STATE OF THE SCHOOLS 2003

STATE OF THE SCHOOLS

Presented by
Dr. David A. Dolph
Superintendent, Troy City Schools
June 12, 2003

Thank you for joining me this morning for my fifth annual State of the Schools address. We began this tradition during the depths of our fiscal despair a few years ago. At that time, we committed to making this an annual event in an effort to keep you better informed about the progress of your schools. We have honored that commitment. I am pleased to be able to meet with you today to review the just-completed school year and to discuss the challenges that lie ahead.

The 2002-2003 school year was a very successful one for the Troy City Schools. Just three weeks ago, three hundred fifty-eight Troy High School seniors and their families culminated years of hard work by participating in a successful graduation ceremony at Hobart Arena. Congratulations should go to Eric Herman, Troy High School principal and his entire staff, as well as the students and their families for making this ceremony one of such class. The universal feedback we have received about this year’s graduation has been overwhelmingly positive, and that is thanks to great effort on behalf of many. Watching these young men and women conduct themselves in such a dignified manner was indeed a pleasure. They are all to be commended.

This was a class that achieved much. Twenty of those graduating seniors distinguished themselves by earning membership into the National Honor Society. One in seven graduated with honors. They garnered over $1.2 million in scholarships. Tishonna Carnes, the senior class president, Jake Roseberry, President of Student Council, Alisha Shade, JVS honor student, Tera Bradley, the salutatorian, and Andrew Kappers, valedictorian, showed incredible poise by speaking eloquently in front of 3,000 people; each delivering a thoughtful message that was quite impressive to hear.

You know, it’s become common practice to criticize today’s youth for a variety of perceived weaknesses. However, what I have found is quite the contrary. What I have found is that the vast majority of our students are dedicated, intelligent, poised, and polite young people of whom we can all be proud.

Please consider visiting the district web site at www.troy.k12.oh.us to see for yourself what I am talking about, to learn about the plans of our graduates and to see other images from graduation. I believe you will quickly see the high quality of young men and women who have just successfully completed their tenure here and are ready to move on to bigger and better things.
While the graduating class of 2003 was quite successful academically, athletically, as well as in the arts, this year’s accomplishments weren't limited to just the members of this year's senior class.

Please allow me to take just a few moments to highlight a few other examples of excellence in our schools:

For the first time ever, our district earned an Effective District status from the Ohio Department of Education for student performance on state proficiency tests, student graduation rate, and student attendance rate.
Our second graders continue to score well above national averages on the IOWA Test of Basic Skills.
Troy High School students who take the ACT College Entrance Exam easily outscore state and national averages.
Nearly seventy students attended college through the Post-Secondary Education Option program, attending colleges such as Edison, Sinclair, and the University of Dayton and earning college and high school credits simultaneously.
Sonia Gupta, from Troy Junior High, won the city spelling bee and represented us well at District competition.
Kristen Altenburger, a Troy Junior High student, finished second in the state in the Optimist Oratorical Contest.
Power of the Pen teams from Troy Junior High swept both district and regional competitions and seven students participated in state competition, which is the most students who have ever advanced to that level.
Twenty-one Troy High Schools students won awards on the National Latin Exam. One student, Joshua Miller, earned a perfect score on the exam, which is a first for a Troy student.
John Mauntler, Troy High School Science Teacher and Department Head, was selected as Troy's Outstanding Educator by the Troy Area Chamber of Commerce. Two other members of the Troy school’s family, Amita Plantz, math teacher from the junior high and Stephen Lucas, a member of our Board of Education, were selected as Outstanding Young Woman and Man of the Year. Finally, Paul Keller, principal at Heywood Elementary School, was awarded the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education’s Ohio’s Outstanding Principal Award. These four individuals are to be commended for the excellence they exemplify on a daily basis, and there are many more like them involved in our schools.
Going further, the Troy High School yearbook won an Award of Excellence from Taylor Publishing, which is awarded to only the top 5% of the yearbooks in each category.
Both the Troy High School Band and Orchestra earned Superior ratings in state competitions.
The Troy High School newspaper, The Trojan Tempo, won first place from American Scholastic Press for its exceptional quality.
The Troy High School Girls’ Softball Team was Western Division Champions in the Greater Western Ohio Conference.
Both the Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer Teams were awarded All-Ohio Academic Honors by the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association for maintaining a cumulative team grade point average of at least a 3.0.
The Troy High School Varsity Basketball Team won a Fellowship of Christian Athletes Sportsmanship Award for their conduct on the floor.
Troy High School students won first place for the fourth year in a row from American Scholastic Press for their literary publication Anthesis.
Our Destination Imagination Team placed fourth overall in Global Competition, which included sixty-two teams from forty-five states and seven different countries.
Based on preliminary assessment data, our two pilot all-day kindergarten programs were successful at Kyle and Van Cleve. As is always true in an educational setting, true success won't be able to be measured for years, as these students progress through their academic careers. Setting aside any tangible proof of success, there is no doubt that all-day kindergarten has been a hit among participating parents.

