The Montgomery County Board of Elections today announced the names of all candidates in the county whose petitions are certified and whose names will appear on the November 3 ballot.

This is the list of the names in Montgomery County who have been certified as candidates for their local board of education. In six out of sixteen school districts, voters will have no choice.  But,  in ten of the 16 districts there are more candidates than there are positions, and so there will be a contest.  And Miamisburg School District gets the prize for having the most certified candidates with three candidates certified for eight positions.

In Kettering, where I live, I am one of five candidates for three positions. Three of the candidates in Kettering are incumbents — James A. Brown and I are the challengers.  In the following list, except for the New Lebanon Schools web-site which is “under construction,” I’ve linked each district back to its web-site and I’ve made the incumbents’ names in underlined italics.

Centerville Schools (3 Positions)

• John R. Doll 10041 Beaufort Run Centerville 45458
• Bradley W. Evers 9426 Athison Rd. Dayton 45458
• David L. Roer 9350 Patriot Woods Ct. Dayton 45458
• Karen Gray Myers 1103 Chisolm Trail Dayton 45458

Dayton Schools (4 Positions)

• Yvonne V. Isaacs 4812 Northgate Ct. Dayton 45416
• Joseph E. Lacey 161 Huffman Ave. Dayton
• Ronald C. Lee 247 E. 2nd St. Dayton 45402
• Stacy M. Thompson 531 Belmonte Park N
• James K. Weir 1139 Highland Ave Dayton 45410

Huber Heights Schools (3 Positions)

• Kelly G. Bledsoe 8519 Schoolgate Dr. Huber Heights 45424
• Mark A. Combs 7024 Geary Pl. Huber Heights 45424
• Lucile J. Dale 7057 Pineview Dr. Huber Heights 45424
• Carl D. Fisher Jr. 7301 Troy Manor Rd. Huber Heights
• Karen S. Weaver 7807 Berchman Dr. Huber Heights 45424

Kettering Schools (3 Positions)

• George H. Bayless 2422 S Patterson Blvd 45409
• Michael C. Bock 3808 LeFevre Dr. 45429
• James A. Brown 5361 Oakbend Cir. 45440
• Julie Ann Gilmore 4171 Brookdale Dr Kettering 45429
• Frank C. Maus 181 Greendale Dr Kettering 45429

Miamisburg Schools (3 positions)

• Christopher Wayne Amsler 2110 Carrington Ln. 45342
• Sharon E. Angel 651 Dunraven Pass 45342
• Jason Barry 8 Cambray Ct. 45342
• Kathleen M. Bates 1014 Nettie Dr.
• Eric B. Bucher 2421 Byers Ridge Dr.
• Joseph P. Idzakovich 1951 Courtina Dr. 45459
• Gerald E. St. Jaques 7923 Jamaca Rd. 45342
• Karl Jacob Zimmerman II 818 E. Linden Ave. 45342

Miamisburg Schools ( 1 Position for Unexpired term)

• Danielle L. Kuehnle 10892 Blackbird Ct. 45342
• Robert H. Matthews Jr. 2230 Cross Village Dr. 45342

Northmont Schools (3 Positions)

• Linda Anne Blum 337 Shadywood Dr. Dayton 45415
• Bruce A. Clapp 216 Pointers Run Englewood 45322
• George W. Elam 7728 Sweet Potato Ridge Rd. Brookville 45309
• Nicholas H. Frantz 9743 Brookville Phillipsburg Rd. Brookville 45309
• Jane Ann Woodie 3838 Old Salem Rd. Dayton 45415

Oakwood Schools (3 Positions)

• Chris B. Epley 54 Beverly Pl. Dayton 45419 8/6/2009
• Michael A. Miller 2410 Fairmont Ave. Dayton 45419
• Elizabeth K. Reger 432 East Dr. Dayton 45419

Trotwood Schools (3 Positions)

• Deborah L. Daniel 8848 Post Town Rd Trotwood 45426
• Teena R. Davis 6499 Westanna Dr Trotwood 45426
• Denise E. Moore 5805 Shiloh Springs Rd Trotwood 45426

Vandalia-Butler Schools (3 Positions)

• Judith Abromowitz 7120 Memory Ln. Dayton 45414
• Robert E. Cupp 7180 Keeneland Dr Dayton 45414
• William G. Hibner Jr. 1700 Cawdor Ct. Vandalia 45377

West Carrollton Schools (3 Positions)

• Leslie A. Miller 106 Payne Pl. Dayton 45418
• Thomas Wolf 6531 Pine Cone Dr. West Carrollton 45449

Brookville Schools (2 Positions)

• Judy Hoover 75 Orchard St. Brookville 45309
• David E. Kindell 526 Meadow Glen Ave. Brookville 45309

Jefferson Schools (3 Positions)

