CMSD Charter Office Newsletter

We hope you enjoyed a nice spring break and are ready for the home stretch of the school year.

I want to thank all of you for working so hard this year. I hope you and your scholars finish strong and are able to rest a little this summer.

One important reminder we’d like to share for the rest of the school year is that all board members and select school staff must complete public records and open meetings training by June 30.

Please visit the pages below for more information on available training:

Ohio Attorney General Trainings (scheduled; remaining date is 6/4):

https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/legal/sunshine-laws/sunshine-law-training

Ohio Auditor Trainings (virtual and on demand):

https://ohioauditor.gov/trainings/publicrecords.html

This will be our last issue before next school year.

Best wishes for the rest of the school year, and please do not hesitate to reach out to us! We are here to help.

The Statehouse has been a flurry of activity since Governor Mike DeWine unveiled the final proposed budget for his last two years in office early February.

The five-month long process for passing a state biennial budget bill involves finding a balance between the competing priorities of the governor, House of Representatives and Senate. Among the key issues to be debated this budget cycle is K-12 education funding.

Governor DeWine’s budget proposal calls for continuing the Fair School Funding Plan – aka the Cupp-Patterson Plan named for the two legislators who established it four years ago – but without updates to the cost inputs.

Former Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima), who was termed out of office in the upper chamber when the 135th General Assembly concluded at the end of calendar year 2024, has been consistent in his position that a prior legislature “can’t bind four years later what a General Assembly can do.”

“So, having said that, I don’t think there is a third phase to Cupp-Patterson,” he said earlier this year. “Now as to the expectations that those things are going to go in, I think, I guess, a clear statement I can say is I think those increases in spending are unsustainable.”

The original plan called for a six-year implementation period. Two years ago, maintaining the plan with updated cost inputs was a key priority of the House. The Senate ultimately agreed to the House plan, but it’s hard to predict how things will ultimately shake out for the next two-year budget cycle.

According to a recent poll of legislators, conducted jointly by Gongwer News Service and Werth PR, 61 percent favor continued phase-in of the Cupp-Patterson strategy currently in place with 86 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans indicating their support. Nearly one in four (23 percent) do not support Cupp-Patterson, with 16 percent undecided.

Senate Education Committee Chair Andy Brenner (R-Delaware) has introduced a placeholder bill (S.B. 93) to declare the General Assembly’s intent to: eliminate a school district’s authority to levy property and income taxes; establish a single statewide property tax and increased state sales tax to fund schools; eliminate state scholarship programs for primary and secondary school students; and, establish a school financing system that calculates a statewide amount of per-pupil funding that will be paid to the public or chartered nonpublic school in which a student’s family chooses to enroll that student.

In an interview with Gongwer News Service, Senator Brenner indicated that he does not anticipate that his proposal – which he has been working on for about six months -- will be included in the budget bill currently under consideration.

He describes the Cupp-Patterson plan as “flawed from the get-go” in part because it fails to make a connection between funding and student outcomes.

“I am anticipating having a major discussion of it and hopefully getting people to start realizing that having the money follow the student and putting checks and balances on local school districts to try to control their own costs is important,” Senator Brenner said.

House Finance Chair Representative Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) has met with House staff, as well as chairs of committees assigned to consider portions of the budget bill specific to their areas of focus, to review about 1,200 unique proposed amendments to H.B. 96.

The House passed its version of the two-year spending plan on April 9. It will then move to the Senate where deliberations will continue. Once the Senate passes its version of H.B. 96, it will return to the House with a request for concurrence with Senate changes. If the House opts not to concur, which is likely to be the case, a conference committee of three House and three Senate members (four Republicans and two Democrats) – with input from the House speaker, Senate president and governor -- will be established to negotiate a final version by the June 30 deadline.

Leveraging AI to Improve Planning: Working Smarter Not Harder

5/1/2025 from 3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m., or 6/9/25 from 9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. or 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Join us for engaging sessions designed to introduce educators to the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing instructional planning. Discover how AI tools across various platforms can save time, enhance creativity, and boost student success. Whether you're an AI novice or looking to expand your toolkit, this session has something for everyone!

Each session will build on the previous session, and participation in the full series is highly encouraged to maximize your learning experience.

Location: Virtual

Cost: Free

Registration Deadline: None

To register: https://www.escneo.org/protected/EventView.aspx?id=8AYAP2UGI

Routine Based Support for Challenging Behavior

5/1/25 (self-paced)

This virtual professional development will provide resources and information to assist in identifying behavior expectations, and strategies aligned with the developmental levels of children ages 4-8.

The objectives for the course include:

Define what challenging behavior looks like for young children and learn to manage classroom strategies and routines to support children with challenging behavior.

