State counting on daily school attendance

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MILLBURY – The big count day is no more in Ohio school districts.
The first Monday in October had been the day for school districts to turn in an official headcount to the
state. The student population count determined how much funding would come to the school district.
That’s changing with the 2014-15 school year, the Lake Board of Education heard Wednesday night.
Curriculum, Special Education and Grants Director Jodi Takats said Lake – and all school districts – are
now required to file attendance reporting every day.
"You have to enter daily attendance for every building into EMIS," Takats said.
In preparation, the board hired Hollie Parsons as assistant education management information
system/enrollment coordinator. The position is for 208 days at $15.20 an hour.
Takats said the board has a full-time person who handles attendance, plus other duties, for Lake. She is
retiring in January.
"The daily attendance for us is going to be huge next year," Takats said. "It will be
interesting to see how this year goes."
She said, in general, the state is requiring more accountability and data for everything, including
grants and programs such as Title 1.
According to the Ohio Association of EMI Professionals website, EMIS is the statewide data collection
system for Ohio’s primary and secondary education. Staff, student, district/building and financial data
are collected through the system and submitted to the Ohio Department of Education.
In other business, board president Tim Krugh said he has received several calls questioning the board’s
stance on Common Core. At last month’s meeting, the board passed a resolution opposing it.
However, Lake will be using the required state curriculum, Krugh said.
"But we did want to express our concerns and opposition to it," he said. "This is the law.
We would just like to get rid of it if we can."
Also at the meeting, the board:
• Hired teachers James Less, high school science; Elizabeth Pierce, eighth-grade language arts; and
Jennifer Kirwen, middle school language arts.
• Accepted a resignation from Angela Schindler, fourth-grade teacher.
• Accepted a donation of books from Books-A-Million. They include 203 for the elementary, 154 for the
middle school and 151 for the high school. The business contacted Lake about making the donation; it was
not sought out, said Superintendent Jim Witt.
"It’s not because we didn’t have any books," Krugh said.

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