• Cuttino Dargan 1025 Rossiter Dr. Dayton 45418
• Johnnie Mae Kimberlin 825 Creekside St. Dayton 45427
• Emmett Claude Orr 4001 Frytown Rd. Dayton 45418

Jefferson Schools (1 Position for Unexpired Term)

• C. V. Mitchell III 4825 Coulson Dr. Dayton 45418

Mad River Schools (3 Positions)

• Duane E. Long 4159 Slipperywood Pl. Huber Heights 45424
• Ruth Katherine Newhouse 837 Gleneagle Dr. Riverside 45431
• Cristina M. Pickle 5301 Eastman Dr. Dayton 45432
• Marilyn Steiner 846 Crestmont Dr. Riverside 45431
• Debra G. Walker 3555 Lane Gardens Ct. Dayton 45404

New Lebanon Schools (3 Positions)

• David Falldorf 1750 Fuls Rd. New Lebanon 45345
• Marjorie E. Loyacano 10701 Mile Rd. Lew Lebanon 45345 Michael S. Roberts 432 Gregory Ave. New Lebanon 45345
• David T. Woodgeard 1577 Johnsville Brookville Rd. Brookville 45309

Northridge Schools (2 Positions)

• Gerald M. Brumley 2136 Ottello Ave. Dayton 45414
• Tina Fiore 6028 Foster Ave. Dayton 45414
• Margaret T. Glock 4400 Canyon Rd. Dayton 45414
• Malia Rogers 5727 Sparkhill Dr. Dayton 45414

Valley View Schools (3 Positions)

• Danny Dalton 10152 Carlisle Pk. Germantown 45327
• Fred R. Gehron 300 Lindell Dr. Germantown 45327
• Lynn A. Miller 6516 Stivers Rd. Germantown 45327
• Jesse E. Reed 149 Hawkins Ct. Germantown 45327

There is a wealth of data on the Ohio Department of Education’s web-site

This table divides the children in each school district in Montgomery County into two groups — those who are deemed economically disadvantaged, and those deemed not economically disadvantaged — and then shows scores for each group.

The scores shown are the Reading, Math, Writing, Social Studies and Science Scores made on the 10th grade Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). The attendance rate and graduation rate is shown and the number of students in each group, and % of total of each group.

The grade given to Kettering City Schools — Continuous Improvement — announced yesterday by Ohio’s Department of Education, for the 2008-2009 school year, is a big disappointment for Kettering. Kettering’s new Report Card gives the details. (See PDF of Kettering’s Report Card.)

As the chart below shows, Kettering had great test scores for the 2008-2009 school year — it met 29 out of 30 indicators (see page 1 of the Report Card) and scored 100.2 Performance Index (see page 3). And, it’s overall composite for “Value Added” Rating was met. (See page 3) Kettering’s scores overall qualified the district for the highest school rating — “Excellent With Distinction.”

But, Kettering was marked down because it failed to show “Adequate Yearly Progress” in Reading Proficiency with two identified groups: Students with Disabilities and Students with Limited English Proficiency. (page 3) The rules concerning AYP are pretty drastic. If a district misses AYP for three consecutive years, it is penalized so that its highest overall score possible is the fourth rank — Continuous Improvement — regardless of how high its other scores might be.

Here are six tables, each a PDF file, showing all of the individual schools in Montgomery County, sorted according to grade ranking:

1. Excellent With Distinction
2. Excellent
3. Effective
4. Continuous Improvement
5. Academic Watch
6. Academic Emergency

This chart shows all of the schools districts in Montgomery County. Trotwood and Kettering both received the fourth rank — Continuous Improvement — but where Kettering score 29 out of 30 indicators, Trotwood scored 11. And, where Kettering scored 100.2 on its Performance Index, Trotwood scored 81.1. It hardly seems fair that districts with such a big difference in scores should be equally rated. But I guess those are the rules. The AYP penalty is severe.

I telephoned Kettering’s Interim Superintendent, Jim Schoenlein, yesterday, and had a good conversation. I telephoned because I wondered if it was possible that The Report Card was in error. It’s hard to understand how a district could have such high scores and still receive a fourth rank grade, and how each individual school in a district could receive a higher ranking than the district’s overall composite rank. The AYP penalty is not spelled out in the Report Card. Dr. Schoenlein said he is writing an article for the Kettering Oakwood Times, explaining the district’s grade, and that he also intends on posting the letter on the district’s web-site. (Addition: See Dr. Schoenlein’s letter here.)

Here is a listing of all of the school buildings in Kettering. Every school in the district was rated either “effective” or “excellent,” each school in the district had a higher score than the composite score given to the district as a whole. The AYP penalty that reduces the evaluation score of a district from the first tier to the fourth tier seems unreasonably severe, and brings into question the validity of the whole system. We need to think through what, as a community, we define as excellence in education. I want to revisit this article — A Great Question: How Can We Tell If a School Is Excellent? — that I wrote a couple of years ago.