Review current classroom routines and create a plan to incorporate new strategies to increase support for all students in the classroom to succeed.

Location: Virtual

Cost: Free

Registration Deadline: None

Please register in OCCRRA

Participants will select the month they plan to complete the course. Once the month is selected and the participant has registered, the course will be available for self-paced completion for the duration of that month in Canvas, an online platform (ex. September 1-September 30, 2024). Upon registering for the course using the correct ST# in OCCRRA: 4/1 - 4/30/2025 ST# 10145888, 5/1 - 5/31/2025 ST# 10145889.

Two Day English Learner Summer Institute

6/11/25, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Literacy Foundations for English Learners

Presenter: Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan is President of the Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas and a research associate with the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston.

6/12/25, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Emily Francis

Emily Francis is a nationally recognized English as a Second Language teacher at Concord High School in Concord, North Carolina. She serves students at various English proficiency levels. Emily is originally from Guatemala and her experience as an English Language Learner inspired her to become an EL teacher. This affords her a deep understanding of the challenges her students must overcome to succeed.

Location: ESC of Northeast Ohio, 6393 Oak Tree Blvd., Essex Place, Independence, Ohio 44131

Cost: $25 (includes lunch for both days)

Registration deadline: 6/5/25

To register: https://www.escneo.org/protected/EventRegistration.aspx?rCode=5GAI32

Teacher Clarity Bootcamp

6/17/25, 8:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Are you ready to take your teaching skills to the next level? Join us to learn the Teacher Clarity process for designing standards based instruction. James "Ike" Holzapfel, and Jamie Smith present a day of learning focused on creating learning intentions and success criteria for organized, effective instruction! This session will have practical strategies to use right away to improve your lesson design and delivery!

Location: ESC of Northeast Ohio, 6393 Oak Tree Blvd., Essex Place, Independence, Ohio 44131

Cost: $25 (includes book)

Registration deadline: 6/1/25

To register: https://www.escneo.org/protected/EventRegistration.aspx?rCode=5GAY0I

Bills have been introduced and assigned to the House and Senate education committees of interest to K-12 education stakeholders.

H.B. 57 would require districts and schools that choose to store overdose-reversing drugs to establish policies regarding proper storage and administration.

H.B. 62 would help school districts defray unsustainable costs associated with College Credit Plus through cost-sharing.

H.B. 77 would require districts and schools to provide parents of elementary school students with informational materials developed by the Ohio Department of Health on Type 1 diabetes.

H.B. 97 would require all public schools to provide meals to any student who requests one and prohibits certain conduct by schools toward students who cannot pay for a meal or have meal debt.

H.B. 117 would require public schools to adopt a policy establishing a time and manner for the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, and encourages schools and teachers to develop and implement lessons related to the American flag and Pledge of Allegiance.

H.B. 125 would require public schools to excuse students for missing class if they have written documentation from a 4-H or FFA educator that they were attending one of those group’s events.

S.B. 7 would require public schools to annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 on the harmful effects of short-term or chronic substance use.

S.B. 19 would require public districts and schools to provide evidence-based academic intervention services, free of cost, to students who demonstrate a limited level of skill in state assessments in math or English language arts. Beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, districts and schools would be required to develop a mathematics improvement and monitoring plan for each student who qualifies for math intervention services. Also beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, districts and schools would be required to develop a mathematics achievement improvement plan if 51 percent or less of students who took the third-grade math achievement assessment attained at least a proficient score.

S.B. 34 would require public schools to display in each classroom at least one of a list of historical educational documents including: The Mayflower Compact; Declaration of Independence; mottoes of the United States and Ohio; Ten Commandments; Magna Carta; Bill of Rights; U.S. Constitution; and, Articles of Confederation.

S.B. 49 would eliminate the requirement that a school district must offer to lease or sell certain unused school facilities to charter and STEM schools, and college-preparatory boarding schools. It would also eliminate the right of first refusal for these schools in the voluntary sale of school district real property and maintains a prohibition on these schools from selling real property acquired under the repealed involuntary sale provision within five years after acquiring the property unless sold to another charter or STEM school or college-preparatory boarding school.

S.B. 113 would require public schools to adopt and enforce a policy that prohibits all of the following: any orientation or training course regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); the continuation of existing or establishment of new DEI offices or departments; using DEI in job descriptions; contracting with consultants or third parties whose role is to promote admissions, hiring or promotion on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify or gender expression; and, replacing any orientation, training, office or position designated for DEI with one under a different designation that serves the same or similar purposes, or that uses the same or similar means.

S.B. 127 would require Ohio’s public school closure law to apply to school district-operated school buildings, and charter or STEM schools, that meet specified criteria for the three most recent school years to close or take other remedial action.