Special Report: The spread of LifeWise
Opponents, supporters weigh in on Bible class program in Ohio
Part 2 of a limited series about Ohio-based LifeWise Academy.
NORTHWEST OHIO – Keith Comer didn’t set out to become an activist when he began looking into a program called LifeWise Academy.
While he never considered himself a “political person,” the father raising three children in the Old Fort Local School District outside Tiffin does pay close attention to all the bills introduced by his state representative in House District 88. Early last year, he said a bill proposing a one-word change to Ohio law governing religious release time education policy struck him as “fishy.”
The existing law said a school district board may adopt a policy that authorizes a student to be excused from school to attend a released-time course in religious instruction. House Bill 445 proposed changing the word “may” to “shall,” making the adoption of such a policy a requirement for all public school districts.
The state legislature ultimately passed the proposal after it was amended into House Bill 8, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law Jan. 8. The law takes effect 90 days after the bill’s signing.
Comer’s review of the legislation introduced by Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) was his gateway to a deep dive into LifeWise Academy, a nonprofit organization lobbying for the bill that promoted Bible classes during public school hours.
“I was looking at their website, and I was just trying to figure out where they had programs, but you had to type in each school district and then see if it had a program or not,” said Comer.
With a professional background in software engineering, he took it upon himself to write a program to speed up this cumbersome process. Comer drew on his experience working on an application that would “scrape” and compile data from different websites.
In what he describes as a “watching TV project” in the evenings, he wrote a program that plotted the data from the LifeWise website onto a Google map so he could see at a glance all the districts where they operate. He was astonished to discover the scope of LifeWise, which now operates about 160 programs in Ohio, alone — more than a quarter of the state’s school districts. The map also shows many more proposed LifeWise programs in varying stages of development.
Comer initially created the map to satisfy his own curiosity, but it was met with shock when he shared it to Reddit and Facebook. “No one had ever seen the true spread of their push into the schools,” he said.
Last March, he launched a website called Respect Public Schools to share the map he made, as well as enrollment data and other statistics documenting the growth of the program.
LifeWise Inc., a nonprofit headquartered in Hilliard, Ohio that reported a total annual revenue of more than $35 million on tax documents filed in November, expressed its disapproval of Comer’s website with cease and desist letters and threats of felony charges in April 2024. Comer denies any wrongdoing and has no plans to take the website down.
“I worked for a software company that did this very specific thing, and as long as you are not using copyrighted, trademarked data in certain ways, it is just publicly available data,” he said. “If you went to their website, typed in all 600 school districts, gathered that info…that’s the same thing that I’m doing. I can do it in 15 minutes, and it would take somebody else 15 days.”
The map and other statistics on Comer’s website are updated regularly with information pulled from the official LifeWise site, as well as the National Center for Education Statistics, which provides total enrollment data for public schools broken down by grade. Comer also gathers information by combing through LifeWise program Facebook pages, contacting public school districts directly via email and submitting public records requests.
He connected with the founders of Parents Against LifeWise, another group dedicated to documenting violations and other concerns about LifeWise expressed by parents in districts with the program, and they collaborate on sharing their research. The parent group has a website and a Facebook group with more than 7,000 members from multiple states where LifeWise operates.
LifeWise moves into Toledo suburbs
Comer’s map shows dozens of LifeWise programs operating in northwest Ohio, mostly in smaller cities and rural public school districts. The map also shows there are at least 30 schools within Toledo and its immediate suburbs where groups are working to introduce
Two of those schools where LifeWise recently opened for enrollment are in Toledo suburban public school districts: Perrysburg and Anthony Wayne.
Since Perrysburg has had a district policy governing released time for religious instruction (RTRI) on the books since 1996, local LifeWise program director Frank Zenner said introducing the program into Perrysburg schools involved getting approval from the superintendent. “It really wasn’t a difficult sell,” he said.
Their program began with two elementary schools during the 2023-2024 school year. It expanded this school year to serve students in grades one through four from all four district elementary schools, and Zenner said 74 students are enrolled. Classes are held during lunch and recess and range in size from two or three to a dozen students.
Zorach v. Clauson, the 1952 U.S. Supreme Court case upholding RTRI laws, stipulates they must meet off school property, so students are shuttled to area churches located in close proximity to each school. Host sites for the classes include First Baptist Church of Perrysburg, Bethel Assembly of God, Perrysburg Alliance Church and Grace Church Perrysburg.
Zenner said the program uses three donated buses to transport students to the churches, which takes about 10 minutes round trip. This leaves about 50 minutes for the students to eat a pizza lunch provided by the Perrysburg LifeWise program while they view a video or listen to a lesson from the teacher. They usually participate in some other activity to incorporate the lesson, and their discussion continues on the bus ride back to school.
Lessons are based on the Bible, Zenner said, but also highlight character traits such as forgiveness or perseverance.
While LifeWise Academy is not affiliated with any one Christian denomination, its website says its teachings align with “historic, orthodox Christian beliefs.” The LifeWise curriculum is based on The Gospel Project, which comes from Lifeway Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention. According to the LifeWise website, this curriculum takes students through the entire Bible over five years and “each lesson reviews a Bible passage as well as a ‘Living LifeWise’ character trait, such as respect, love or kindness.”
