Garfield Heights,OH Shortens School Day, Parents Blame Voters

Fox 8 News ^ | 1/17/12 | Emily Valdez

[EBH]

As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone and libraries are closed.

School days are shortened to just 5 1/2 hours -- leaving kids less time for instruction, and working parents scrambling.

"What are kids gonna do with that big window of time when their parents are still working and all that idle time that they still have, to do God knows what?" parent Jeff Bodziony said.

Hot school lunches are also thing of the past.

In fact, lunch is a thing of the past.

Students used to have lunch in the noon hour.

Instead they are now sent home at 1:15 p.m.

Kids who qualify for free lunches were sent home Tuesday with a bologna sandwich, an apple and a pickle.

[hinckley buzzard]

Garfield Heights is one of those declining transitional almost-inner ring suburbs with a huge overhang of pensions and medical insurance for teachers who have been there forever.

It is a poster child for why Kasich sought relief through what became known as Issue 2. The unions have caused this strangulation of the educational process, but the peeps over there in GH are too stupid to recognize the connection between their votes (against issue 2 and against local levies) and the school's actions.

[EBH]

See post 12...

[netmilsmom]

>>That is where it should have been all this time.<<

Exactly.

In fact, I could see parents getting together and doing a co-op deal while using Ohio Virtual Academy. K12 is a wonderful education.

[okie01]

What an odd collection of reactions...

You'd think the parents and the voters were two totally different groups of people -- one somehow acting against the others' interest.

And you'd think the parents themselves would accept some responsibility for their childrens' obesity...and their education.

But, nooooooooooo, it's the voters' fault. And the school is sole responsible for raising and educating the kid.

[Kickass Conservative]

Since when do you get an Apple AND a Pickle?

[EBH]

I agree with you on that. There are other options if the parents are serious about educating their children.

[max americana]

“In fact, lunch is a thing of the past.”

We never had lunches in my school. Bring your own or starve. Now how hard is to grasp that concept?

[netmilsmom]

>>Us west-siders used to call it “Garbage Heights”. :-)<<

It’s just Brook Park of the east side. (I’m from Brook Park)
Lower middle class, blue collar.

I knew a lot of lovely people that lived there.

[SaraJohnson]

Speaking of latchkey kids. I was the only mom in the neighborhood home when we lived in Maryland and the mothers found out about me. I worked out of my house and had a helper for the children.

I was asked by mothers to keep house keys for when the children lost their keys and help if they had an emergency. It was a zoo. The emergencies turned out to be hunger, lonliness or math homework... I could not work from three to six pm and had to work after the kids went to bed to make up for it. What a zoo!

[netmilsmom]

>>Just imagine the day when they announce all foodstamps, section 8 housing and medicaid have ceased<<

Don’t hold your breath.
The entitlement people vote for more all the time.

[EBH]

I sort of think this is the tip of iceberg showing. Wondering where the first truly visible collapse would start showing? Banks, jobs, food?

No, the schools. The forclosures and drop in property values here in Ohio are finally starting to really show in the place most people were not looking...the schools.

[EBH]

I sort of think this is the tip of iceberg showing. Wondering where the first truly visible collapse would start showing? Banks, jobs, food?

No, the schools. The foreclosures and drop in property values here in Ohio are finally starting to really show in the place most people were not looking...the schools.

[Gasshog]

I feel so sorry for the parents.

Not!

[eclecticEel]

No, no; the indoctrination classes take up the first 4 hours of the day as always. It’s all that unnecessary learning stuff that’s been phased out.

[Vince Ferrer]

As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone

I would have done the opposite. I would send the kids home to learn math, science, language, etc, via computer based training, but the schools would be open for art, music, sports, and other activities where there is social learning involved.

Oh, and I would have cut the administrative overhead first.

[netmilsmom]

>>I agree with you on that. There are other options if the parents are serious about educating their children.<<

Cash could be made by a smart mom with an internet connection at high speed.

If I’m not mistaken, OVA is giving laptops for schoolwork. All a child needs is that wireless internet connection and their own phone (OVA wants a phone number per family). A mom could school her own kids and a few others out of her home. Win-win for everyone.

[netmilsmom]

You needed to charge for “emergencies”.

[Donnafrflorida]

Mathematics don’t lie. They WILL RUN OUT OF MONEY EVENTUALLY. Then what? We will look like n Korea or Cuba. Rationed food. All jobs are government.

[Donnafrflorida]

Mathematics don’t lie. They WILL RUN OUT OF MONEY EVENTUALLY. Then what? We will look like n Korea or Cuba. Rationed food. All jobs are government.

[TonyInOhio]

The Garfield Heights City Schools paid 515 employees in 2011, one of whom, Linda Reid, was paid $182,802. A quick perusal of the salary data shows many, many staff members making in excess of $76,000 per year for 185 days of paid work, or the equivalent of $102,000 per year in the private sector. In addition, most of those employees are eligible for a lifetime pension upon retirement of the better part of $1,000,000, assuming average life expectancy. The majority of those employees also receive a generous package of benefits, all courtesy of the taxpayers.

The average salary for jobs in Garfield Heights, Ohio is approximately $31,000.

Read it for yourself, if you can stomach it, at the Buckeye Institute's website.