Faithful blog readers, First Bell is moving to a new site on the Akron Beacon Journal’s web page, www.ohio.com. We’ll be using different software, so we may have some bugs to work out.

The new url address for First Bell – On Education is www.ohio.com/blogs/education.

We’ll have an RSS feed set up soon, but until then, followers on Twitter and First Bell’s Facebook Fan Page won’t be getting automatic updates when the blog is updated. I’ll try to get that remedied as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading.

As a final send off, I note with sorrow the passing of American poet Adrienne Rich. Here obituary is here. Here’s  links to some of her poems featured in our  Poem of the Day series for National Poetry Month.

Miracle Ice Cream

and

Diving Into the Wreck

brimfield TWP.: Officials evacuated Field High School early Wednesday afternoon when the letters “BOM” were found written on a bathroom wall.

Field Superintendent Beth Coleman notified parents and said students were sent to the middle school next door.

“We are doing a search right now,” Coleman said.

DAYTON, OHIO: The state is asking all Ohio colleges and universities to join a collaborative that provides live, online tutoring to students free of charge.

The Dayton Daily News reports the Board of Regents’ goal for the Ohio eTutoring Collaborative is to enlist all 107 higher education institutions, representing more than 600,000 students.

Twenty-one schools participated in the program in fall 2011, and 2,400 students received tutoring.

Students are able to communicate with tutors in real time through audio and video, whiteboards, document sharing and instant messaging. Tutors are generally available from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day and are accessible through each college’s website.

Schools participating had been paying an annual $2,500 fee, but costs will be now be funded through the state’s eStudent Services.

Beth El Congregation is selling its West Akron synagogue and moving to the Jerry Shaw Jewish Community Center.

The move from the current location at 464 S. Hawkins Ave. is something that its membership has considered for more than 15 years because of its shrinking size.

The conversation about constructing a chapel at the JCC campus on White Pond Drive intensified during the last two years.

The official decision came this week, after a deal was reached with Summit Academy to buy the South Hawkins Avenue property. An agreement with the charter school to purchase the property — appraised at $880,000 — for $715,000 was made before the congregation could list it with a real-estate agent.

“It was a great coincidence. One of our congregants is a real-estate agent and one of his clients is Summit Academy. He knew the school needed a building and he asked if they would be interested in looking at the synagogue,” said Gary M. Rosen, Beth El’s president. “It’s what we call a shidduch, a Yiddish term that means ‘like a match made in heaven.’ ”

On Sunday, 248 members of the Conservative synagogue gathered for a special meeting to consider giving its board approval to proceed with the sale of the South Hawkins property and to continue planning and fundraising for a new worship site. The vote was 239 in favor and seven against, with two members abstaining.

“I was overwhelmed by the support of the congregation,” Rosen said. “We are very enthusiastic about what our future looks like.”

Rosen estimates that the 325-household congregation has shrunk to about half its size from 40 years ago. The newly constructed chapel will be smaller than the synagogue’s current facility.

“We are dealing with some of the same issues that other religious institutions are dealing with as the population shifts,” Rosen said. “While we are comparatively on a smaller scale, we’ve had to face the same decisions that our Catholic friends have made [to downsize]. The difference is that each synagogue has to decide what is best for a particular congregation rather than a regional body or diocese making the decision.”

The Beth El Congregation expects to be out of its current building by Aug. 1.

The congregation will worship in the conference room and auditorium at the JCC, until its chapel can be constructed. No timetable has been set for what is expected to be a million-dollar addition that will be built adjacent to the center’s front entrance at 750 White Pond Drive. In fact, the congregation has yet to draw up the plans for its new chapel. Its offices will be relocated to current space at the JCC.

While the congregation is getting settled into its new home at the JCC, Summit Academy officials plan to move its high school, grades 9-12, from its current location at 864 E. Market St. in Akron. The school, operated by Summit Academy Management, serves about 60 students for six local school districts, according to David Norman, chief operating officer.