Zenner acknowledges there can be tension between public and religious institutions, but said RTRI programs allow parents to choose how they want their children educated. “And I think the character development piece is pretty important stuff. That’s where my head and my heart is, and that’s why I’m involved with it,” he said.
With mostly local donors footing the bill for the program, there is no charge to participating students. Zenner said they come from a variety of backgrounds and are not necessarily affiliated with the sponsoring churches.
“We get kids that are churched. We certainly get kids that are nominally churched; the parents want their kids to be exposed or get the extra lesson. And then we get kids that are totally unchurched, that really don’t know what the Bible is,” he noted.
Reaching kids who have never had a chance to hear the Gospel was an important motivation for Mariah Carroll in helping to bring LifeWise Academy to the Anthony Wayne district. The program began enrolling third graders from Monclova Primary School last fall and recently added a class for fourth graders.
Carroll, a mother of two who attend primary school in the district, originally heard about the program from a friend who serves as a LifeWise teacher in Eastwood Local Schools.
“I went home and talked it over with my husband and prayed about it, and I just knew that this was something that I wanted to help offer within our community,” she said.
Carroll got involved in bringing LifeWise to Anthony Wayne and was hired as the program’s first director. She said it’s important for kids to be able to hear about the Gospel because she knows it is something that changed her life and the lives of all her family members.
She added that the LifeWise program is not forced on anyone, but is an option she believes parents should have. In its first semester, five third graders from Monclova Primary attended LifeWise classes during their lunch and recess at a nearby, off-site location.
For Jackie Haines, the timing of when the program is offered was key to her decision to enroll her third-grade daughter, Harper. She said she probably would not have signed her up if it would have meant her daughter would miss a class to attend. “Education is the number one priority for me, even what they consider ‘specials’ are to me vital for kids’ education experience.”
Haines said her daughter enjoys attending LifeWise, a program she believes builds character, confidence and bonds with peers. “For me, I just think it really enhances their toolkit when they face, inevitably, some type of adversity at school. And, obviously, it introduces kids to Jesus Christ, which, for us, as a family, that’s a core value for us.”
After getting to know the local people running the program and viewing the curriculum, Haines disputes widespread accusations she has seen on the Internet about LifeWise teaching homophobia, transphobia or hatred about other religions. “I don’t ever want to teach that type of hate to my child,” she emphasized.
“I have friends, we have connections at the school that are of different faiths. I would never want someone to step on my beliefs as a Christian. It’s an important thing that they are very mindful of,” Haines said.
Kristin Hady, a parent with three kids in Perrysburg district schools, disputes the notion that Bible education during the public school day does not impact students of other faiths. Her family is Muslim, and she said her fourth grader has already had another student at school tell her that she is going to hell because she doesn’t go to church. Hady doesn’t know if the other child attended LifeWise, but expressed her fear the program could amplify a sentiment that already exists among some in the community.
“When we make it a part of the school day, whether or not it’s optional, it then becomes something to ‘other’ other children that are not Christian,” said Hady. “I always think it’s a slippery slope when we are introducing religion into the school system, and not from an educational point of view — when we are actually teaching children to be one of the religions.”
Districts officials from both Anthony Wayne and Perrysburg declined to be interviewed about the LifeWise program.
When students miss class, LifeWise enrollment grows
Both LifeWise directors interviewed by the Toledo Free Press cite convenience for busy families as a primary reason for the classes to be held during school hours. These local programs are fairly small and held during lunch and recess, but what happens when students miss other classes to attend LifeWise programming?
The LifeWise website states that “the class schedule is set by school personnel in consultation with LifeWise representatives. Usually, LifeWise classes are scheduled as part of the ‘specials’ rotation or during times when other elective courses are offered.”
This means students attending LifeWise in many districts often miss out on special or elective classes, such as library, art, music, gym and technology. Some LifeWise classes are also offered during intervention or enrichment periods and study halls.
As Comer delved deeper and connected with other parents raising concerns about LifeWise, he discovered a direct correlation between attendance size and when the programs are offered.
“What I found, the deeper I got into this, is that when students miss an actual class, the enrollment for LifeWise doubles,” he said.
According to statistics Comer has compiled on his website, a survey of 272 schools with LifeWise shows just under half of them offering programs during lunch and recess.
While these programs often start small, Comer said the logistics of offering LifeWise during lunch and recess become more difficult when enrollment rises above a certain threshold.
“Once you are trying to get 300 to 400 kids to an offsite location during a lunch period, you can’t do it,” said Comer. “So now they have to find a time that works, so that’s when it usually gets pushed into the specials.”
Danielle Wirick is a mother with a second grader in Defiance City Schools, a district about 60 miles west of Toledo. There, nearly 80 percent of students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade — more than 800 students — attend LifeWise. Wirick said her district eliminated a specials time slot to make room for LifeWise. Teachers have even listed it as a period on classroom schedules.
Wirick said her child came home crying the first week of kindergarten because her child was the only one left behind during the LifeWise period. In kindergarten and first grade, her child was sent to the gym with other students not attending LifeWise.
This year, the district told Wirick the handful of students left behind during LifeWise are doing an online “character education” program, but she said it was never implemented as it was supposed to be, and there are no grades or assignments to hand in. She said her child spends that period in the library playing video games on the computer – with no structure or instruction.
