(Toledo News Now) - A new ruling by the State Board of Education could change the landscape of Ohio schools.
The board voted Monday to eliminate the minimum number of school nurses, librarians, counselors, social workers, music, art and physical education teachers that local districts are required to have.
Previously, Ohio public school districts were obligated to hire at least five of the eight positions for every 1,000 students.
The idea behind the over-turning of the requirement is to give local districts flexibility in hiring and spending decisions to better serve students.
“This has a lot of parents shaking their heads right now,” said Beverly Elementary parent Drew Stiles. “I think this was an incredibly irresponsible decision; it was definitely not a student-centered decision. The students' well-being was definitely not taken into consideration and if they said that it was, their actions definitely spoke louder than their words.”
A concern of critics and parents like Stiles is that districts with financial limitations will either look at eliminating those positions first, or won't have them at all.
Locally, Toledo Public Schools has always maintained standards above the state's minimum requirements. The school board previously passed a resolution opposing the elimination of the “5 of 8 rule.”
Going forward, local school boards will make the call on whether these positions stay.
“It will really be up to us to make sure that we provide enough staff positions to make sure that our students get the services that they need,” said Bob Vasquez, president of the Toledo Public Schools Board of Education. “Just because it's not a requirement by the state to have the minimum levels doesn't mean that we have to abide by that. We have set our own levels, and those are the levels that we're going to continue.”
Stiles said she has faith that TPS will remain student-focused.
“We've got a great school system. We're just going to see how it does and we're going to have to work with it,” she said. “It just makes the job for parents and administrators and teachers just all that much harder.”
The state board heard more than three hours of public testimony before voting 11 to 7 to abolish the 5 of 8 rule Monday evening.
