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Will Lucas named to Obama committee

By
Brigitta Burks
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A Toledo-area businessman is establishing some serious presidential connections. Will Lucas, founder and CEO of Creadio, was recently named a co-chair of the Ohio Small Business Owners for Obama committee, part of the Obama for America campaign.

The committee supports President Barack Obama for his role in promoting small businesses. Obama cut taxes for small business owners 18 times and encouraged them to hire by signing into law $200 billion in tax relief, according to a news release. The president also allowed businesses to write off 100 percent of new investment costs for equipment in 2011.

Will Lucas

“Our president understands that America prospers when we’re all in it together, when hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded, when everyone from Main Street business owners like myself to those on Wall Street do their fair share and play by the same rules,” Lucas said in a release.

A few years ago, the entrepreneur founded Creadio, which offers customized radio and television stations for businesses to promote their products in-house. For example, if a McDonald’s location had Creadio, restaurant patrons would only hear McDonald’s commercials (no Burger King ads here) along with the music on the radio.

Lucas also founded thankyouaga.in, a mobile app and website where users are encouraged to share positive aspects of their lives. It’s also a way of saying thank you — again.

“It’s meant to be the second thank you after you’ve thought about it, the one that means something,” Lucas has said.

The businessman’s counterparts on the committee include Stephen

Hightower, the president and CEO of Hightowers Petroleum in Middletown, Liz Lessner, CEO and president of Columbus Food League, Donna Staffilino, co-owner of Staffilino Chevrolet in Southeast Ohio and Ariane Kirkpatrick, owner of AKA Construction in Cleveland.

Lucas also said of Mitt Romney, Obama’s rival in the race for the presidential seat and the former CEO of Bain Capital, “Mitt Romney made his fortune by sending American jobs overseas, not growing them here at home. That kind of economic philosophy is bad for business and bad for American innovators and entrepreneurs.  We need an economy built to last, not one that inhibits the growth of the small businesses that keep our economy running.”

Rathbun: John Galt Day

By
Gary Rathbun
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On Friday, July 13, President Barack Obama made several outrageous statements that very quickly became the “shot heard ’round the world” for private business owners in this country. To quote: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help … If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

The implication is that we would have nothing were it not for government. I own my company at the leisure of the federal government and it is only because of this largess that I am allowed to exist and make the money I make. Anyone who has ever started their own business and worked and sacrificed to make it grow knows the ignorance of that statement.

In my case, the emotion is not anger but pity. This administration and most of Congress don’t know anything about business — and worse, they don’t know that they don’t know. It is what we call the unconscious incompetent. This is a very dangerous state of mind.

It is from these statements and the following outrage that an article was penned by local talk show host Brian Wilson of 1370 AM WSPD. The article, on lewrockwell.com, is titled, “John Galt Day! Why Not?”

In the article, Wilson makes the suggestion that on the 30-day anniversary of Obama’s statements, all of us essentially go on strike for the day. We close our business for the day, we don’t buy anything and starve the government of our production and taxes for one day.

Sure, there are some practical issues that we have to consider. I want the hospital to be open in case I need it, etc. Wilson also points out that the mega stores and chains probably won’t participate but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a statement anyway.

It has been said that all it takes is a small group of committed individuals to make a change, indeed that is all that ever has been needed. Let’s begin the revolution on Aug. 13 and as Wilson suggested, make it two days in September and so on until they get the message.

As you may or may not know, John Galt is the fictional character in Ayn Rand’s epic novel “Atlas Shrugged.” John Galt is the representation of man’s mind, the ultimate source of wealth and production.

In the book, he reaches a point where government, the ultimate moocher, decides that it is entitled to the product of the producers to redistribute to society as it deems appropriate.

Sound familiar? Isn’t it a good idea to spread the wealth around a little? After all, you didn’t really produce anything without the help of government anyway, right?

Galt decides that the only thing that government cannot take from him is his mind, so he goes on strike and convinces other producers to go on strike with him and retreat to Galt’s Gulch (that might clue you in to the origin of the name of this column).

Now, can I do what I do without the help of many other people? Of course not! But I pay for those services and materials and those people are given a choice to work with me or not. I need to provide a valuable service that is worth the cost or no one will pay me.

The government has created nothing and it provides nothing without confiscating money from the producers at the point of a gun.