Last year, Wirick shared her family’s negative experience with LifeWise when she testified against the Ohio House and Senate bills geared toward mandating schools to adopt RTRI policies. As a mother with a young child who is not in school yet, she said her goal is to get all the specials classes reinstated by the time her youngest is in kindergarten.
Her family’s experience demonstrates one way that public school students left behind during LifeWise classes can be adversely impacted. Comer said he doesn’t take issue with the religious aspect of the program, but rather the missed hours of instruction time, lack of accurate reporting on those hours, and how public schools are being forced to facilitate the logistics so LifeWise programs can operate.
“When you look at it on the scale of what they’re doing, it’s an impact,” he said. “I think everybody should know how much time is being missed. And I don’t think schools should be forced to come up with a plan to try to figure out what class do we drop to make this work.”
Pause and ponder with singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey
TOLEDO – Peter Mulvey doesn’t want to win arguments; he just wants to tell stories that make people pause and ponder. And laugh.
There’s no end to the stories Mulvey can tell, from space travel and the environment to religion and social justice.
The singer-songwriter, who will be in concert Jan. 18 at the Flamb-OYE-nce Community House in Toledo’s Old West End, is a deep thinker and keen observer who holds a mirror up to society. That mirror helps people see the world – sometimes even the universe – from a different perspective.
“That’s it. That’s all I care about,” said Mulvey. “Let’s get in a room. I’ll sing some songs, I’ll tell some jokes, and we’ll all be together paying attention to the same thing – and that thing is not me. It’s the condition I’m trying to hold that mirror up to. That’s the thing we’re all here to contemplate.”
Take the latest developments in space technology, for example. What does the public think when they watch a rocket launch by Blue Origin, the company created by Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos?
Chances are they don’t see the event the same way Mulvey does.
“Jeff Bezos could have paid everyone who ever worked for him a living wage and still been rich enough to buy a rocket ship,” Mulvey sings in his song A**hole in Space (Solo Mission).
“But no, he didn’t. He objectively didn’t. We should have moved the world before he came back down … we were too busy ordering a tripod with Prime delivery,” he complained.
This writer confessed a twinge of guilt to Mulvey that an Amazon Prime delivery had just arrived at his doorstep as the interview began.
“You know, I use Amazon,” Mulvey replied. “I do. It’s an incredible convenience. And it’s also hollowing out our world. And that strikes me as pretty much all of the 21st century. And most of the 20th.”
He’s not against technology, not by a longshot. Mulvey has been an avid supporter for decades of the National Youth Science Camp, and gave a hugely popular TEDx Talk titled Vlad the Astrophysicist about life beyond planet earth.
“Yes, things are messed up. And yet things are also amazing,” he said. “Hepatitis C was fatal back in 2010, and it’s not fatal anymore.”
Mulvey grew up Catholic, and although he has parted ways with that church, he remains a person of faith and thinks going to church is a good thing.
Religion has done immense harm on earth, and it also has done immense good on earth. Just getting out of your house and getting together with your fellow humans to think about things in a public place on a weekly basis, that’s an incredibly valuable thing. And now that the church is in decline, we’ve lost that baby with the bathwater, right?
Peter Mulvey
“I always watched the New Atheists, you know, guys like Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. God, they are just rude and combative. I mean, I get it. You’re in Toledo, right?” he asked.
“It’s winter time right now. And there’s a kid on the street because they’re gay or trans, and their religious parents have thrown them out of the house right now, within two miles of you, where you sit, and me where I sit. That’s going on. So I absolutely get it that religion needs to have a collision with modernity. But man, those New Atheists are just assholes.”
Mulvey doesn’t hope to resolve debates about religion, but he doesn’t hesitate to promote discussions on hot-button issues.
“I feel like we’re having this family squabble between science and religion, between the right and the left, between men and women, between, you know, country mouse and city mouse,” Mulvey said. “And I’m just more interested in telling stories about the way these things exist together than I am about winning arguments. That’s probably all of my work. I hope that’s all of my work.”
One of Mulvey’s most well-known songs is Take Down Your Flag, a heartfelt plea to lower the Confederate flag at the capitol building in South Carolina after the mass shooting at a Charleston church in 2015. The song has been covered by many artists, including Ani DiFranco, Keb’ Mo’, Jeff Daniels and Peter Yarrow.
“I wrote it in like six minutes, but in some ways it also took 44 years to write that song,” he said.
The song goes back to his childhood, growing up on the gritty northwest side of Milwaukee, where he felt like an outsider and bonded with another local outsider, Pamela Means.
“Neither of us fit in because she’s not black enough; she’s biracial and she’s queer. And I was an outsider because I was one of the only white people on the playground. We’re just good friends, and we’ve been talking about race and America since we were teens, specifically this black and white thing in America which, you know, is America’s biggest hang-up,” he said.
Mulvey was devastated watching news reports on TV after the June 17, 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in which an avowed white racist opened fire during a Bible study at the predominantly Black church, killing nine people and injuring one.
“The thing I couldn’t handle was one of the victims was 87 years old. How on earth? So I sort of wrote the song in a rush and I think it hit a nerve. I didn’t mean for it to be particularly political. It’s just that I couldn’t stand the thought.
