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Libertarian Johnson in BG on Nov. 2

By
Brigitta Burks
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UPDATE: Note change to start time.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is set to speak in Northwest Ohio on Nov. 2.

Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, will participate in an event at Clazel Theatre in Bowling Green from noon-3 p.m. Nov. 2, said Kenneth Sharp, an active member of the Lucas County Libertarian Party and Toledo Free Press columnist.

The event will be a joint effort between Lucas and Wood county Libertarian parties.

Sharp said Johnson’s campaign reached out after learning they had an open slot for Nov. 2 and would be around the area the same day.

Currently, there are no tickets being distributed because the Clazel should be able to hold all attendees, Sharp said.

That could change based on response to the event.

The Libertarian group is hoping for at least 600 attendees.

“I think people from both sides of the aisle have really been let down enough that they’re looking for a viable third-party alternative,” Sharp said.

“Even a 5 percent voter turnout nationally for the Libertarian party would break the two-party monopoly, because it breaks open the campaign finances,” he added.

There is a strong Libertarian presence in Northwest Ohio, Sharp said, adding that Johnson’s vice presidential candidate Jim Gray had a strong turnout when he spoke in Bowling Green in August.

According to Johnson’s campaign website, he was known as the “most fiscally conservative governor” and for his businesslike approach to governing.

To learn more, visit lucascountylibertarians.com/ or garyjohnson2012.com/.

Local haunted houses scaring up the screams

By
Mighty Wyte
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Whether you’re a hardcore haunt fan or looking for something to do with the family to celebrate the Halloween season, you’ll find everything you could want within an hour of Toledo.

Between Scream Acres at Leaders Family Farms in Napoleon and The Haunted Hydro in Fremont, your nightmares are only a short ride from home.

The Haunted Hydro in Fremont is a Halloween classic. This year, owner/operators and actors Bob and Beth Turner redesigned 60 percent of the interior of the Hydro and created an all-new outdoor walk-through haunt that is sure to get even the toughest people to jump and yell.

The theme for the Hydro this year is “Hex-Treme Takeover.” With newly designed rooms and elevated walkways, the poorly lit and cool outdoor vibes of the 100-plus-year-old Hydro add a unique feel to the attraction.

Whether you’re walking through a maze of chain-link fence or looking for ways out of a confined space, the outdoor walk-through makes sure that your focusing on what you can see is one of your biggest disadvantages.

Beth said the outdoor walk-through has been redesigned.

“Bob has actually made the walk-through much bigger this year, including a path that takes you very close to the river,” she said.

Just 30 minutes from Maumee is easily one of the best combinations of haunt and family destinations, Leaders Family Farms in Napoleon. Leaders offers a two-phase corn maze that is stunning in every respect. Both phases of the maze, Scream Acres and the PanDEMONium Project, are included in the price of maze admission and a daytime walkthrough of both phases of the maze will take guests more than an hour to complete.

If you have the guts to walk the maze at night, expect to be in the corn for two hours or more.

If you have kids and want to make a day of your trip to the family farm, Leaders also offers a giant trampoline-like pillow for kids to jump on, straw tunnels for the little ones, a petting zoo full of well-cared-for animals, a maze for munchkins and many other things.

Once you’re finished walking around the grounds, eating, shopping for pumpkins and perhaps participating in some karaoke, it will be dark enough for Scream Acres and The PanDEMONium Project to open.

When walking from building to building in each haunt, you’re forced to walk through pitch-black mini corn mazes alone.

Each time you think you’re almost finished or safe, you realize you’re wrong and the suspense just amplifies the quality of frights.

While it’s fun to take the family out for a day trip, Leaders offers much more than a family destination: It offers two of the must-experience haunts in our area.

For operation dates, hours and directions visit  leadersfamilyfarms.com and thehauntedhydro.com.

Study suggests ways to improve local food economy

By
Brigitta Burks
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Sage Produce products at a farmers' market. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Bergman

A study released this October showed that $3.6 billion has crept out of the Northwest Ohio economy because the local food system isn’t being fully utilized.

“The region has much to gain by doing so: our analysis of the region’s farm and food economy shows that $3.6 billion leaks out of Northwest Ohio each year as residents farm and eat, since farmers farm at narrow margins to produce commodities for export, while consumers eat food imported from far away,” according to “Finding Food in Northwest Ohio,” a study conducted by Ken Meter.

Meter is president of the Crossroads Resource Center, a nonprofit in Minneapolis.

“It isn’t surprising. This is happening all over the United States. Obviously in Northwest Ohio, some of that is tied to the decline of cucumber, tomato greenhouses,” he said. With foreign competition from countries such as Mexico, the number of acres for tomato production in Lucas County fell 90 percent from 1992 to 2007.

Paula Ross, a research associate at the University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center, served as Meter’s “ground person,” connecting him with locals for the study. Ross is also the facilitator of the Northwest Ohio Food Council. She had worked with Meter in the past on a study about Ohio food systems.

This time, she wanted to better understand a more local economy.

“I believe whenever you want to change something as complex as a food system you have to understand it first,” she said.

“I had gotten to know [Meter] and very much respect his work and the way he combines vignettes and stories … but he also has the quantitative information,” Ross said.

The study is funded by an existing grant that also supports other work being done by the Urban Affairs Center.

