June 30, 2011
Board agrees to cut some personnel By DAVID S. OWEN ThisWeek Community Newspapers The Reynoldsburg Board of Education took steps June 21 to eliminate some positions for the next fiscal year as part of the district’s efforts to trim $2.4 million from its budget. District spokesperson Tricia Moore said no specific personnel can be been identified yet, just certain full-time equiv-
alency (FTE) positions. The list includes the next two fiscal an administration intern, an assistant years — $2.4 million principal and a pre-school guidance in FY2012 and ancounselor, each of which counts as a 0.5 other $1.3 million in FTE job; 4.5 FTE pre-school teachers, FY2013. 4.2 FTE pre-school non-teaching paraMoore said the disprofessionals and 1.5 FTE physical edtrict also plans to reucation teachers at the high school. duce the number of Steve Dackin Superintendent Steve Dackin indiemployees through cated May that the district is anticipat- attrition — that is, not replacing people ing expenditure cuts of $3.7 million over who have retired.
“It’s technical language right now. We’re not at the point where we can translate a number of people who are losing their jobs … but there’s a process that has to go through, and the first step is this, eliminate positions,” Moore said. Now that the board has approved cutting the positions, she said, the next step will be to identify the people who hold those jobs and notify them by letter. A caveat exists, however: Moore said
some of the employees may have “bumping rights” according to seniority or their contracts, which means they could be reassigned to other positions, thus bumping someone else out of a job. Taking the approved job cuts and attrition into account, Dackin said district officials have found ways to cut about $1.9 million of the $2.4 million goal See BOARD AGREES, page A2
State report card
RELIVING HISTORY
Preliminary results rank district as ‘excellent’ By DAVID S. OWEN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Photos by Adam Cairns/ThisWeek
(Above) Union soldiers, led by 14-year-old Paige Emig, of Clintonville, carrying the Union flag, march to the battlefield during the Civil War encampment and reenactment at Civic Park in Reynoldsburg on June 25. (Right) Dressed as Union soldiers, Nathan Drawbridge of Reynoldsburg, right, talks to Kyle Waggoner of Indianapolis prior to the morning battle during the Civil War encampment and re-enactment. “Where else can you dress up, shoot guns and get away with it?” Waggoner said. For a slideshow of photos from the daylong event, visit ThisWeekNews.com.
Reynoldsburg schools Superintendent Steve Dackin says preliminary data released by the Ohio Department of Education show Reynoldsburg schools are on track to a rating of “excellent” for the 2010-11 school year. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to announce that for this past school year, it appears that we have hit all 26 indicators, and that would be a first for Reynoldsburg since the inception of the local report card,” Dackin said last week. In addition to the excellent rating, he said the district hit a performance index of more than 100 percent for the first time. “That performance index is a measured percentage of kids who advanced in the different levels of the proficiency tests,” Dackin said. “These two measures are indicators of achievement. Their orientation is about achievement and how kids have met certain benchmarks in their learning.” Dackin stressed that the information is preliminary because the ODE has not released value-added measures for all school districts in the state. That information is expected to be released in August when the official report cards come out. “So we don’t know the growth side of the equation yet,” he said. “We know the achievement side, and for us, growth has been so important over the See PRELIMINARY RESULTS, page A4
Council OKs plan for Olde Reynoldsburg By DAVID S. OWEN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
RHS grad fulfills dream with Pittsburgh Pirates By KEN KITCHEN ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Eric Fryer was at a Panera Bread restaurant in Indianapolis with his wife, Allison, and 11-month-old son, Caleb, when he received a phone call with news that would change their lives. He was going to the major leagues. Fryer, a 2004 Reynoldsburg High School graduate, made his debut on June 26 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Starting at catcher, Fryer batted eighth and went 0-for-3 with a walk in the Pirates’4-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
He was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis the previous day and arrived at the ballpark just before a 64 win over the Red Sox. “Honestly, it’s been kind of crazy. I just Eric Fryer missed getting a flight to Pittsburgh and ended up driving from Indy to Pittsburgh and the game (June 25),” Courtesy of Associated Press Fryer said. “It was a long day, but exciting. I was in the bullpen during the national an- Boston’s David Ortiz, left, scores around the tag of Pittsburgh Pirates catcher and Reynoldsburg High School graduate Eric
See COUNCIL OKS PLAN, page A5
See RHS GRAD, page A2 Fryer during the seventh inning of a June 26 game.
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Reynoldsburg City Council approved the Olde Reynoldsburg strategic plan Monday, June 27, after considering comments from residents and members of the community development committee over the past couple months. The plan, introduced in early May, was devised by city planning administrator Matt Hansen, development director Lucas Haire and a steering committee of residents. Its purpose is to provide a vision in to make Olde Reynoldsburg a successful business destination, Hanson said, and focuses on an area along East Main Street from Blacklick Creek east to Waggoner Road, then south from there to the intersections at East Livingston Avenue, Graham Road and Slate Ridge Boulevard. The main objectives include creating land use and development recommendations, understanding how to draw successful commercial development to the area and to create a sense of place and a brand for Olde Reynoldsburg. During committee discussions, residents objected to the possibility of rerouting truck traffic, although the plan didn’t say specifically how this
The 2011 Special Olympics Ohio Summer Games were held June 24-26 at various locations in the Columbus area. To view a multimedia presentation on opening day, visit ThisWeekNews.com.
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