“And that song just came tumbling out, and a lot of people decided that they wanted to cover that song, and I’m glad they did. And mostly we were white liberals trying to make sense of our view of things. I mean, we’re all human beings trying to make sense. But I should also point out that Bree Newsome, about eight days later, climbed that flagpole and just took the damn thing down. Hats off to her. Some people consider me an activist, and maybe I am, but not compared to Bree Newsome.”
While Mulvey has always cared about the world and the people in it, his priorities changed three years ago when he became a father for the first time.
“I’m suddenly deeply concerned about 2074. That’s when this guy [his son] will be 53 years old – and I’ll be dead or I’ll be 105; those are my choices. But all of a sudden, this whole landscape opens up of things that are very concerning for you.
“And not just for your own sake. All parents experience that shift where you suddenly are demoted from the main character of your life to a supporting role – for at least 18 years, and probably for the rest of your life if you have any grasp on what’s important,” Mulvey said, adding with a laugh: “I’ve been complaining to the management about it.”
Mulvey, who lives in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, has released 19 albums in his career, including a retrospective that came out last year.
“I’m working right now on a new record. It’s going to be a duet record with an artist from Woodstock; her name is Jenna Nicholls, and she’s a tremendous singer and arranger. And we have in common a bunch of Tin Pan Alley tunes that we love, you know, (Duke) Ellington and Hoagy Carmichael tunes.”
Mulvey and Nicholls are collaborating on the new songs that carry the torch of Tin Pan Alley and the Great American Songbook.
“We pour our own musicality into those Jell-O molds,” he said.
Mulvey, whose music is a uniquely personal blend of folk, rock and jazz, plans to record an album of folk songs someday.
“One fine day I’ll make a record of folk songs because I’ve been called a folk singer my whole life, and I’m really not. Although I like folk songs and I certainly sing folk songs, but I’m not a folk singer, and one day I think I’ll make a record of folk songs just to sort of settle my own obstinacy.”
Meanwhile, Mulvey looks forward to performing in Toledo and going on tour across the country, but only for three or four days at a time so he can spend more time at home with his wife and young son.
“I’m sure that what I do is corny from many angles, and I’m sure that what I do is unintelligible from some angles,” he said. “Or, you know, maybe someone will consider what I do too obscure, and someone else will consider it too obvious. But I’m old enough now, we’re like, you know what, I do this thing, and I’m glad that I’m able to reach some audiences.”
Peter Mulvey performs at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Flamb-OYE-nce Community House, 2492 Scottwood Ave., Toledo. For more information go to overyonderconcerthouse.com or email overyonderconcerthouse@gmail.com
Profile: UToledo Interim President Matthew J. Schroeder
TOLEDO – When Matthew J. Schroeder, interim president of the University of Toledo, speaks to community groups about his current responsibilities and the future of the institution, he hears familiar stories: Memories of attending classes or events on campus, and family members who were graduates or had medical care at a facility affiliated with the school.
Those are stories he knows first-hand – starting with his years on campus as a commuter student from Toledo, and at times working two or three jobs while studying for his bachelor’s degree in management.
“Toledo was my choice. I didn’t look anywhere else,” he said.
The paths to the academic buildings and hallways in University Hall were quiet when Schroeder sat for an interview on Dec. 18 with the Toledo Free Press to discuss his experience, so far, in the role. Students had wrapped up their exams on Dec. 13, and staff members were the only ones still on campus.
While his title is interim president, Schroeder insists he is not treating the role that way. His plan is to explore and present a vision for what a college president can do. He said the board of trustees gave him all the responsibility, authority, pressures… but also all of the opportunities of a campus leader during this time.
“We are resetting what a modern day university president looks like,” he assured.
Schroeder earned his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Michigan. He then worked in various leadership roles at UToledo, and also at the former Medical College of Ohio, which merged with the university in 2006.
Schroeder had served four years as chief of staff to former UToledo president Sharon L. Gaber before beginning his role in May as the school’s interim president.
During the past few months, he’s had a closeup look at a race car built by engineering students; participated in the homecoming parade; visited tailgate parties; presented his first State of the University address; and shook hands with the newest Rocket alumni when fall semester graduation took place on Dec. 14.
Meghan Cunningham, vice president for marketing and communications, said Schroeder even acted in a cameo in this year’s holiday video that featured UToledo’s mascot Rocky and student vocalists.
“He was a good sport!” she said about the filming.
On the topic of UToledo health services, his goals include making it easier to get appointments and recruiting physicians to serve in the community. The number of clinical trials are ramping up.
The success and reputation of recent faculty research also has resulted in bragging rights for the university, including winning competitive research grants.
“Matt Schroeder has focused UToledo on being the higher education powerhouse of northwest Ohio and beyond,” said Dr. Jerry Van Hoy, faculty senate president and associate professor of sociology, during the State of the University presentation in October.
“He is developing and implementing a plan to leverage the education, the excellent educational research and clinical and community outreach successes of our institution to better serve our students and our region.”
Enrollment trends
One of the issues Schroeder has been blunt about is student enrollment trends. It came up in his State of the University speech, which was titled The Power to Do More.
“I often say we have a great story to tell. I know we do,” Schroeder said that day. “But I also will tell you that we can and must do more.”