Meter’s study features examples of local individuals or groups exemplifying the groundwork that leads to improving the local food economy. This includes Elizabeth Bergman, who runs the Westgate and Job & Family Services locations of the Toledo Farmers’ Market two days a week.

Meter’s study includes eight recommendations toward improving the local food system. Bergman, 28, embodies one of those steps — creating a farm system that grows new farmers. She has had three interns work at her small farm. She operates Sage Produce in Genoa, where she grows year-round in addition to her work with the farmers market.

Bergman nearly went into a career in history before deciding to pursue culinary training.

“I wanted to do something that wasn’t so theoretical and get my hands dirty,” she said. Bergman studied at Culinary Arts Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York.

However, at 23 she was diagnosed with cancer and returned to Ohio for treatment. Bergman said she became interested in nutrition and learning what “good stuff” to put in her body.

When she asked local farmers if their produce was organic, “I never got a straight answer,” she said.

So in 2009, she and her brother started Sage, a farm of their own.

Although Bergman does not use chemical sprays on her produce, “I don’t think organic is the most important thing. I think local is the most important thing.”

Money is an important factor in creating young farmers like Bergman, according to Ross.

“Bottom line is nobody is going to be a farmer unless they can make money being a farmer,” Ross said. “It’s kind of surprising in a country that says, ‘We feed the world’ that what we’re finding is the number of younger farmers is rapidly declining,” Meter said, adding that average age of a farmer is 57.

He also suggested creating places for children to learn about food and agriculture.

Policy and zoning changes could make farming easier and more attractive, Ross said. In 2007, there were 372 farms in Lucas County, 8 percent less than in 2002, according to the study.

To further improve the local economy, Ross suggested talking to businesses about where they get their produce.

“We need to be asking restaurants and grocery stores if they’re not sourcing from local growers, well,why not?” she said. “That’s the power of the consumer.”

There is a misconception that eating locally costs more, Bergman said. It’s just that “vegetables cost more than Doritos.”

“The stuff in season at the farmers’ market is cheaper than the grocery store by far,” Bergman said. “You can get cabbage the size of two heads for a dollar right now.”

According to Meter’s study, 80 percent of Toledo residents reported in 2009 that they do not eat five or more servings of fruit or vegetables each day. Ross emphasized that small changes could have a big impact on the local food scene.

“This is not absolutism. Small changes here can make a big difference,” she said.

Bergman noted that she still buys some items at Meijer or The Andersons. She also suggested eating foods that are in season locally.

“We can eat seasonally. You can have squash soup instead of tomato bisque soup,” she said.

The economy could improve by $345 million for local farmers if area residents bought $5 worth of food from them each week, Meter said.

“That’s a pretty substantial slice of money. Small changes by local customers could make a big difference,” he said.

Coordinating citizen efforts through the Northwest Ohio Food Council was another step Meter recommended. Ross sees the council, which meets quarterly and has specific topic-based subgroups, as a way to connect the community.

The council has representatives from about 10 local groups and is open to individuals, too.

“The disappointing news (from the study) has to turn into, ‘We can do something about it,’ and I think the folks in Toledo are coming together to do that,” Meter said.

Meter became interested in food systems because of his father, who grew up on a farm. Despite feeling most at home on a farm, his father spent his life distancing himself from that life, Meter said.

“It created a mystery for me,” Meter said. “Part of my passion for me is how bad economics for farming has affected my family and to ask why can’t we create a system that rewards farmers better for what they do.”

Meter was set to speak at 1:15 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Green Town event at Sea Gate Convention Centre.

To read the study, visit www.crcworks.org/ohnwfood.pdf.

Visit the web site foodcouncil419.org to learn more.

Tent City offers many services to Toledo’s unhoused

By
Toledo Free Press
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Tent City volunteer Michelle Ross was formerly unhoused and was Tent City's "mayor" in 2008. Toledo Free Press photo by Joseph Herr

Ken Leslie started Tent City, an annual event for the unhoused, after reading a startling statistic in 1990: 60 percent of the homeless were families with children.

“I thought it was unconscionable that kids were on the street,” said Leslie, founder of homeless advocacy group 1Matters and its veterans counterpart, Veterans Matter. Leslie also used to be among the unhoused.

The all-volunteer event, which returned in 2006 after a six-year hiatus, gives the unhoused opportunities to partake in several different activities and services. Haircuts and doctor and dentist appointments are just some of the services offered in addition to food, clothing and birth certificates/legal documents being provided. The unhoused, along with volunteers and anyone who wishes to attend, will camp out at the Civic Center Mall, next to the Toledo Police Department on North Erie Street, from Oct. 26-28. Findlay is having a similar event the same weekend.

“Tent City is about bringing the community’s compassion together and delivering it in one weekend to people in need. It is incredible the amount of results that we get when we bring people together,” Leslie said. For $7,000, Tent City was able to offer $140,000 worth of services to the unhoused last year because of community collaboration.

Volunteers are what drive Tent City, Leslie said.

“The reason all this comes together is the insane, wonderful, hard-working, dedicated compassionate volunteers,” he said. There are slots for 462 volunteers this year.

Michele Ross will be one of the volunteers at Tent City and was appointed honorary “mayor” of Tent City in 2008.

But before that, in 2007, she was a homeless crack addict who wanted to score loot at the event. Today, she credits Tent City with helping get her life on track.

