{"id":35040,"date":"2013-02-16T09:10:49","date_gmt":"2013-02-16T14:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=35040"},"modified":"2013-02-18T08:34:22","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T13:34:22","slug":"wbesc-supt-criticizes-governor-for-esc-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2013\/02\/16\/wbesc-supt-criticizes-governor-for-esc-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"WBESC supt. criticizes budget cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
WBESC Superintendent Brian Gerber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Western Buckeye Educational Service Center Superintendent Brian Gerber took Ohio Governor John Kasich to task for the governor\u2019s budget cuts for educational service centers included in his new biennial state budget.<\/p>\n

Gerber\u2019s remarks, during a report to the WBESC Governing Board during its February meeting, noted that the state budget cuts hurt not only ESCs and their partner school districts, but also fly in the face of Kasich\u2019s \u201cshared services\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the fact that he (Governor Kasich) has trumpeted the \u2018shared services\u2019 concept, it is very surprising he is slashing the budgets of educational service centers, the very agencies that work with districts in a shared services model to help control costs,\u201d Gerber told his governing board. \u201cIn other words, he publicly says one thing, then does another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WBESC superintendent was critical of Kasich\u2019s decision to the state budget operating subsidy for ESCs by 45 percent, noting that 368 school districts will get no new money \u201cand that includes Western Buckeye partner schools Antwerp Local, Crestview Local, Lincolnview Local, Paulding Exempted Village and Wayne Trace Local Schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerber noted that the budget cuts would affect public schools in Van Wert and Paulding counties, which all received State Report Card ratings ranging from \u201ceffective\u201d to \u201cexcellent with distinction\u201d — the highest rating possible. \u201cGovernor Kasich is not holding 368 school districts and 55 ESCs harmless in his budget proposal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The WBESC superintendent told board members that his organization\u2019s main goal is to positive impact student achievement, reduce costs to partner schools by sharing staff, implement federal and state regulations and provide high-quality professional development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe save our partner schools money by sharing speech, occupational, and physical therapists,\u201d Gerber explained. \u201cWe also share school psychologist, gifted education and grant writing personnel\u201d and provide curriculum directors to meet area school districts\u2019 needs in that area.<\/p>\n

He also noted that 97 percent of school districts statewide are \u201cactively engaged\u201d with their respective ESCs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have consistently and positively impacted student achievement while driving down costs to our partner schools by sharing staff, an educational task we have been accustomed to providing since 1914,\u201d Gerber said.<\/p>\n

Also during the WBESC\u2019s February meeting, the governing board:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Employed paraprofessional Jamie Fields for the Allen County ESC system, effective February 1.<\/li>\n
  • Approved a legal services agreement with McGown\/Markling\u2019s ESC School Law hotline.<\/li>\n
  • Authorized a contracted services agreement with Kristina Figgins for a period from January 23, through the rest of the 2012-2013 school year (estimated at one day a week, for up to 6\u00bd hours a day).<\/li>\n
  • Approved a Family & Medical Leave Act leave for Barb Runyon due to knee replacement surgery.<\/li>\n
  • Approved the 2012 calendar year fiscal report for the Paulding County Family and Children First Council.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The next meeting of the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center Governing Board will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, at the Van Wert ESC office at Thomas Edison Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Western Buckeye Educational Service Center Superintendent Brian Gerber took Ohio Governor John Kasich to task for the governor\u2019s budget cuts for educational service centers included in his new biennial state budget. Gerber\u2019s remarks, during a report to the WBESC Governing Board during its February meeting, noted that the state budget cuts hurt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 14:05:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}