Summit Academy Management operates 26 charter schools (privately operated schools that receive state funding based on enrollment and other factors) in 14 Ohio cities that serve about 2,700 students. More than 90 percent of Summit’s students have mild to moderate cognitive disabilities, including attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, high-functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder. It employs more than 700 people in the state of Ohio.

“While we still have to do our due diligence before the sale is closed, we are excited to have a building that will allow us room for growth,” Norman said. “Right now, we are maxed out at the East Market Street Building. The Beth El building is better suited for education because it will give us larger classrooms and activity rooms.”

Norman said there are no plans to sell the property that currently houses Summit Academy’s high school nor two other properties at 847 and 855 E. Market. The latter two properties are currently used as a martial arts school and for storage.

Summit Academy does plan to do some remodeling at the Hawkins Avenue property before beginning classes there for the 2012-2013 school year. Plans, which are expected to extend beyond next school year, include adding a gymnasium, Norman said.

Like Summit Academy, Beth El’s congregation is hopeful that their move will help it become more vibrant.

“What we’re doing makes economic sense, but our goal is to develop a stronger community,” Rosen said. “In addition to building a strong congregational community, we hope to help build a stronger Jewish community by partnering with our sister Jewish organizations, many of which are located right there at the Jewish Community Center.”

Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com.

Kent State students can literally look up to two alumni who have forged careers in comic strips.

Tom Batiuk of Medina and Chuck Ayers of Akron on Tuesday unveiled a comic border mural in a new student lounge in the KSU Student Center.

The event marked the 40th anniversary of the duo’s Funky Winkerbean strip and debut of the first volume of Batiuk’s book, The Complete Funky Winkerbean, by KSU’s Black Squirrel Books.

The artwork transformed the room, said Greg Jarvie, KSU vice president of enrollment management and student affairs.

“It was dark, dim,” he recalled. “This will be a special place, there’s no doubt.”

The Student Center’s former music appreciation room now has blue and gold seating that flanks wall-to-floor windows.

The 96-foot, full-color mural depicts comic-strip characters and KSU students at every stage of their college experience, from moving into dorms to graduation.

Timeka Rashid, assistant dean of students, said the university was “thrilled at the opportunity to offer our students another space where they can unwind.”

Batiuk and Ayers have long relationships with Kent State. Batiuk graduated from KSU in 1969 and Ayers in 1971.

Ayers went on to work for the Akron Beacon Journal for 25 years, more than 13 as the editorial cartoonist. Batiuk parlayed his experiences as a junior high art teacher into the Funky Winkerbean strip that debuted March 27, 1972; Ayers joined him as illustrator in 1994.

Since 1987, they have collaborated on the Winkerbean spin-off Crankshaft. Batiuk writes and Ayers draws.

Along the way, Funky Winkerbean has soared in popularity, now appearing in 600 newspapers around the world. Batiuk’s books about a character’s battle against breast cancer were published by Penguin Press and then by KSU as Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe in 2007.

The new book should keep Funky fans happy for years. The first volume now out includes an introduction by Batiuk and the first three years of the comic strip. Subsequent yearly volumes will include three years of Funky strips.

In the meantime, Batiuk said it was Ayers who made the “herculean” effort to develop the mural. Ayers said it took “forever” — in reality, about four weeks — to create such a big piece of art in half scale.

For their work, they received relatively little — $500 each, which they donated back to the university. Riot Creative Imaging of Cleveland installed the artwork at no cost.

For details about the new Funky book, contact KSU’s Black Squirrel Books at 330-672-7913 or www.kentstate
universitypress.com.

Black Squirrel Books is the popular imprint of KSU’s academic press, which publishes 35 books a year.

Carol Biliczky can be reached at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3729.

STOW: In the wake of last month’s fatal shootings at Chardon High School, the Stow-Munroe Falls school district plans to train its employees on what to do if an armed intruder comes into one of its buildings.

