Week in Review 01-21-2022

EDUCATION

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is now taking applications for its Safe Routes to School grant program, which provides $4 million annually for infrastructure such as pedestrian and bicycle crossing improvements, new or improved sidewalks and bike racks, and non-infrastructure activities such as walk to school days, bike rodeos, public awareness campaigns or educational programs. Eligible applicants include local governments, school districts, health districts, park districts or key nonprofit partners involved in advancing safe routes to school in your community. ODOT will make awards on a competitive basis to projects that have been identified in a plan or to applicants requesting School Travel Plan development assistance.

Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) founder William Lager will still have to face civil charges that he held an illegal interest in contracts between the school and other companies also affiliated with him, after the judge in the case rejected his attorney’s assertion that the state failed to provide support for its claims. More than a year ago, in September 2020, Lager’s attorneys asked Judge Kimberly Cocroft of Franklin County Common Pleas Court to call a hearing on their assertion of a defense under Rule 12(B)(6) of Ohio’s Rules of Civil Procedure, arguing that the attorney general’s office failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

The Ohio Department of Education said Tuesday that the state will nominate two paraprofessionals from Northeast and Southwest Ohio to compete for a national award created to recognize classified employees in schools. Andrea Beeman, who works with special education students in Maple Heights City Schools in Cuyahoga County, and Phil Tudor, who works with special education students in Goshen Local Schools in Clermont County, are Ohio’s nominees for the national Recognizing Inspirational School Employees (RISE) award.

The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) announced that nine Ohio schools recently achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Certification, bringing the state’s number of certified schools to 382 — the most of any state in the country. OFCC, which oversees capital projects undertaken by the state and manages Ohio’s school facility programs, explained it uses the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED for Schools system as a tool to design, construct, and operate buildings to maximize occupant health and productivity, use fewer resources, reduce waste and negative environmental impacts, and decrease life cycle costs.

Teacher hiring already could not keep pace with job openings before the pandemic, but COVID-19 exacerbated that trend, according to the National Education Association (NEA). NEA, national affiliate of Ohio’s largest teachers union, the Ohio Education Association (OEA), held a video conference Thursday to discuss educator shortages and potential solutions.