Whether because of population demographics, overall questions about the value of a college degree, or the ripples of the COVID-19 outbreak (UToledo was among the schools canceling sports and shifting to remote learning in March 2020), it is a fact that the school has seen declines in enrollment during the past 10 years.
To reverse that trend, Schroeder called for a renewed focus on recruitment within the region, along with retention of students and a student success plan.
“We’re getting back to the fundamentals in terms of recruiting and retaining,” he said. The key to success is “winning in our backyard.”
Many of today’s students come from backgrounds similar to his – a working class family, from Toledo or just beyond, commuter student status, and having limited financial resources.
To address the concerns of those students, one of the pitches is that UToledo graduates end up with less federal student loan debt than their counterparts at other schools. Another pitch is providing and promoting innovative and relevant academics meant to prepare students for today’s workforce needs – a goal that faculty has been specifically asked to work on.
“We will review our degree programs to identify those that are in high demand now, in five years … and provide the resources to make them competitive,” he said during his remarks this fall. “If we do not have the programs students want to study, we will not be able to recruit them to UToledo.”
Now that the 2025-26 recruiting process is well under way, he is confident that the number of new students will be up in the incoming academic year.
“It will still take a number of years to be up in total enrollment,” he noted.
Schroeder encourages all students to get involved in campus events, organizations and activities – opportunities that he skipped as a commuter himself. “I missed out. It was my choice,” he said. Over time, he came to see that such activities complement and contribute to success in the classroom.
“Get engaged. Get involved,” he tells today’s students.
Interestingly enough, the students who experienced part of their high school or college years during pandemic restrictions are eager to do just that. Student participation in that demographic is much more noticeable than in previous years.
“You can see many of them making up for lost time,” he added.
Quick look at UToledo
University of Toledo is a regional public university serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, with its origins dating to the creation of Toledo University of Arts & Trades in 1872.
The current main campus on West Bancroft St. began with the construction of University Hall in 1931. UToledo also has three other campus sites.
Significant steps include becoming part of the state university system in 1967 and a merger in 2006 with the former Medical College of Ohio. While it is a public research facility, it also is an academic medical center with health services run under the brand UToledo Health.
As far as athletics, student athletes compete in NCAA Division I sports through the Mid-American Conference. Students also can get involved in than 400 student organizations, including about 30 fraternities and sororities.
The fall 2024 enrollment was 14,400 students, or around 11,800 in full-time equivalent numbers. About 26 percent are first-generation students, according to the presidential leadership profile. The international students come from more than 80 countries.
Most of UToledo’s students are commuters, either from home or in privately run apartments in the neighborhood. There are five residence halls on campus housing about 1,600 students.
Presidential selection process
The University of Toledo Board of Trustees plans to have its next president in place before the fall 2025 semester begins, according to details posted on the university website.
The search is led by co-chairs UToledo Board of Trustees Chair Patrick J. Kenney and UToledo Trustee Stephen P. Ciucci; Education Executives is the consulting firm hired to assist.
The Presidential Profile Committee, announced in October, has issued its “leadership profile” report, which includes the following:
The University of Toledo seeks a President who understands the exceptional opportunity this University presents. The University is recruiting a visionary leader committed to imagining the potential of this institution and who will leverage its excellent resources for the 21st century. In so doing, UToledo will set the benchmark for what a public research university can and should do for its community and the world.
The formation of the Presidential Search Committee was announced Dec. 4. That group includes community leaders, university trustees, faculty and students – along with some people from the presidential profile committee.
New Toledo flag flying high
Story and photos by Stephen Zenner
TOLEDO – Immediately following Toledo city council’s vote on Jan. 7 to adopt a new flag, Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz went outside, lowered the old one, instated in 1994 by Carty Finkbeiner, and officially retired it.
Ceremoniously, Kapszukiewicz, along with the designer of the new flag, Mark Yappueying, senior manager of design for the Toledo Museum of Art, and Kid Mayor Lilly Joseph, 11, then raised the new design on Toledo’s 188th birthday.
Yappueying smiled as he watched his design, prominently featuring a Blockhouse, Toledo’s initial settlement and trading post, sway in the brisk wind in front of 1 Government Center.
He said of his heart behind the flag, “It’s about contributing to something larger, a shared symbol of pride and unity for everyone in Toledo.”
But making something for everyone can be a punishing undertaking, and the extensive process of choosing a new flag design for Toledo has been met with criticism.
“I typically ignore social media, as you can imagine, it can be vitriolic and not very constructive,” said Nathan Mattimoe, director of art in public places for The Arts Commission.
Mattimoe was a facilitator for Toledo’s flag design review board, and on this particular project he noted that most of the complaints he heard were ‘Why are we doing this?” and “We’re wasting money.”
“That’s the biggest complaint I’ve heard,” he said.
Vexillology and flag designers
Before 2021, not many people thought too much about the unilaterally decided Toledo flag of the ’90s, which consisted of the City of Toledo’s seal slapped on a white background between two dark blue vertical bars.
That version of Toledo’s flag fits easily into what Roman Mars, a prominent radio producer and designer, called an SOB or Seal On a Bedsheet in his 2015 TED Talk on poorly designed city and states flags.