“We are all mindful of the fact that things like that can happen in any community, and then it does,” Stow Mayor Sara Drew said. “It really makes you remember that you need to be prepared.”

Teachers will undergo training in the ALICE program this week. According to the group Response Options, its program — Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate — is designed to enhance current lockdown procedures used in schools.

“You are not just locking the door, cowering down and turning off the lights,” Drew said. “They are implementing some other enhanced measures for teachers.”

School Superintendent Russell Jones said this training will bring “a whole different philosophy of how to deal with intruders and emergencies in the building.

“The whole high school staff did have an overview of the program during our November in-service day. I was able to see a good portion of that. After seeing it, we are excited to bring that training to our entire district,” Jones said.

Lt. Joseph A. Hendry Jr. of the Kent State police department conducts training in school safety using the ALICE program, which he described as “unique because it addresses the moment you become aware of an active shooter and gives you options on how to react based on your circumstance.”

Hendry recalled speaking with a parent who went through ALICE training at Kent State. He said the parent went home and shared with her daughter what she had learned. Her daughter then found herself in the cafeteria at Chardon when the shooting started.

When the woman’s daughter saw the initial shooting and observed students getting under cafeteria tables, she knew how important it was for everyone to evacuate the room, Hendry said. The girl grabbed one of her friends and a stranger and yelled: “My mom said, ‘Don’t hide under tables. You are an easy target. Run!’ ”

Several students took that advice, he said.

“If they had stayed under those tables and the gunman reloads, you could have easily had triple the amount of casualties,” Hendry said.

Under lockdown procedures used in many schools, students and teachers lock the door, cover the window, shut off the lights and hide.

Hendry said that lockdown is a concept that came out of prisons to secure facilities. It might have a place in schools when dealing with a drug or security sweep, but all it does if there is a shooter “is make sure the targets — the kids — are all bunched up and quiet in the kill zone,” Hendry said.

ALICE would train everyone to respond more appropriately, he said.

“We don’t just train the teachers in a school,” Hendry said. “We train everyone. The concepts are portable to anywhere.

“The students aren’t always in classrooms. They are in the halls, cafeterias, buses and outside the building during the days. They may be in a position to have to make a decision all by themselves. That is why you train everyone to respond.”

Hendry said police officers who work with schools agree that evacuation is the best response. Leaving the place that is posing a threat is generally the best option.

“I have spoken with hundreds of police officers,” Hendry said. “I ask them if they talk to their kids about active shooters and I have them raise their hands. Almost all do.

“I ask them to keep their hands up if they tell their kids to stay in the school. Every hand goes down.”

Training in the Stow-
Munroe Falls schools will take place Wednesday through Friday. Lt. Chad Cunningham of the University of Akron Police Department will be the facilitator.

More information about the ALICE program and Response Options is available at www.roseminars.com.

Heather Beyer can be reached at HMBeyer@aol.com.

Akron is using federal Race to the Top money to double the retirement incentive for teachers from $500 to $1,000.  So far, the district knows of 90 teachers who say they're retiring, about 20 to 25 more than usual, said human resources executive director Kathy McVey, who updated the Akron school board tonight on labor matters. It's too soon to say whether that will offset the 140 teaching jobs that must be eliminated for the next school year to avoid a $22 million deficit.

“We have to match up the people who are retiring with the openings that we'll have,” McVey said. “We expect it will offset some of the layoffs that we have to do, but probably not all of them.”

Meanwhile, the district is preparing to negotiate contracts with its six unions, whose current contracts expire June 30. The district has saved about $4.4 million over the last five years by negotiating health care issues separately. Teachers who once paid nothing toward health insurance premiums, for example, will begin paying a flat fee beginning this summer: $50 per month for a family and $25 for an individual policy. Teachers also have agreed to a $5 increased copay for name-brand drugs from $15 to $20.