“I went down looking for free stuff and I met some fabulous people,” she said. Now, Ross is a proud grandma and a cook at Bowling Green State University — and a renter of a “beautiful one-bedroom apartment.”

Ross said it was the casual questions the volunteers asked her in 2007 that inspired her to get clean.

“They wanted to know where I was from. When you answer that question you start thinking about your family,” Ross said. “Someone asked me if I had any children.

“Those are kind of questions people don’t ask each other when you’re living on the streets [because] you go there to die because you ruined everything. You ruined your relationship with your family; you ruined your relationship with jobs.”

One volunteer asked Ross what her hobby was. Ross told her that she liked to crochet. The volunteer brought her yarn and hooks the next time she saw her.

“I met people and those relationships developed into friendships,” Ross said. “The first thing that’s offered is the unconditional friendship by the people that volunteer there.”

A volunteer will walk each homeless person through Tent City to make sure he or she gets access to whatever’s needed, said Shawn Dowling, local coordinator for the Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program at the Ann Arbor VA Health System.

But before the “Project Connect” part of Tent City comes a walk from Promenade Park to the Civic Center Mall. Registration for the walk begins at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 26 and the opening ceremony is 6:15 p.m. A sock drive will also occur during the walk.

Walk participants who pay the $25 registration fee will receive a T-shirt and an entry into the door prize raffle.  The top 10 fundraisers also get one entry into the grand prize raffle. Raffle prizes include show tickets and the chance to meet musical artists like Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood, The Who and ZZ Top.

ZZ Top recently became spokespeople for a Veterans Matter campaign and John Mellencamp has worked with Leslie in the past.

“We’re being recognized by people like John Mellencamp, ZZ Top and others in the music industry who say what [1Matters is] doing in Toledo is really cool,” Leslie said.

After the walk, dinner will be served at Tent City. Musical director Pat Lewandowski will ensure that tunes play into the night, Leslie said.

Neighborhood Health Association, which aims to put health services in reach of all community members, will provide some of the medical care on site, said CEO Doni Miller.

“There are so many people that are giving that care to the folks that day because they think it’s the right thing to do,” said Miller, who praised Leslie for organizing Tent City.

“Ken Leslie has embraced this whole idea of addressing those people who are unhoused, rom a tiny little seed, and he has made it grow into this mammoth tree,” she said.

There will also be social workers onsite who can help the unhoused get into programs they may need.

“We connect with people there and grab them while we have them,” Miller said.

Tent City provides a way for agencies to get in touch with the unhoused, often veterans, who may not be going to shelters that normally serve as access points for services, Dowling said.

“There are some people who aren’t able to access homeless shelters for a variety of reasons,” she said. These reasons could be PTSD or not being comfortable sleeping in a building.

This is why Tent City is a great way to connect homeless veterans with services, both Dowling and Miller said.

“What happens at Tent City is the veterans will come in and get some good food and connect with some positive people who aren’t going to judge them,” Dowling said.

Getting the unhoused legal documents like birth certificates is also crucial because these items are required for housing programs, she said.

The City of Toledo Department of Neighborhoods and Lucas County Health Department are covering the cost of 50 birth certificates, but more funds are needed.

Tent City also offers something to citizens who have a cozy bed at night — it gives them a chance to experience life as an unhoused person and sleep outside.

“I just know that if people are really curious about what it’s like to be homeless, coming down there is an experience they will never forget,” Ross said.

Leslie said he was recently reminded of his goal of helping the young and unhoused at Tent City.

After speaking at a high school, “This beautiful 16-year-old girl came up to me in tears and said, ‘Thank you for telling my story, I’m homeless.’ Her dad is a drug addict and drug dealer. She grew up never knowing if today was going be the day they got evicted or the utilities got turned off.”

The girl, who was kicked out by her father after he got a girlfriend, was inspired to speak at another high school.

“After she gave the talk to these kids, one of them came up afterward and said, ‘Thank you for telling your story. I’m homeless, too,” Leslie said. The second young woman is a longtime Tent City volunteer who Leslie did not know was homeless.

“People say all the homeless are drunks on the street. It’s bullshit. Look at those two girls who are in varsity sports in their schools, who are leaders in their schools and you tell me that the homeless want to be there, that they’re all bums, that they’re all lazy,” he said.

For more information, to volunteer or donate, visit http://www.1matters.org. To donate new or gently used winter clothing to Tent City’s clothing tent, drop off items at Cherry Street’s LifeBridge Center, 3342 Monroe St.

The Kitchen Salon offers resource for ‘Afro-textured’ hair

By
Toledo Free Press
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Megan Yasu Davis of Kitchen Salon. Photo courtesy Megan Yasu Davis.

Megan Yasu Davis created The Kitchen Salon to help address common issues with African-American hair care, styling and maintenance and educate people about the care of natural hair.

“The Kitchen Salon was birthed from my personal passion to share with others how beautiful, healthy and versatile natural hair can be,” Davis said.

Started in 2007 as a blog, The Kitchen Salon is now an online natural hair care resource and events company. The website contains information about caring for and styling natural, chemical-free, curly hair.

“The ‘Kitchen’ refers to the place where I spent my childhood getting my hair heat-pressed and styled.  It also refers to the area of hair near the nape of the neck that curls up the most,” Davis said. “The ‘Salon’ refers to the gathering place where women would convene and discuss current events, life challenges, joys and concerns.”