These are but a few examples of success that have occurred in our district during the last year. There are many more, too numerous for me to mention this morning. But, suffice it to say that the people and programs I have just highlighted personify excellence and represent what we expect from our schools.

The fact that our district finally reached "Effective District" status this year, as measured by the Ohio Department of Education, hasn't been by accident. For the three years leading up to the 2003 report card, we showed steady, and in many cases dramatic improvement on the state-mandated proficiency tests. It was not uncommon for our percentage of successful students to have improved by double-digit percentages during this four-year period. We feel this has been a result of many factors; the primary ones being our increased emphasis on providing extra assistance to students in need and our efforts at better aligning our academic expectations to state standards. Make no mistake about it, our improvement has been a result of many people; staff, students, and parents; working very hard toward a common goal, and we have been pleased with our improvement.

But, as seems to be the case so often in this business, once inroads towards success have been made, the rules change.

Due in large part to the No Child Left Behind initiative, the rules determining the academic success of schools have changed dramatically this year.

Before I discuss the changes I am referring to, let me be clear. It is hard to argue with the premise behind the No Child Left Behind initiative. Who can dispute the need for accountability, improved teaching, high student achievement, and offering every child an opportunity for success? Those are the very premises upon which public education is built.

However, as we enter the first year in which schools are judged using these new standards, it is important for all of us to remember that the rules have, in fact, changed. Because of these changes, trying to compare current data to past data is invalid. What may look like a decline in efficiency may not be that at all, but may simply be a result in a change in the reporting criteria.

Let me give you three examples of the changes I am referring to. In years past, many special education students were exempted from taking the state-mandated tests or were permitted to take them, but not have their results reported as an indicator of a school district’s educational success rate.

New mandates stipulate that special education students will be tested like all other students (except for a small percentage of profoundly handicapped students) and their test results will count towards school districts’ proficiency test results.

In addition to this, in years past, students who recently moved to the United States and could not speak the English language well enough to be successful on tests like these did not have to take them and as such were not reported. This year they did have to take the test, even if this was their first year in the country, and their test results, too, will be reported as an indicator of a district’s academic success.

Finally, last year, fourth grade students were permitted to retake the fourth grade reading proficiency test three times, after being provided extra academic assistance, and their scores were reported as successes if they passed the test, even if it was on the third attempt. While students are still entitled to take the test three times, those who pass this summer will not have their results reported as successes for the district. Last year, approximately fifty fourth graders re-took the test during the summer, with nearly half of them passing. Not only was this a positive outcome for them, but it also contributed to our success as a district, as their results were reported as our success as well. But, no more. Let me repeat that. Summer results for fourth graders taking the reading proficiency test again will not count in the district’s statistics, even though results will have been impacted by extra assistance we provided throughout the year and this summer.

Just how much these changes will impact our results is not yet clear, because the data is yet to be finalized at the state level, but we do believe that our results will not measure up to the 2003 Report Card results.

We are not complaining about the many changes in accountability. We simply want to make sure our constituents understand that the rules have changed. In other words, comparing the new data to the old will not be comparing “apples to apples.”

So, despite the fact that students and staff are working harder to achieve academic success than ever before, we anticipate a drop in our next State Report Card. People who do not understand the changes in reporting that have occurred may well blame this drop on a decrease in the efficiency of the schools, when the reason may well be the rule changes that I have just described.

I am not going to lie to you. This is very frustrating. The only solace that we can take from this development is that many schools around the state will likely experience a similar decline in test scores.