Education

A Wadsworth sixth-grader has been selected as an author for the 28th annual Columbus Children’s Theatre Child Writing Project, Color a Story. The work by Carter Kelly, a student at Central Intermediate, was one of 17 selected from nearly 1,600 submissions for this year’s production.

Tallmadge High School senior Alexandra James received the $2,000 Mary M. Hoffman Scholarship from St. Mark Lutheran Church in Tallmadge. James plans to attend Ohio State University in the fall.

Susan Louscher, executive director of strategic partnerships and government programs at the University of Akron, received a Readers’ Choice Corrosion Innovation of the Year Award from Materials Performance magazine. Louscher developed Corr-
Connect.org, which combines corrosion courseware, videos and interactive simulators in an online resource center. Kendra Preer, director of the Upward Bound Math-
Science Academy at Stark State College, received the 2012 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. Preer’s dissertation, Interracial Diversity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Understanding African-American Student Perceptions, was completed for her doctoral studies at Jackson State University.

Olivia Riffle of Hudson was selected for Phi Beta Kappa at Washington and Lee University. She is a senior.

David James Michael Esber of Akron was among 26 seniors at Colgate University selected for membership in the university’s Konosioni Senior Honor Society. He is the son of David Esber and Cindy Esber. Every year, the graduating seniors choose the next 13 men and 13 women student leaders to be inducted into the organization.

The Beacon Journal welcomes news of education, community and military achievement. Email notices to Carol Biliczky at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com or fax them to 330-996-3033.

Area teachers in financially troubled districts are beginning to get layoff notices, a painful rite of spring as school districts make plans for the following school year.

Coventry school officials told employees last week that 23 out of 160 teachers will be laid off.

Woodridge, which twice has failed to pass a new levy, told four teachers last week they will be laid off.

Waterloo, which also has been shot down multiple times at the ballot, must cut $520,000 by the end of the year and will issue layoff notices next week, though the district doesn’t know exactly how many.

Akron is seeking to eliminate a $22 million deficit, which could include the elimination of 140 teaching jobs.

All Ohio districts must notify employees by April 30 if their contracts won’t be renewed for the following school year.

Individual unions have different notification requirements about contract suspensions known as a “reduction in force” (RIF). Teachers on a RIF list might be called back if the district ends up needing fewer layoffs than anticipated because of retirements or attrition.

Typically RIF notices also come in the spring so that teachers have time to look for new jobs before the next school year starts.

The Ohio Education Association keeps track of member teachers’ unions that receive layoff notices, but spokeswoman Michele Prater said it is far too early to estimate how many teachers could lose their jobs before the new school year begins.

“OEA will not begin to collect RIF information until after April 30,” Prater said. “Although some [districts] may do so earlier, there are many factors that come into play that may change those numbers, such as attrition or upcoming school levies.”

Coventry’s cuts probably won’t change — and could go deeper, Superintendent Russell Chaboudy said Friday. The district is skating close to fiscal emergency with a $2.8 million deficit at the end of the next school year, which could lead to a state takeover of the district’s finances.

“We’re not crying wolf,” Chaboudy said. “We may very well be going into fiscal emergency.”

He said the district probably needs to eliminate 47 teaching jobs because of cuts to funding from the state and lower property values that have cost the district about $2 million a year.

The school board, however, wants to see if the state funding picture improves next year before asking voters for new operating taxes.

The board also wants to see how the public responds to a 3.9-mill combined bond issue and permanent improvement levy on the August special election ballot that is needed to repair buildings and pay off some debt that is now paid from the general fund, Chaboudy said.

In November, the district will try to renew an operating levy, which wouldn’t increase taxes.

The district then might ask voters for new money in May 2013, the last chance before the district plunges into deficit that summer.

“It’s a gamble the district is taking,” Chaboudy said. “The board didn’t want to cut 47 teaching positions and devastate the academic part of the district without going to the voters. Yet we’re looking at a 12- to 15-mill levy that we would need, and we don’t believe we would have any chance of passing anything like that.”