The Kitchen Salon organizes workshops and presentations.

“I have always done some type of gathering for small groups or one-on-one consultations, teaching others how to transition from chemically straightened hair to natural hair. My workshops went from one to five attendees to as many as 80 in one setting,” Davis said. “Each meet-up is different. Some are purely educational and some are social while learning is still a part of the event. I want the attendees to empower each other by sharing real experiences with one another.”

The Kitchen Salon will be at the Mott Branch Library, 1085 Dorr St., at 6 p.m. Oct. 22 for a workshop called Mott Mane Mondays: Hair Health & Harvest Party.

“Every fourth Monday we meet up and discuss natural hair care, style, common issues and learn new things about accessorizing,” Davis said. “We also explore product information and discover natural hair care through videos and others’ testaments of their own experiences.”

Davis uses a variety of tools for presentations from slide shows to showing videos on the projector to demonstrating styles and techniques.

“I allow attendees a chance to try the styles on their own hair, on each other or the mannequin as well, so they can feel for themselves,” Davis said.

Davis decided to style her hair naturally in 1997.

“I struggled with self-esteem for most of my life and going natural was one of the decisions I made that seemed authentic to the woman I was, buried underneath the pain and anguish of abuse and emotional distress,” Davis said.

While some myths and stereotypes deem natural hair as unkempt, unclean and frightening, Davis’ goal is to educate others with visuals, hands-on learning and literature.

“I want to show how untrue those ideas are of Afro-textured hair,” Davis said.

Davis is not the only one following this trend. According to naturallycurly.com, in recent years African-American women have been trending toward natural styling rather than relaxing their hair. Reasons cited range from the cost of the products to the hazardous chemicals found in relaxers to simply a renewed appreciation for the style.

When Davis decided to share her story, it inspired others to share theirs and “the community of ‘naturals’ grew and expanded in our area,” Davis said. “I see my business as a valuable resource to the local community because it enriches the lives of those who choose to wear their hair natural, offering greater options while coming to understand the nature of very curly hair.”

Davis’ typical clients are African-American females between the ages of 25 and 55.

“They are mothers, students or professionals. Many of them have been natural for a long time and just want to learn more, some have been natural a short period of time, but are afraid to wear their own hair out so they wear a form of extensions. And then there are those who wish to transition from chemically straightened, relaxed hair to natural hair and need guidance on how to do so as smoothly as possible without disturbing their confidence,” Davis said.

Davis also helps those who adopt children of African descent and need advice or assistance.

“I provide information on how often to wash their hair and what styling options are available for them, for example,” Davis said.

In 2011, The Kitchen Salon established The Northwest Ohio Natural Hair & Beauty Expo, which drew more than 400 guests and offered vendors, food, live performances of poetry, singers and traditional African drumming as well as workshops on various topics concerning natural hair care.

TaLisa Frazier attended the inaugural expo and was impressed.

“I had just done the big chop and was very eager to learn about my hair and how to properly manage it,” Frazier said. “I made sure to visit every vendor table, bought jewelry and whipped shea butter, met a hair braider and had my hair steamed to perfection by the lovely Mrs. Powell. While musicians and poets performed, people were buying products and having their hair twisted by fellow naturals sitting around the water fountain. It was beautiful and I felt very proud to be a part of an event with such amazing culture — my culture!”

Davis hopes to one day to open a school specializing in Afro-textured hair.

“Because I prefer not to style others’ hair, I refer them to local stylists who can care for their hair, but I do wish to open a natural hair care school where students can actually get certified to style natural hair without having to go through 1,500 hours of school that teaches almost nothing about Afro-textured hair,” Davis said.

Earlier this year, Davis developed her own natural hair and skin care product line that includes certified organic ingredients purchased from local small businesses and created in her home kitchen.

“The line consists of a moisturizing cream made with shea butter, shea butter body lotion for eczema, herbal scalp balm made with tea tree and rosemary, shea butter lip balm, hydrating mist made with aloe vera and coconut oil blend that is great for dry scalp and hot oil treatments,” Davis said.

“Be true to your hair or it will be false to you! I will have to trademark that, but it is just so true,” Davis said. “If you love it, it will be manifested in the way your hair looks and feels.”

For more information, visit the websites www.thekitchensalon.com. and www.thenaturalexpo.com.

Children’s Dyslexia Center addresses area need

By
Toledo Free Press
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Becky Berry, left, parent of a child with dyslexia, with Diane McCreery of the Children’s Dyslexia Center. Toledo Free Press photo by Morgan Delp.

Thirteen-year-old Mariam Fneiche has read more than 30 books this year alone and volunteers for the Holland branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library’s teen reading program.

“She’s a readoholic,” said her mom, Yvonne Fneiche. “At any given time, she probably has four or five (books) going.”

But Mariam has not always found reading so enjoyable. Mariam has dyslexia, which caused her to struggle in school before she received help from the Children’s Dyslexia Center in Maumee, a free tutoring center sponsored by the Scottish Rite Masons, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.

Struggling to succeed

“When she was 1, she knew all her colors. She was very, very bright,” Yvonne said. “My mom was dyslexic, I’m dyslexic and I started seeing some tendencies in kindergarten that she was dyslexic. So I talked to her kindergarten teacher. I said, ‘This is our history, this is what I’m seeing. Please keep an eye on it because I know now there are things that can be done.’”