A patchwork of 16 different flags with circular seals were displayed behind him during his talk, and Mars said, “If you can’t tell what city they [the flags] go to, that’s exactly the problem.”
The push for better design in state and local flags was fueled by the brief design principles outlined in Good Flag, Bad Flag: How to Design a Great Flag. The 16-page, full-color booklet was finalized in 2001 and published in 2006 by Ted Kaye and the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA); people who study and love flags.
According to the booklet, flags should be simple, have strong representative meaning, a basic color palette, no lettering or seals, and have distinctive attributes.
Local Toledo designer Jacob Parr, who’s flag design was one of the three finalists, heard Mars’ talk on flags, circa 2015, and said of the episode that it hooked him. Soon, Parr subscribed to Kaye’s philosophy of flag design, tossing around new design ideas to replace Toledo’s 1994 ‘seal on a bedsheet.’
A movement, not an individual
Parr was not the only designer with a heart to rebrand their city’s forgotten or forgettable flags. Again and again, Chicago and Washington D.C.’s flags were highlighted as prime examples of how simple, strongly designed flags could help grow unity and pride for their cities.
Designer Steve Kodis finalized a People’s Flag initiative for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, replacing a 1954 design with a new one from 2016. Cleveland is currently in the process of selecting a new People’s Flag; Mississippi finalized a new state flag design in 2021; and Minnesota followed the trend in 2024 with a new flag of their own.
Illinois, Michigan and Maine, all of which fall into the ‘Seal On a Bedsheet’ category of flags, are in process or are discussing changing their flag designs, as well.
“Here’s the thing about municipal seals,” Mars said in his talk, “they were designed to be on pieces of paper, where you can read them; not on flags 100 feet away flapping in the breeze.”
Something to rally behind?
For Parr, the 2020 pandemic gave him time to work on his design, and after it was finalized, he presented a blue and white banner with a yellow spark to Kapszukiewicz in 2021.
Parr recalled that they “ushered me through an additional year-long process meeting with people across the city…” This included a final meeting in August 2022, when Parr presented his design to city council.
“It was almost adopted as the official Toledo flag,” said Chloe Nousias, marketing communications manager for The Arts Commission. Parr’s presentation introduced his new design as, A New Toledo Flag: Something to Rally Behind.
Instead, Parr found people did not rally behind him.
Outcry
A 2022 reddit poll of 488 people found 56 percent rejected Parr’s flag design, with more than enough “vitriolic” comments to discourage the best of intentions. User abysmalsun summed up the majority of complaints against Parr’s design:
“I’m not against a new flag, but this design is horrendous. Nothing about it speaks Toledo. Why not the Anthony Wayne Bridge, or keep Fort Industry? Also why isn’t council calling for other designers to submit ideas? This shouldn’t be just whoever knows someone gets to design the city flag.”
Outcry led city council to committee to shelve the project indefinitely until 2024.
“I think what happened is it hit the press, and they [city council] got a little apprehensive to vote and decided to table it,” Mattimoe said.
In the interim, friends and associates of Parr, most notably the custom clothing and design store Jupmode, began to sell Parr’s flag design in-store, while the 1994 flag was still the official design.
“I like the flag design,” said John Amato, president and CEO of Jupmode, about Parr’s flag, which he still flies outside of Jupmode’s new location on Monroe Street. “I like it enough that we actually put it in a mosaic in the concrete in front of our building, and that will long outlast me.”
Support for Parr’s design caught a bit of growing-underground acceptance, and could be seen outside a few Uptown businesses.
Skeptics of Parr claimed he was only in it for the money, but Amato disagreed, citing that Parr was never given any money from Jupmode for his flag design or its use, at least not from his company.
The search process
The search for a new Toledo flag resumed at the beginning of 2024.
“The mayor decided that he would like to pursue a new process, which would be a kind of an open contest, where folks were able to submit designs that would be considered [for the new flag of Toledo],” Mattimoe said. “So, he reached out to us [The Arts Commission].”
“There’s a handful of cities that have either just recently gone through a flag redesign or are in process,” Mattimoe continued. “We adapted some of their practices, which we would consider ‘best practices’ to guide us through the process.”
Proposals for the new designs had to be made by residents of Toledo proper, which disqualified 19 of the original 87 submissions. Of the remaining 68 eligible designs, a review board was put together to whittle down the entries. All submitted designs, with the exception of Parr, since he had already revealed his design, remained anonymous to the review board.
The nine voting members of the review board were:
Dan Hernandez: Board president for The Arts Commission and University of Toledo professor
Carrie Hartman: Toledo City Council president
Tedd Long: Toledo historian
Terwase Ngur: main branch manager for the Toledo Lucas County Public Library
Laura Kaprowski: CEO of Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA)
Valerie White: local artist
Tiffany Whitman: director of the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the City of Toledo
Kelli Fischer: research associate for the Toledo Museum of Art
Kapszukiewicz: Toledo mayor
The review board was facilitated by these non-voting members:
Rachel Hart: director of communication for the City of Toledo’s Mayor's Office
Marc Folk: president and CEO for The Arts Commission
Mattimoe: director of Art in Public Places for The Arts Commission
Ben Cook: project manager of Art in Public Places for The Arts Commission
When the review board got down to 10 designs, those flags were shared with the public for feedback.
