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Primarily serving Pataskala and surrounding areas
July 17, 2011
Superintendent search
26 apply to be next leader for Licking Heights By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
(From left) New police officers Josh Silverman, Bradley Ramsey and Pete German were sworn in by Pataskala Mayor Steve Butcher July 15. Ramsey and German will be full-time officers and Silverman will serve in a part-time role.
Pataskala police
City bolsters force with new officers By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Two years after having to shrink its police force because of budget cuts, the city of Pataskala has added two full-time officers and one part-time officer to its ranks. Mayor Steve Butcher swore in the three officers July 15 at the Sterling Theater. Butcher said the city income tax allowed the department to expand. “The income tax is exactly the reason we are able to do this,” Butcher said. “Probably the worst part of my job has been the need to cut back on the department for the past five years. If there was any privilege to serving here, it is the ability to see the department be able to rebuild instead of dismantling it.”
Chief Bruce Brooks said the force will now have 17 full-time officers, one part-time officer and five auxiliary officers who serve without pay. “It helps alleviate the stress on some of the other officers,” Brooks said. Two of the officers sworn in July 15 have the rank of police officer. Bradley Ramsey, who left the Pataskala force three years ago during the budget contraction and has been working at the Licking Heights Local School District, will be named detective, Brooks said. In addition to Ramsey, Joshua Silverman will be the part-time officer and Pete German is the other full-time officer. Ramsey and German were born in Newark, while Silverman originally is from Columbus. All three officers said the job market for law
enforcement is enormously competitive. “A lot of departments will give a test and have five, 10 positions open and have two or three thousand people show up to take the test,” Silverman said. Said German: “Once you’re in, you really need to consider yourself fortunate. For every person they are hiring, they’re probably turning down 10, more than 10. Once you’re in, you need to make sure you stay in and do your job right. It’s very competitive.” Butcher said the city is fortunate that it has been able to rebuild the department quickly. “It is a pretty quick turnaround, but it’s quick because we did not let the problem get larger than our budget,” Butcher said. “We started See NEW OFFICERS, page A6
The Licking Heights school board met twice last week in executive session to begin working through applications for the superintendent post vacated when Thomas Tucker accepted the superintendent’s job at Worthington City Schools. Interim Superintendent Nelson McCray, director of the Licking County Educational Service Center, said the school board was pleased by the number and quality of applications. “I think they’re satisfied with the number of individuals who have shown interest,” McCray said. “I think they’re making progress. It’s a speeded-up process to have someone there by the middle of August, but I think they’re on target for that right now.” Board president Matt Satterwhite said the board was optimistic that it could fill the position by the time school starts, but that the board would not rush the process. “We don’t know yet (if the post will be filled by the first day of school),” Satterwhite said. “The applications just closed. If we can narrow it down and get a couple of good candidates and we like one, we can move quicker. “But we want the right process. We start Aug. 15, which is earlier than most schools, but we have to get the right person. We’re hopeful.” Satterwhite said the quality of the applicant pool pleased the board. “We are glad to see we got a wide spectrum of applicants,” Satterwhite said. “We have current superinSee SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH, page A3
Southwest Licking
Board developing superintendent-evaluation process By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Southwest Licking school board met July 12 to begin a superintendentevaluation process that is expected to be developed during an extensive process of meetings and retreats. Superintendent Forest Yocum said the Buckeye Association of School Ad-
ministrators, of which most Ohio superintendents are members, recently received a grant to develop an improved evaluation process for superintendents. “It’s prompted by evaluations being put together by the (Ohio) Department of Education and the governor’s office,” Yocum said. “This is done at no cost to the district. In the past, evaluations have been more checklists. This involves goal-
setting, where we’ll have three or four major goals, and then specific objectives in support of those goals.” Consultant John Thomas told the school board it was important to distinguish between broad goals and more concrete, data-based objectives. “Goals are sometimes very grand, not measurable,” Thomas said. “An example would be to secure the financial fu-
ture of the district. An objective would be to develop a plan to present to the community about financial options to help secure the funding to the district. That’s something the superintendent can control and (it) can be measured.” Thomas said that a mistake in such planning is to set goals that are outside the control of the responsible person. “Let me tell you what an objective is
not: Saying the superintendent will pass a levy,” Thomas said. “If the superintendent got to cast all the votes, that would be within his control. But he can only cast one vote. The best you can ask anyone is to develop a plan to explain to the community what the ramifications are to passing or not passing a levy.” See EVALUATION, page A2
State report cards
Preliminary scores show ratings bump for Southwest Licking By MICHAEL J. MAURER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Preliminary state report card results from the Ohio Department of Education indicate that the Southwest Licking Local School District will receive a boost in its rating from “effective” last year to “excellent” when final results for 2010-11 are released in August. The ODE has not yet released valueadded measures for all districts in the state. According to the results, the district met 25 of 26 total performance indicators, missing the requirement that 75 percent of fifth-grade students test proficient in math. The district had 71.4 percent of fifth-grade students meet the standard.
Superintendent Forest Yocum said the district was pleased with its preliminary results, even though the goal is always to do better. “Our reading scores and our math scores were very good,” Yocum said. “We improved in practically every area.” Director of curriculum Kristi Thompson also said the district is pleased with the results, but is not yet certain of the effect of “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which can affect district rankings. “Our preliminary rating is ‘excellent,’ but when I look at our AYP report, I hesitate to comment on AYP until I get a look at final growth measures (which See REPORT CARDS, page A2
Fast feet
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
Nine-year-old Tre Rine goes through warm-up drills at the Big Red Football Camp on July 14 at Denison University in Granville. The two-day camp was open to players in grades 4-8. The camp, which was run by the Denison football coaches and some Denison players, was being held for the first time.