sponsors are prohibited from opening additional schools for at least a year under a new provision of state law, the Ohio Department of Education announced Tuesday. The school sponsors include Marion City Schools and Ridgedale Local Schools in Marion County.

Under House Bill 153, sponsors of community schools are now ranked based upon a newly calculated Performance Index (PI) Score. The sponsor’s PI score represents the grouped PI scores of their community schools. The requirement does not include the scores of community schools that specialize in helping students who had previously dropped out or those that serve students with disabilities.

Sponsors in the bottom 20 percent of the list are prohibited from adding more schools. A total of 47 sponsors are on the ranking list.

“Our expectation is that sponsors will provide as much attention as necessary to improve the performance of these schools so that students have an opportunity for a quality education,” said State Superintendent Stan W. Heffner. “Community schools provide important options for students and families, so we want to make sure they are strong options.”

ODE will provide technical assistance and guidance to school sponsors that request it.

Affected sponsors include the Marion City, Upper Scioto Valley, Van Wert City, Rittman Exempted Village, Mansfield City and Ridgedale Local school districts, The Richland Academy, as well as the Hardin County and Portage County Educational Service Centers.

Sponsors can become eligible to add new schools if they move out of the bottom 20 percent category when the next rating list is published in October 2012. Sponsors are required to provide technical assistance and monitoring compliance of their schools, including oversight of academic performance. There are currently 69 sponsors and 354 community schools in Ohio.