At Central Elementary in Sylvania, Mariam’s teachers assured Yvonne her daughter was normal and it wasn’t uncommon to have word and letter reversals in first grade. But Yvonne said Mariam continued having trouble in school and her reading level dropped.

“I started having her tested. Her IQ in first grade was 120, which is on the superior level. But for her not to be able to read and do sounds as a normal child would, I saw some of the flags. It took her four years to learn to tie her shoes. She was always very bright and learned everything very quickly so it was frustrating,” Yvonne said. “Her spelling was horrendous. We would study her words all week and she’d get barely enough to pass the test and the next week it was all forgotten, like it didn’t exist.”

During her second-grade summer, Mariam was tested and found to be in the highest risk level for dyslexia. In third grade, she began tutoring with a reading intervention specialist who had previously worked at Children’s Dyslexia Center.

When Mariam was accepted into Children’s Dyslexia Center in fourth grade, her tutor incorporated and expanded on the strategies Mariam had received from the intervention specialist.

“Mariam went from being below state standard to [above],” Yvonne said. “Within the first three months, I saw a change, a blossoming. Before, doing homework was a nightmare; it was so horrible. The tears, the frustration. The ‘I can’t do it’ started to become the ‘All right I’ll try it.’ Now, she can do anything. She really can. And that’s not just me saying that, it’s her saying that.”

Mariam an eighth-grader at Timberstone Junior High School, has had straight A’s in reading and other subjects since the end of the first year of her two-year program at the center.

“(The program) changed the dynamic of our relationship a lot,” Yvonne said. “It was really hard, having to force her to do something that I knew was almost beyond her reach. Then when she went to the center, it transformed her and it’s transformed our relationship too. One of the things I’m most proud about is she’ll go on the grade system and monitor her own grades and her own progress.”

Yvonne believed in the program’s effectiveness so much that she sent her youngest child, 8-year-old Adam, to the center as well. He is now in his second year there. Already, Yvonne said Adam has caught up an entire year to the reading level at which he is supposed to be.

Multisensory approach

Diane McCreery, director of the Children’s Dyslexia Center for the past 11 years, said the key to the center’s success is the Orton-Gillingham methodology, which the specially trained tutors use to help dyslexic children from across the Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan area.

“We use a multisensory approach to teaching, reading and spelling. We use all of the senses — visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile,” McCreery said. “We use repetition to help them retain the information. One of the things people don’t understand about dyslexia is that telling them once in class does not do it. They need repetition, repetition, repetition.”

McCreery said children ages 7-12 attend one-hour sessions twice a week after school at the center, which recently moved to the former Union Elementary School building after months of uncertainty regarding the center’s future location.

The center is in such demand there has been a waiting list to get in the program, which has a limit of 36 members, McCreery said.

Ohio legislation

Becky Berry, a former learning tutor with Toledo Public Schools and parent of a child with dyslexia, said there isn’t sufficient help for dyslexic students in Ohio’s public school systems, including those in the Toledo area.

Other disabilities can be mistaken for dyslexia, which makes it hard for students to receive the correct assistance, Berry and McCreery said. Another reason students are not helped is because special education teachers are not all trained in the Orton-Gillingham method, Berry said.

“Teachers who are trained in special ed do not always know the signs to recognize [dyslexia],” Berry said.

However, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) is hoping to change that this school year.

In December, the Ohio Senate passed two bills that aim to improve the state’s response to dyslexia. House Bills 96 and 157 provide a concrete definition for dyslexia and dyslexia specialists and allow for the implementation of specialists to train teachers and administrators. The bills also provide for a three-year pilot program for early detection and remediation of dyslexic students in a handful of Ohio school districts.

Eight school districts — none in Northwest Ohio — were selected for the pilot program after an email was sent to all school districts in the state that receive the ODE’s special education newsletter, asking interested districts to apply. A variety of rural, urban and suburban schools were chosen.

Wendy Stoica, assistant director of the ODE Office for Exceptional Children, said Rossford Exempted Village Schools was the only local school district to apply.

Dawn Fahsholtz, director of special services for Rossford, said the district already has procedures and interventions in place and applied for the pilot to improve upon its dyslexia prevention program.

“Basically, we want to close the achievement gap so we don’t have to refer students to special ed,” Fahsholtz said. “We’re trying to take care of [the problem] with general education and interventions.”

Stoica said the pilot program goes hand in hand with the state’s initiative to improve the literacy of elementary school students. The schools that were chosen have a variety of programs currently in place, so the ODE’s goal is to determine what works best and how best to implement the programs, Stoica said.

“The goal is to reduce future special education costs. By early intervention with a system that addresses struggling readers, we are hoping to reduce their eligibility as children with disabilities,” Stoica said.

Celina City Schools was one of the districts chosen. Special Education Director Nancy Hartings said the district already uses READ, a multisensory reading intervention program. Teachers for kindergarten through sixth grade are trained in the program.

“We have been a district striving to get a multisensory reading program in place for the last three years,” Hartings said. “We thought, ‘Oh, what a way to put a feather in our cap and take us to that next step.’”