Having said all of this, we recognize that this is the hand with which we are dealt. Rather than sit around complain, we will roll up our sleeves even further and look for even more ways to help those students who are not being successful. Staff has been spending time throughout the year and will continue this summer to study state standards and make sure our curricula align appropriately with them. We will also provide more specific staff development opportunities to our teachers on an ongoing basis, better preparing them to address the issues confronting them today. We are looking at ways to better assess students and address their weaknesses in a more timely manner and with a greater degree of effectiveness. We will continue to offer extra assistance to students who are not being successful on the state-mandated tests. There are changes in the works at the junior high beginning next year that we feel will provide a more nurturing environment for an age group that desperately needs it while better providing the academic support so vital to students of junior high age. This is especially important in the light of even more stringent state expectations with the implementation of the Ohio Graduation Test, to be implemented for sophomores beginning in the 2004-2005 school year.

In other words, while we are certainly frustrated by the ever-changing rules, we are not throwing our hands in the air in despair. We are determined to find ways to succeed. But, let’s be realistic. Many of the things that we must implement in response to increased state and federal expectations do cost money at a time when increases in state and federal funding are not happening. This is a dilemma not only for us, but for all public school districts around Ohio.

Because of this, we are feeling frustrations towards the state with respect to our fiscal welfare. As you well know, we have worked very hard over the last four years to reclaim a level of fiscal stability that we all expect from our schools. We are very aware of the fiscal crunch at the state level and expect to do our part. But, it seems that some of the folks in Columbus have no concept of the impact of the decisions they make on a daily basis, and, frankly, many of the decisions they make are devastating to public schools.

For example, the legislature is contemplating accelerating the elimination of the tax businesses must pay on their inventory. We estimated that the original change in law, to gradually eliminate this tax, implemented in 2001, would cost us nearly $2 million over the course of the next five years. Accelerating this elimination at the rate currently being considered would increase that amount to nearly $4 million over the next five years, and we know of no plans from the state to replace the revenues that will be eliminated as a result of this action.

Going further, earlier this spring, with a swipe of the pen, the Governor eliminated $185,000 from our budget for this year. That buys a lot of textbooks.

Another change being considered by state lawmakers that would have a major impact on our state foundation funding is the elimination of three-year averaging of Average Daily Membership as the determining factor for the amount of state foundation money school districts receive. As it is currently being considered, eliminating this portion of state foundation law could impact the Troy City Schools by over $300,000 in state funding for both Fiscal Year 2004 and Fiscal Year 2005. As you can see, these changes will have a significant negative impact on our budget.

These are but three examples of what seems to be occurring nationwide; the rather alarming trend of financial problems being forced to the lowest level possible. The federal government appears to be contemplating budget cuts to the states, and state governments are cutting funding to local agencies such as public schools in an attempt to escape their budget dilemmas. The problem this creates for us is that there is only one way to replace the dollars that are being eliminated from our budgets, and that is through additional taxation at the local level. So, while state and federal lawmakers are holding a firm line against raising taxes, the decisions they are making will force local agencies like ourselves to return to taxpayers to survive. This is occurring while state and federal expectations in areas such as academic achievement, addressing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and No Child Left Behind, all of which cost money to implement, are certainly not decreasing. These expectations put a tremendous strain not only on our finances, but on our staff as well. The dollars sent to us already do not come close to covering our costs. Furthering reduction in state aid simply exacerbates our problem.

So, how does all this affect the Troy City Schools? We are fortunate in that any financial problems we face are, at least at this point, three years away, unlike many other districts around the state of Ohio. However, we must be clear. If the state continues down its current path or finds ways to cut state foundation dollars to us even further, which is a very real possibility, considering it now appears that the state deficit will total nearly $1 billion, we will be in financial peril again in three years.

There are those who may say that this is the time, then, to begin cutting staff and programs in preparation for that time. Let me be clear. We have operated with a lean budget during my tenure here. I believe my history in Troy has proven that, as we have moved from a fiscal crisis to fiscal stability. It is not as if we have millions of dollars of fat that we can trim without severely impacting programs.

But, we are faced by the same pressures every other business owner, and for that matter, homeowner, faces. Double-digit annual increases in health insurance costs greatly impact our budget. Securing property insurance on facilities totaling nearly $68 million has certainly become much more expensive. Premiums for workman’s compensation have skyrocketed. And, economists are predicting major increases in fuel costs within the next year.

These changes put an incredible strain on school districts’ ability to remain fiscally solvent, and one major reason is because of the way school funding is designed. This was one of the pivotal points upon which the DeRolph lawsuit was filed. The suit charged that school funding is designed in such a way that school districts are forced into economic difficulties in cycles. Every school district in Ohio faces this dilemma. Can they all be incompetent when it comes to managing dollars?! While our time is coming, we are fortunate that at this time our problems appear to still be three years down the road.

