Amherst News-Times, 1997-12-03

              Girls win their opener — Page 7
Auditions set by Players — Page 5
Amherst News-Time
<
Wednesday, December 3, 1997
Amherst, Ohio
Crowding may force all-day kindergarten <
by APRIL MILLER
News-Times reporter
All-day kindergarten may be eliminated as the number of students
entering the school system continues lo increase.
The Amherst board of education
will hold a work session Dec. 10 to
discuss overcrowding in the school
district and come up with possible
solutions.
teacher ratio.  The slate allows a
maximum
teacher.
of   25   students   per
"There is a crowded situation at
every grade level in our district,"
superintendeni Howard Dulmage
said.
To help case the overload of stu- Although the number of sludents
dents in kindergarten classes, the continues to increase, kindergarten
district may be forced to offer only is the only grade which has a rc-
half-day classes. quircment   concerning   student/
Get the point?
School scores 18
on state's rating
performance test
For every student over 25 in a
classroom, the school district loses
aboul $3,800 of slate money, Dulmage said.
Amherst is close to the maximum, with an average of 24 children per classroom. This year's total
kindergarten enrollment is 267. Dulmage said when his son, who is now
a freshman, was in kindergarten, the
total enrollment was 185. There is
an average of five to ten additional
sludents enrolling each year, Dulmage said.
rc-
Al 1-day  kindergarten  is not .
quired, but is a service offered to interested parents.
"I believe in all-day kindergarten," Dulmage said. "Children at
lhat age in other countries are attending school all day. However, we
need lo think about not offering it to
free up some space."
Five more classrooms would be
needed if all-day kindergarten becomes mandatory, or if more parents enroll their children in the all-
day program. Dulmage said the money is available for teachers, but
there is no space.
In May of this year a school
building bond issued failed at the
pools. It would have been used to
by APRIL MILLER
News-Times reporter
Amherst schools met all 18 poinis
of the Ohio Department of Education's performance standards, which
became effective earlier this month
with lhe passage of Senate Bill 55.
Although schools have already
been examined to see which of the
four performance categories they
fall into, the first official reports will
not be done until July 1, 1999. Starting in 1999 and then every three
years after, the education department will calculate and report on
each school district to see if the district meets the performance
indicators.
Each school district will be assigned one of four ratings.
The include effective, which
means the district meets at least 94
percent of the indicators, at least 17
I
SCHOOL
Amherst
Avon
Avon Lake
Clearview
Columbia
Elyria
Firelands
Keystone
Lorain
Midview
North Ridgeville
Oberlin
Sheffield-Sheffield Lake
Wellington
RATING
18
of the 18 points. Continuous improvement, which means the district
meels more than 50 percent, at least
CONTINUED on page 5
Leaf it alone
Sherry Btevins of Elyria Avenue uses one of   but he was using a leaf blower to complete his
the last days of fall to rake up some leaves from   share of the woork.
her lawn. Her husband, Floyd, was helping, too,
<
*
Santa to arrive
in splendor for
annual lighting
of downtown area
Plans lor the 1998 CROP Walk are already   $2,500 in donations to help the needy this
underway.   Volunteers   raised   more  than   year.
CROP walkers raise more
than $2,500 to help needy
build  an  addition;
classrooms at each
Because the bo
nothing has been
lack of space, Dulmage said.
Dulmage said he is looking to the
board for direction, and the possibility of elimianating all-day kindergarten is only one of several recommendations which could be made.
"Finding anwers to the crowding
problem will be a challenge to the
board and the community in 1998,"
Dulmage said.
This fall, CROP walkers
raised $2,613.90 to help the
needy.
Portions of that amount will
be matched by the Nordson Corporation as well and one quarter
of it will remain in Amherst to
assist the food pantry at Good
Shepherd Baptist Church.
The annual event will be held
on Oct. 4,1998 and an organizational meeting will be held on
Friday, March 6, 1998 al 3 p.m.
at the Amherst Congregational
Church.
Anyone interested in serving
on the CROP Walk committee
should contact Tom Jewell at
988-7213. 	
Il won't be long before the downtown area is bright with holiday
lights.
On Friday, Dec. 5, Santa Claus
will make his first appearance of the
year here in Amherst on the grounds
of City Hall. (The second appearance, of course, will be Christmas
Eve.)
Cily treasurer Kalhy Litkovit/,
along with the help of many Christmas elves, has everything in order
for the annual Christmas Tree Lighting this week. And all of the festivities will begin at 7 p.m.
. Three choirs, The Amherst Community Choir under the direction of
Simone Gall, the St. Joseph School
Children's Choir led by Bart Bialko,
and the Shupe School Choir led by
Michelle Von Kaenal, will open the
ceremony.
Then mayor John Higgins will
flip the switch that will light the
tree. Eric Long will be handling the
electrical portion ot the event, Helping to make the lighting possible.
Then the man of the hour, Santa,
will appear. Instead of his trusty
reindeer and sleigh, this year he will
arrive courtesy of Rev. Avon Dixon
in a horse and buggy. Afterward
there will plenty of cookies and hot
chocolate for everyone.
The hoi chocolate will be provided by Olde Towne Pizza'and the
cookies will all be specially made
the the Marion L. Steele High
School home economics classes.
Sue Cotton and her Eagle Scout
Troop have also been busy preparing for the annual event. The troop
is responsible for the beautiful lights
and decorations downtown, at City
Hall and on the tree itself.
So remember to keep Friday,
Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. open to join the
City of Amhersl in opening the
Christmas season. And don't forget
your wish list!
Big bill's
not OK
with BOE
$13,000 overrun
for lighting job
is questioned
by APRIL MILLER
News-Times reporter
The board of education last
week decided to table discussion and nol pay Rebman
Systems, Inc. for a fire system upgrade done at Marion
L. Steele High School until
the buildings and grounds
committee meels with a company representative to discuss
why the bill is $13,000 over
budget.
An additional 71 strobe
lights at a cost of SI95 each,
were installed at the high
school. These lights were not
in the original estimate made
by Rebman's, according to
Ken Glowacki, school buildings and grounds supervisor.
"Rebmans didn't inform us
the additional lights were
needed," Glowacki said.
"They just went ahead and
installed them, and we saw
them on the bill."
Board president Ron Yacobozzi said the estimate was
completely off, which is
unacceptable.
Rebmans has completed
other projects for Amherst
schools. Previous jobs were
done at Nord, Harris and
Shupc and Glowacki said
there were never any problems with the work or the
billing.
Glowacki did note at the
board meeting that on Reb-
man's original estimate they
mentioned additional lights
would be added as needed.
However, the board decided
not to pay the bill because
they said $13,000 over the
original estimate was an important issue and they wanted
to know why the project had
gone so far over budget and
yet the school was never
notified.
The 71 additional lights
were added to meet the building inspector's requirements,
Glowacki said. He said there
was a lack of communication
between Rebmans and the
school.
Glowacki said he did not
know if it was standard procedure to do additional work
without notifying the school.
Amherst schools superinte-
dent Howard Dulmage said
there is enough contingency
money to pay the bill, but
because the project cost so
much over budget, they
wanted the board's approval.
Glowacki said the buildings
and grounds committee will
meet with a Rebman representative this week to discuss the bill and decide on
payment.
Rebman Systems did nol
return calls to the News-
Times.
5