TPS responds

Toledo Public Schools (TPS) Chief Academic Officer Jim Gault said the district was not contacted about the pilot program, but is willing and hoping to participate in future programs. TPS doesn’t screen specifically for dyslexia, but screens for reading disabilities whenever a teacher or parent asks for it or believes there’s a problem, Gault said.

“I’m not necessarily worried about identifying students (as dyslexic) because I think our process identifies students, but what I’d like to do is label dyslexia as the cause and get more services and treatments for it, in terms of actual symptoms the children have,” Gault said.

Gault said his biggest concern was for students with mild cases.

“For students with severe cases, we’re easily able to identify those; they will be captured with testing. My concern is for the student with mild dyslexia — not to the extent that they qualify for services but still need additional support to be successful; the students with C’s and D’s that are capable of better grades that don’t qualify for services. I will be looking forward to seeing the pilot,” Gault said.

Gault said TPS is looking into putting its own plan together.

“Let’s look at the pilot [and] at the number of schools in the district and what is being done to … ensure dyslexia can be overcome,” Gault said. “We will look at our practices and what we can do to be on the forefront. … The goal is to provide the support to allow students to be in a regular curriculum and be successful.”

“Let’s not be the last school in the area to jump on the bandwagon and help these children,” Berry said.

Barhite: Lake Twp. murders reinforce importance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month

By
Brandi Barhite
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The purple that stands for Domestic Violence Awareness Month is often overshadowed by a sea of pink for breast cancer.

This year, the presidential election — and the Detroit Tigers’ run for the World Series — serve as yet other distractions.

On Oct. 16, when many people were watching the debate or the American League Championship Series game, three people, including a 3-year-old, were killed during a domestic violence dispute in Lake Township.

In the middle of all this, I noticed a Facebook post asking for prayers as the tragedy unfolded in the apartment complex.

I tried to get some additional news, but local media outlets were focused on the Obama/Romney brouhaha.

Later, I learned that three people had been killed. Before being shot by police, Jorge Duran shot and killed his ex-girlfriend Amber Jones and their son.

I was the first to tell Nancy Neylon, executive director of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, about these latest domestic violence victims. Based in Columbus, she hadn’t heard the news yet.

Neylon said anyone who sees, hears or suspects domestic violence should call law enforcement, even if it seems small or just yelling.

“If you see something that is potentially dangerous, you could get killed,” Neylon said. “It is really important that you call law enforcement.”

Don’t worry about getting involved in someone else’s business or wasting a police officer’s time. People rarely hesitate to call when seeing other types of crimes, she said.

“Your civic duty is to make a call to law enforcement. How bad do you feel if someone gets killed or badly injured?” she said.

“It is better to call than to do nothing.”

Neylon said domestic violence awareness doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but the presidential election should be a chance for additional dialogue.

“Frankly, the election gives us an opportunity to highlight the needs of women,” Neylon said. “I would have loved one of [the candidates] to say domestic violence is an economic issue, as well as fair pay, as well as access to health care.”

When a woman is in a relationship, her partner could be controlling the finances, which is a tactic of abusers, she said. Sometimes the batterers sabotage the women at work or don’t allow them to get a job — or even an education.

Neylon knew of one woman whose husband urinated on all of her professional clothes before a big business meeting, hence putting her job in jeopardy.

If the woman does leave, the abuse doesn’t necessarily end. Many abusers will continue to visit and harass the woman, she said, which affects everyone in the family.

This makes domestic violence awareness just as important as breast cancer research. Both need a cure.

There is a lot of pink out there, which is good, but we would like to add some purple, Neylon said.

Sharp: We are not safer or sounder than we were in 2008

By
Kenneth Sharp
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Each presidential election we are supposed to reflect upon the past term and decide if we are better off than we were in order to decide our future course. Without debating how much power a president is supposed to have in the course of our lives, there are really just two issues to look at — financial well-being and security from external threats.

The actions of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, and many executive branch agencies had put our nation’s economy at risk by the time Obama was elected.  The first of the bailouts (crony capitalism) and quantitative easing (QE) were already under way. It was and is bipartisan. They didn’t work. So they went for a second helping, this time under President Obama’s sole leadership. It didn’t work; now we are at QE3.

Essentially, we are printing money in an effort to add liquidity to the market and stimulate lending and spending.

When each dollar printed is not supported by a good or service provided by the marketplace, it dilutes the dollars that are. In other words, our dollars are worth less. Prices then rise on the uncertainty of what the actual value of each dollar is. If you or I attempted to add value without backing it by a good or service, it would be criminal (think counterfeiting). Government is allowed to do this very thing. How it affects the market is the same whether it is legal or illegal. Over the four years we have all had to pay more for our food and energy, the things we can’t avoid.

With Obama we have more czars, unelected bureaucratic heads under the sole direction of the president. These powerful and largely unaccountable persons have added reams of regulations and costs to businesses. These people are one of the largest reasons for lobbyists. Congress could be a check, except congresspersons generally benefit from the lobbyists. These regulators do not affect just large corporations. For example, they have raided small farms for selling raw milk and other products. We are all hurt at all levels of commerce. Our options and liberties have shrunk.

I can’t explain the insanity behind excitement at 7.8 percent unemployment numbers better than Gary Rathbun did last week in this paper (“7.8% — Really?” Oct. 14), so I won’t. Please read it.