“We created a form online to collect folk’s feedback on the designs. What people liked, what they didn’t,” Mattimoe said. “It played a big role in that final decision.”
Mattimoe managed an info booth to receive feedback on the flags during all three days of the Momentum Festival.
Altogether, The Arts Commission received more than 300 responses to the designs.
“327 people committed their opinions to the process,” said Marc Folk, president and CEO of The Arts Commission, when presenting the process of flag design selection to the city council for approval. “The committee met again in October, reviewed the public input and narrowed submissions to three finalists.”
Those three finalists were Parr, Jillian Hupp and Yappueying.
And we have a winner!
Last week during the city council meeting, anticipation was evident as all three designs were presented with their designer’s names below the flags. And it was Yappueying’s design that filled the city council TV screens to announce him the winner.
After expressing thanks, Yappueying read a summary of the representations and symbolisms in his flag.
“Central to the design was a modernization of the ‘Blockhouse,’ a representation of Toledo’s historical roots and industrial strength,” Yappueying explained to city council.
Yappueying’s use of the term “Blockhouse” led Councilwoman Cerssandra McPherson to ask for an elaboration on what he meant by Blockhouse.
When Yappueying clarified that “Blockhouse” was another name for Fort Industry, the original trading post and first settlement in Toledo she relented, seemingly satisfied. The historical nod to Fort Industry, or Blockhouse, appeared to be a major reason for the selection of Yappueying’s design.
“The Blockhouse is something that is recognizable, and the committee felt it created a lineage in the history of the city of Toledo’s flag,” Mattimoe said. “I think that was a big part of it.”
After the new design was passed by city ordinance, Kapszukiewicz displayed the 1909 design, the 1994 design and Yappueying’s design next to each other in the lobby of 1 Government Center for comparison.
“Even as we change, there is a thread of continuity through the designs,” Kapszukiewicz said, pointing at each flag and the similar features between each one.
“It is interesting how similar the new flag is to our first flag in 1909. It’s the same colors: red, white and blue, with the Blockhouses— It’s really very similar.”
A single dissenter
Unlike the review board, the city council vote was not unanimous. The vote stood 9 to 1, with councilman George Sarantou dissenting on the grounds that he did not feel the review board had received enough feedback from the public.
“Our next council meeting is on January 14, next Tuesday. Give the citizens an opportunity to weigh in with their opinions on the proposed flag,” he advised.
“We’re a city of maybe 280,000 people, and only 327 people ventured an opinion, plus the committee,” he said. “I just felt that we ought to give the citizens, the taxpayers, an opportunity to weigh in on this, because this affects everybody.”
Whether or not it was in a city council session, Toledoans did weigh in on the newly adopted flag design – online or in local newspapers.
Reddit user EmbraceBass commented, “Prison guard tower,” in response to the new design, with other users corroborating their interpretation of the Blockhouse. But many of the comments once again revolved around city cost and wasted time.
When asked about Sarantou’s desire to delay the ordinance to hear from the public in a week, both Kapszukiewicz and Mattimoe defended the selection process.
“These are community-driven efforts. And you know, this isn’t the Arts Commission just dictating what goes on in the city at all,” Mattimoe said. As the director of art in public spaces, Mattimoe said the engagement, 327 responses, was pretty high for what he’s used to hearing from the public concerning public art.
“To me, that was a big response,” he said. “I don’t know what else we could have done.”
Regardless, not all Toledoans knew about the process in designing their new flag or that their opinions were wanted.
“I never saw a billboard about it on any major roads,” said Toledoan Hannah Lehmann. “The only reason I heard about it is because people I actually knew who were designing the flags made social media posts about it.”
What’s the cost?
For winning the flag design contest, Yappueying received $3000, while the two other finalists both received $1000.
“About $5,000 of that does come out of the City of Toledo’s funding,” Mattimoe said. One percent of Toledo’s city budget is allocated towards the arts each year. “We have to go in front of city council every year and present our municipal art plan for the year, and this was part of the plan.
“We get the number once they do their budget,” he said. “This [budget] is 1 percent of capital improvement funds, and this year’s number was at $501,000.”
In total, the flag redesign cost 1 percent of 1 percent of the capital improvements budget, and it was estimated in 2022 to roughly cost $1,500 to physically replace all the city flags.
Citizen initiative
Regardless of the adoption of his flag design, the mayor and council member Nick Komives took the city council session and ceremony as an opportunity to thank Parr for initiating the process of redesigning the city of Toledo’s flag.
“Jacob put his heart and soul into something he felt was really good for us,” Komives said.
Kapszukiewicz, in his first moment to introduce the flag, also paid his respects to Parr. “I want to thank firstly Jacob Parr,” he said. “Without him, this conversation about our city flag would never have happened.”
In the flag ordinance, Kapszukiewicz said Parr’s name was placed intentionally into the legislation, “to make sure Jacob’s role was honored.”
The last word
“I’m grateful to the City of Toledo and The Arts Commission for fostering a process that allowed so many voices to shape this vision,” Yappuening said. “I moved back to Toledo at the end of 2019.
“Moving back to Toledo this time had solidified it as a real sense of home, something that I don’t think I personally had felt strong about before,” he added. “Most everyone who lives here genuinely wants to be here .. it just feels simple to be here.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing this flag fly proudly, representing the unity and strength of Toledo.”