John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the education blog at http://education.ohio.com/.

Seven school buses pulled into the Botzum railroad station in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on Thursday morning.

Then 229 first-, second- and third-graders from Romig Road Community School climbed aboard the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train to learn about animals that live in the park.

Once the train pulled out of the station, ranger Kerry Muhl talked about the park, told American Indian stories with talking animals and passed around shells, a deer pelt, antlers and replica skulls of a deer and a coyote.

Romig Road’s fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders will ride the train today and learn about transportation.

Grant money from the Sisler McFawn Foundation paid for the train tickets (about $3,000) and, more importantly, the bus transportation.

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad has received money from Sisler McFawn and the Kenneth Calhoun Charitable Trust to host field trips for inner-city schools and expects 2,400 riders this spring, mostly from Akron Public Schools. Romig Road is the only Akron charter school to receive grant money this spring, though other charter schools from Cleveland have participated in recent years.

“That’s how we’ve been able to reach out to these schools and offer them a field trip that they wouldn’t normally have the budget to do,” said Kelly Steele-Moore, the railroad’s marketing director.

The grant money has enabled many more schools to participate this year, Muhl said.

“The schools are so strapped for money,” Muhl said. “Last year, we were really low as far as our attendance.”

Paying for the buses is key.

“In talking with teachers and principals, there are schools that can actually pay for field trips; it’s the buses that always get them,” Muhl said. “So as a result, if there’s a grant that can actually pay for the busing, too, they jump on it.”

The first train car of third-graders Muhl addressed hushed up quickly when she promised to tell a story.

“You just saw that beaver marsh that is over there and you know, it’s a really beautiful place, but it didn’t start out so beautiful and I’m going to tell you the story of the beaver marsh,” Muhl said.

She explained that in the 1960s and 1970s, the marsh was a junkyard filled with old cars, appliances and tires. But as the land was becoming a national park, people got to work clearing out the trash.

“All of a sudden, beaver came back into this area, after being extinct in this area since the 1830s,” she said. “They came back and they dammed up a portion of what was called the Ohio & Erie Canal and it made that beautiful beaver marsh.”

She said that’s an example of what makes the Cuyahoga Valley National Park special.

“So when you think about things around maybe where you are or in other places around the country that may not look so nice, you always have a chance to clean things up,” she said.

She told an American Indian story about how a talkative turtle tried to hitch a ride south for the winter with migrating birds and got dropped on his back when he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. That’s why he sleeps in the mud at the bottom of the pond each winter and has a shell that looks cracked.

Zakiya Littlepage, 8, liked that story.

“I’ve got a pet turtle,” she said.

She also enjoyed documenting her first trip on a train, which journeyed as far north as the Boston Mills station by the ski resort before returning.

“I took pictures of the trees and stuff and I took pictures of houses,” she said. “I just love riding around.”

La’tarien Davis, who is 9, was thrilled to see a creature that wasn’t on the agenda gliding along the surface of a pond beside the tracks.

“I saw a snake swimming,” he said.

Damariontae Brightwell, also 8, enjoyed hearing about the beaver marsh.

When asked what he had learned on the train, he replied with a comedian’s sense of timing: “That animals could talk.”

That got a big belly laugh from Jerome Love, who accompanied his 9-year-old nephew Malachi Watson on the trip.

“I’m like him,” Love said. “I didn’t know turtles could talk, either.”

Love was one of 68 adults who came on the trip, which thrilled Janice Ickes, the Romig Road Community School special education coach who organized the trip. She said she hoped the experience would lead to more opportunities for parents and children to spend time together learning.

“We had so many more adults and even extended family members who wanted to come, that we had to hire two more buses at the last minute,” she said. “This is an experience that will make a memory to last a lifetime.”

John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the education blog at http://education.ohio.com/.