Under the current administration we have reaped the results of the expansion of an operation, begun under Bush, at our southern border. It is known as “Fast and Furious,” where we supplied guns to drug cartels. It has left numerous dead, including at least one American. Attorney General Eric Holder, the man in charge, has not been forthcoming, nor has it made us safer. The president claimed no direct knowledge.

In Libya, we had four Americans slain in a coordinated attack. Requests for additional security amid escalating violence and threats were denied by the State Department.

Again it is claimed the president had no direct knowledge.

Even if it is reasonable that he had no direct knowledge, his choices as to who is in charge are certainly suspect. Our president is not responsible just for the actions he is directly involved in but also for those where he has delegated the responsibility.

The Transportation Security Administration has repeatedly made news for alleged mistreatment of passengers at airports and its highly questionable hiring practices. In the name of security we are to put up with egregious violations of our bodies and liberties. This will likely infuriate many, but we need to look at this correctly. The enemy, and yes there is one, does not act erratically. They see themselves as rational and moral under their tenets. Their targets are intentional and strategic. Their means are calculated. It is sad and horrific that, to them, a strategic target could be a 14-year-old girl in Pakistan. Their means cannot be condoned or tolerated. But, if they wanted to simply inflict casualties they could do that easily in a number of open-access areas in the U.S. They used planes as missiles. That won’t happen again. They will not gain access to the cockpit. Enhanced searches of children and leukemia patients and hiring sexual predators to do

pat-downs will not make us safer.

The expansion of the National Defense Authorization Act that allows for the indefinite detention and assassination of American citizens, and the use of drones that have killed civilians abroad while targeting terrorists, will not make us safer. It is a small minority in the Muslim world that threatens us; we must not enlarge their power while weakening the very values we seek to protect.

Our borders, our money and our values are not safer or sounder. Obama and Romney agree on all the above topics. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson does not.

Green Party’s Nestor: Third-party candidates relegated to ‘political ghetto’

By
Toledo Free Press
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Sean Nestor is Lucas County Green Party co-chairman and Secretary of the Ohio Green Party.

Toledo Free Press: Dr. Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate for president of the United States with running mate Cheri Honkala. Why haven’t the American voters heard from Stein or the other third-party candidates in the presidential debates? How is this representative of the current state of our democracy?

Sean Nestor: There are a number of discreet laws and policies in place which are intentionally designed to relegate third parties to a political ghetto. If you’re a third-party candidate who wishes to be on the ballot, you’ll be asked to gather tens of thousands of signatures in a very short time frame.

In spite of these obstacles, third parties like the Greens and Libertarians are on the ballot in most states. However, both [Stein] and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, have been completely shut out of the presidential debates on flagrantly partisan grounds. This is because the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has put on the presidential debates since 1988, is openly just a collaboration between the Democratic and Republican parties.

Sean Nestor

The end result of all this is that many voters write off third-party candidates. We effectively are provided with precisely one party more than a Soviet state. It’s remarkable that so many can see how having consumer options is a demonstration of our economic freedom, yet seem not to apply that same principle to our elections.

TFP: We hear many voters are dissatisfied with Obama’s presidency and have lost their “hope”for him, so to speak, yet won’t vote for a candidate they better align with because Obama will be “better” than Romney. What do you have to say to these “I’m choosing the lesser of two evils” voters?

Nestor: As someone with an engineering background, I can’t help but reject the circular logic of not voting for a candidate simply because they “can’t win.” They can’t win because you won’t vote for them because they can’t win because you won’t vote for them because … ad nauseam. It’s a self-defeating argument that I think is proffered more to rationalize a hesitance to go down the relatively unbeaten path of third-party politics and continue along the tried, true and terrible. I know it’s not an easy decision for people to make, but more people are doing it all the time — and I do think it carries the greatest potential to effect real and positive change.

TFP: Does a candidate outside of the two-party system have a chance at winning a presidency? What’s the point of running a candidate with the Green Party if she’s not going to win?

Nestor: Anything is possible. The Republicans were a third party until Lincoln was elected on a then-radical abolitionist platform. There are many practical reasons to put your vote behind a third-party candidate for the presidency. In Ohio, our recognition as a party is contingent upon our state-wide candidates receiving 1 percent of the popular vote each election cycle.

There is also the matter of opening access to federal funding, which the Democrats and Republicans have enjoyed for years. If we receive 5 percent of the popular vote nationwide, by law our party will be entitled to about $20 million in federal funds next election, which would be a game-changer since Greens have a policy of not accepting any kind of PAC or union money in campaigns — only individual contributions.

I think it’s a matter of looking at the long run and wanting to win a real democracy rather than just a single election.

TFP: In 2011 you ran for Toledo City Council as a Green in District 6, and I know you have spent a lot of time getting to know the local Board of Elections (BOE). How are third parties received in Toledo?

Nestor: From an individual perspective, I’ve been treated wonderfully. From a systemic perspective, I’m ancillary and a nuisance. If I want to sign up to be a poll worker or apply for a job at the BOE, I have to declare myself a Democrat or a Republican and work under an official who is committed to that party. Across Ohio, only 12.97 percent of voters are registered as Democrats, and 18.27 percent are registered as Republicans, and 68.62 percent have no declared party affiliation. The moment you want to participate in civic processes, you are forced to take sides in a two-party system that has no explicit overarching legal foundation. Coupled with our consistently dismal voter turnout, I see an America that desperately wants to hear more choices than what it’s being provided.