So, in short, what this means is that if things don’t change, we will be forced to return to the people of Troy in the coming years to ask for additional tax dollars.

So far, I have talked to you about the two most pressing issues confronting us as a district; the academic progress of our students and the financial pressures we face as a result of the state’s precarious financial position. But, that is not all that we are working on.

In conjunction with the state’s major emphasis on improving school facilities, which has resulted in money flowing to districts from the state level, we felt it our responsibility to study our facilities closely and to learn how we would be impacted by state funding for facilities.

The state’s fiscal problems have naturally impacted the flow of money in this arena. We have learned that we would receive approximately 17 cents on the dollar from the state, and we are being told that no money would be available to us for at least seven to ten years. To put this in perspective, Bradford recently built a new school, while receiving approximately eighty cents on the dollar from the state. With the state’s current budget woes, it is conceivable that any state aid would be pushed well beyond the seven to ten years pointed to right now. In fact, the time frame we are currently being given is an extension from what we were originally given.

Having said this, the fact remains that the facilities in this district, while very well maintained by an outstanding maintenance staff, are quite old. Our newest facility, Troy Junior High, is nearing thirty years old. Troy High School is approximately fifty years old. Many of our elementary buildings are older than that. Much has changed in the years since these facilities were built, particularly in the area of technology, in legal expectations to accommodate special needs students, and in extra-curricular activities available to all students.

Another factor for us to consider is the competitive world in which we live. The city elected to refurbish Hobart Arena. Why? One possible reason was to remain competitive with other facilities of its kind. The same can be said for the renovation of Troy Memorial Stadium. The entire community benefits from these facilities when events hosted in them bring large crowds of people into town.

Well, this competitiveness stretches to the education arena. We know that many families actually choose their community of residence based on the school system available to them. We are also told that the same is often true of businesses looking to relocate. At a time when many other districts in the area can provide much more modern, up-to-date facilities, the potential inability to attract new families and businesses to our community due to inefficient facilities is a consideration.

In view of this, we feel that it is our responsibility to engage members of the community in a dialogue about school facilities and their expectations for them. And, that is exactly what we are doing. Community members, beginning with those who first raised the issue in assisting us in developing the district’s five-year strategic plan in 2000, have already provided input into this process. In the months to come, we will be asking you for input about what to do with the facilities in the Troy City Schools. I invite you to get involved in this process.

Since I’m talking about facilities, this is a perfect time to acknowledge the city and the Park Board for the wonderful improvements they are making to Troy Memorial Stadium. Although it is a community-owned facility, the fact is that the Troy City Schools stand to benefit as much, if not more so from the upgrade to this facility than any other entity. For this reason, we are grateful to the community for its efforts in making the stadium a place of which we can all be proud. We are also grateful to the Troy Football Boosters Organization for the financial commitment it has made in this upgrade. Because of the cooperation between the city, the Park Board, the schools, and other supporters like the Football Boosters, Troy will be able to showcase a facility that will be second to none in a community of this size. For this, we should all be proud.

Speaking of the city, we are very pleased with the cooperative spirit that exists between the city and us. We have partnered with them on a school/city newsletter; we have consulted with them as we both look at upgrading our telephone systems; and, as I mentioned before, there has been tremendous cooperation on the stadium project. We both realize that we are partners in the success of this community, and we are both committed to working together to achieve that success.

So, in summary, we have completed another very successful school year. We have sent a graduating class out into the world, prepared for future success. For the first time ever, we earned Effective District status as assigned by the Ohio Department of Education. Our students have achieved academically, athletically, in the arts, and socially. Students and staff alike have earned local, state, and national awards. We currently enjoy fiscal stability. Our relationship with the city and with local businesses has never been better.

But, while this year has been very gratifying, concerns loom, particularly in the areas of academic achievement, in the district’s future financial stability, and in what to do about our aging facilities. Finding ways to achieve success is a challenge that is confronting us as we speak. However, we are committed to finding those answers. We truly believe that by working together as a community, we can achieve success.

Studying our facilities will continue to be an ongoing process for which we are asking for your input. The decision about what to do with our facilities will not be made in a vacuum. These are your facilities, and you will have a say in what you want them to be.

Thank you for joining me here this morning. Have a wonderful day.

View: 2002 Address