Ohio’s minimum wage increase compared to other states
Economic Policy Institute states Ohio’s minimum wage is still too low to ‘maintain a modest, but adequate, standard of living.’
This story was originally published by Signal Statewide. Sign up for their free newsletters at SignalOhio.org/StateSignals. Statewide is a media partner of the Toledo Free Press.
Frank W. Lewis | Signal Statehouse
Ohio is one of 21 states that raised its minimum wage on New Year’s Day. The minimum wage in Ohio rose to $10.70 per hour for non-tipped employees, an increase of 25 cents. For workers who receive tips, the minimum wage went up 10 cents to $5.35 per hour.
The raise in Ohio will affect more than 300,000 people, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for workers. The institute’s research shows that almost 90 percent of people benefitting from all state increases this year are adults, 58 percent are women and 20 percent are in families living below the federal poverty line.
In Ohio, the increase is required by a constitutional amendment, passed by voters in 2006, that ties the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.
Not all Ohio companies have to raise the minimum wage they pay. The increase only applies to companies with more than $394,000 in gross revenue per year. Those earning less must pay at least the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
How does Ohio’s minimum wage compare?
Nationally, Ohio’s non-tipped wage is now in the middle of the pack — lower than the rate in 25 states and higher than in 24, according to data gathered by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Still, “There is no county where an Ohio worker can earn less than $17.73 an hour and maintain a modest, but adequate, standard of living,” EPI reported.
Michigan’s rate is lower right now, $10.56, but will rise to $12.48 in February. Three more planned annual increases will bring it to almost $15 in 2028.
Three states — Illinois, Delaware and Rhode Island — raised their minimums to $15 this year, bringing the total number of states paying that much or more to 10.
In 2024, the Raise The Wage Ohio campaign proposed a new constitutional amendment that would have boosted the minimum to $12.75 this year and to $15 on Jan. 1, 2026, for non-tipped and tipped workers. The campaign fell short of the required number of petition signatures to get the amendment on the ballot in November but vowed to keep working and try again in 2025.
“A $15 minimum wage by 2026 would benefit nearly 1 million workers,” according to Policy Matters Ohio, “giving them on average an additional $2,128 in their pockets each year for full-time work, and bringing over $2 billion in additional wages to low-paid workers in Ohio.”
Signal Statewide is a nonprofit news organization covering government, education, health, economy and public safety.
Bluegrass in Super Class Winterfest
OREGON – The fast tempo and sweet, harmonious sounds of mandolin, bass, banjo and guitar have traveled from the tip top of the Appalachian Mountains, down the plains of Kentucky, and landed right here at the Maumee Bay Lodge.
Larry Efaw, mandolinist of the Larry Efaw & Bluegrass Mountaineers, started the annual Bluegrass in Super Class Winterfest 36 years ago with his wife, Lisa.
“We started this for the love of the music,” said Efaw.
Being a musician himself and having family and friends of the same accord, it seemed natural to bring everyone together and jam.
Originating in the rural south in the 1930s, bluegrass is traditionally acoustic and includes banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and bass. Unlike country music, bluegrass is high-pitched, with each musician taking turns playing the melody while the other band members provide the backing. As the father of bluegrass Bill Monroe acutely described, bluegrass has a high, lonesome sound.
“This started as a family event, and we want that to continue. I started playing music with my dad 60 years ago; being on stage with dad so long this really makes me miss him,” said Efaw.
The Efaw family isn’t the only family with bluegrass roots; many of the other bands on the roster for the Bluegrass in Superclass formed with family members.
Kicking off the event Thursday was the Ottawa County Bluegrass Band, with brothers Joe and Denny Mitchell from Port Clinton. The Mitchells are known throughout Ottawa County and beyond for their family’s musical talents. In the 1990s, Joe (banjo) and Denny (guitar) played bluegrass with their dad, Joe, who played the mandolin, but he has since passed.
Other members of the band include Danny Bryant on mandolin, who currently lives in Fostoria and is from Whitesburg, Kentucky, and Simon Edwards on upright bass, who currently lives in Waterville and is from Flat Gap, Kentucky.
The familial bonds and sense of community are strong among these musicians and festival goers; so strong that every year the festival gives back to the community with its earnings. This year, proceeds from the festival will go to the American Brain Tumor Association and, specifically, to one local individual suffering from brain cancer.
Efaw also said one of the goals of the festival is to bring national acts to northwest Ohio. At this year’s festival, Rhonda Vincent will perform on Saturday, which is the last day of the festival. Vincent is the Grammy winning Queen of Bluegrass and is a Grand Ole Opry member. Her career also started in her family’s band, The Sally Mountain Show.
The weekend lineup:
Friday:
- Little Roy & Lizzy Show
- Harbourtown
- Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road
- Larry Efaw & Bluegrass Mountaineers
- Open Highway
Saturday:
- Rhonda Vincent & Rage
- New Outlook
- Dean Osborne Band
- Larry Efaw & Bluegrass Mountaineers
- 7 Mile Bluegrass
The Bluegrass in Superclass Winterfest ran from Jan. 9-11 at the Maumee Bay State Park Lodge and Conference Center in Oregon.