As Jill Stein has said, “The politics of fear have given us everything we’re afraid of.”

ODE releases district report cards; TPS moves down

By
Brigitta Burks
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The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released preliminary “report card” data, rating individual schools and their districts on Oct. 17. Some local schools have reason to celebrate, while others may have reason to worry in the midst of election season.

Toledo Public Schools was downgraded this year from a continuous improvement rating to academic watch. Its performance index rating was 81.8 out of 120, down just 1.3 points from 83.1 last school year.

“A 1.3 (change) is very minor in the scheme of things. It represents about 300 students, not that they’re not important,” said TPS Superintendent Jerome Pecko, adding that he does hope to get the index score to the 90s.

Pecko said that the breakdown of scoring is not that different from TPS’ continuous improvement rating last year. However, if a district fails to meet ODE’s “value-added” expectations three years in a row, the district is downgraded. Value-added criteria measure how a student’s performance grows year to year and is based on certain reading/math tests for grades 4-8. This is the third year that TPS did not meet value-added criteria. An 81.8 would usually be in the continuous improvement category.

“Our report card looks exactly the same as it did last year because nothing’s changed very much. A 1.3 decline is probably right around 1 percent,” Pecko said.

Jerome Pecko

Part of the reason for not meeting those criteria could be settling into the district’s transformation plan, which saw middle schools being eliminated to create K-8 schools. Research shows that K-8 schools benefit the students, Pecko said.

In addition, 98 administrators were assigned to new positions, 122 new teachers were hired, 300 teachers changed grade levels or are new teachers and 3,500 students attended new schools because of redistricting.

“It is a clear demonstration of what happens when you rebuild your house and that’s exactly what TPS has done through the transformation,” said School Board President Lisa Sobecki.

During talks with the community about the transformation plan, “We let them all know that there could be a dip in our grade card, but we were hoping there would not be, but there could be,” she said. “We have had a lot of shakeup.”

This November, TPS is asking voters to approve a 4.9-mill, 10-year operating levy.

Scores to level out

Sobecki said that she was approached with concerns about the levy and report card data Oct. 17, but thinks that people understood the situation after she explained it.

Pecko and Sobecki said they believe the scores will level out as students and teachers adjust to the new plan.

“You implement anything new, it takes three solid years to be able to see those gains happen and I think we’re going to see great strides,” Sobecki said. The district also aims to have an effective rating by 2015.

The district had a graduation rate of 62.4 percent and an attendance rate of 94.3. It met four of the 26 state indicators.

Individual schools also received ratings. Of the TPS schools, five were excellent, seven were effective, 19 were at continuous improvement, eight were at academic watch and 10 were at academic emergency.

Perrysburg schools ‘excellent’

Perrysburg Local Schools has a 13.15-mill levy up and received an excellent with distinction rating with a performance index of 105.8, up from 105.6 last year. It has a graduation rate of 93.5 percent, an attendance rate of 96.9 percent and met all 26 indicators.

“This is our 12th year of being excellent or better,” said Kadee Anstadt, executive director of teaching and learning. “Every year, we get a little better so that bar is set a little higher.”

Anstadt attributed some of that success to the district’s academic options program. Before school, junior high students spend 25 minutes with a teacher. What they learn is based on their strengths or weaknesses and falls into one of three categories: intervention, challenge or enrichment.

Despite the district’s success, Anstadt said she would celebrate for about “10 seconds” before moving onto another goal — improving science test scores for the elementary schools.

Community schools

Community schools were also measured. The Maritime Academy of Toledo jumped from an academic watch rating of 78.3 in performance index to an excellent rating of 90.2. Graduation rates were 47.8 percent, attendance was at 96.1 percent and the school met nine  out of 19 state indicators.

Superintendent Renee Marazon said improvements were made across the board, including for special education students. The school also received a value-added bump for advancing students more than one grade level on tests.

The school decided that to “initiate a strategy to move our kids forward in a more intentional way,” Marazon said.

This strategy included after-school programs and 30 minutes of test prep every day, using a practice test to allow students to see what areas they could improve on.

“We’re going to show that we’re going to continue on this path. We’re going to move toward excellence with distinction,” Marazon said. Maritime also has longer school days and enforces a code of conduct.

“You must be studious. You must have a passion to learn. The students themselves have to be intentional in what they’re doing,” said Marazon of succeeding at the school that refers to students as “cadets.”

She said one area she would like to improve on is graduation rates, but that might be something community schools need to address together.

“Community schools have a huge transient population. That’s going to be some skewed data,” she said.

Mobile population

Pecko also said that TPS has a mobile student population and graduation rates were calculated using a four-year standard for the first time this year.

The ratings of Lucas County school districts for 2011-12 are as follows: Anthony Wayne Local at excellent with distinction, Maumee at excellent, Oregon at effective, Ottawa Hills Local at excellent, Springfield Local at excellent with distinction. Sylvania at excellent with distinction and Washington Local at excellent.

Last year, ODE released official report cards in late August. The State Board of Education delayed their release this year because of an ongoing investigation by the state auditor into allegations of data manipulation by some school districts, according to a news release.

All the data is considered preliminary. An official report will likely be released around the first of the year, according to an ODE spokesman.

For more information, visit http://education.ohio.gov.

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