Schools
School Board: Race to the Top Off to Solid Start
District still faces long road to 2014 school year
The Beachwood school board heard a presentation on the Race to the Top grant and the progress made during the 2010-11 school year. Ohio was awarded $400 million through the grant; about half of the money goes directly to school districts, with Beachwood receiving $100,000.
The federal program is designed to advance reforms in five specific assurance areas, with Beachwood focusing on four: building capacity to execute statewide and school district plans, standards and assessments, using data to improve instruction and great teachers and leaders. The fifth area is only for persistently low-achieving schools.
“(An area of focus) is on the curriculum instruction changes that are required for the 2014-15 school year,” said Assistant Superintendent Phillip Wagner. “We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve and make sure our students are prepared and we’re not racing to get that done a year before.”
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Race to the Top could also face some clarification hurdles depending on certain discrepancies between it and Senate Bill 5. According to Wagner, the bill states that 50 percent of the principal’s evaluation should be tied to students in the building, however that standard is not included in Race to the Top.
The board also approved the contracts of four teachers for the 2011-12 school year. Heather Grano will teach art at Beachwood High School after teaching at Twinsburg City Schools for five years. She did her student teaching in Providence.
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Megan Groomes is a speech pathologist who graduated from Ohio State and received a masters degree from Kent State University. She has more than 100 hours of hands-on experience in working with children suffering hearing loss in addition to her regular graduate requirements.
Katie Spence is a science teacher for Beachwood’s elementary schools who earned her bachelors from Mount Union and is currently pursuing her masters degree at Kent State. Meredith Moore was not in attendance because she currently resides in New York City; she taught AP Physics at Brooklyn Tech, one of the top schools in the district. She is an Ohio native and a graduate of Denison with a degree in physics and economics.