I personally go on strike a little each day. I refuse to purchase compact florescence bulbs, I won’t do business with companies that make their money by lobbying for favors and advantages. I don’t have solar panels on my house. I carry a gun. I set my air conditioning where I want it and pay the electric bill myself. I refuse to be afraid of anything that the government says I should be. I use salt and sugar. I use the elevator instead of the stairs.

I have a car with real horsepower and I drive it. I don’t get a flu shot. I drink water out of my own well. Every day I look at what I can do to be self-sufficient and rely on my own judgment as to what is best for me.

Join us in celebrating John Galt Day on Aug. 13.

And every day, rely on your own mind to create your best life.

Gary L. Rathbun is the president and CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, Ltd. He can be heard every day at 4:06 p.m. on After the Bell with “Brian Wilson and the Afternoon Drive,” and every Wednesday and Thursday evening at 6 throughout Northern Ohio on “Eye on Your Money.” He can be reached at (419) 842-0334 or email him at [email protected].

Baumhower: The Dark Rhetoric Rises

By
Toledo Free Press
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James Holmes, a 24-year-old with recently dyed red hair, suited up like any other SWAT member would. He put on a bulletproof ballistic vest and leggings, a throat and groin protector and ballistic gloves. Holmes then grabbed his assault rifle, his 12-gauge shotgun and two semi-automatic pistols and ventured to a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” at a theater in Aurora, Colo. Holmes allegedly entered the back door of Theater 9 and proceeded to shoot 70 people, 12 fatally. He was caught by Aurora police moments later, guns in hand, without incident.

My media background and foundation is based in news talk radio.  I was the executive producer of two shows on WSPD for three years, for both Mark Standriff and Scott Sloan, later moving to Cincinnati to produce on 700 WLW, one of the biggest news talk stations in the country.  Tragedies like the Batman shooting drive news talk ratings with a simple formula. Tragedies = Gun Debate = Ratings.  In retrospect, those were the easiest shows to produce — find gun rights advocates, book them onto the show and ask these questions: “Who is going to try to take our guns first?”  and “What new laws should gun owners expect as a result of the shootings?”

This formula still works and to this day I am ashamed I was a part of it.

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News talk radio targets 44- to 64-year-old males who are conservative, churchgoing, gun-owning, Constitution-loving men who love their money, politics and country. In Toledo, they are also pro-business and almost always anti-union. When I worked at WSPD, I drank the Kool-Aid.  I was a 25-year-old “conservative” who made $25,000 a year, rarely went to church, owned no guns and was from a union family. I was more confused than a gay son of a minister. I eventually left news talk radio for good, because I was tired — tired of reading tragic news, tired of the same conversations reworked daily, but mainly tired of tasting the Kool-Aid.

As early as the morning of July 20, with warm bodies still on the floor of the movie theater in Aurora, conservative talk show hosts began teasing the upcoming rhetoric of the gun debate just as I did years before, although this time I am a little more enlightened.

It appears Holmes had no criminal record, bought his numerous guns legally and, until he pulled the trigger the first time, was a law-abiding gun owner. Talk shows hosts are arguing no new gun laws are needed, the “liberal media” is now on a witch hunt for assault rifles and the “bread theory” is in full effect. The “bread theory” says if you give a slice away today, a slice away tomorrow, etc., eventually you’ll give away the whole loaf. Conservative radio hosts will also remind their audience that if guns were banned today, only “law-abiding citizens” would hand their guns over, leaving criminals the only ones armed with anarchy at hand. You will also hear radio’s finest contend that if there were no guns today, people would still find ways to kill each other; we always have and we always will. There will always be evil.  The truth is, if assault rifles were banned, the extent of damage during the Aurora massacre would be limited.  Yes, an evil Holmes could have walked into the back of that movie theater loaded with knives, rocks and fists, but even if he were a Judo master with ninja abilities, there would have been far fewer casualties.

The world is not the same place it was when the Second Amendment was penned. The guns have evolved and the laws protecting our rights to be gun owners should evolve to reflect those changes. Assault rifles in the hands of anyone other than military and police should be outlawed.

There will always be evil in this world, but the evil doesn’t always have to be armed with assault rifles.

Jeremy Baumhower is on Twitter @JeremyTheProduc.

Old West End Security to host Margarita Cruise Aug. 11

By
Brian Bohnert
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Sandpiper is to host a fundraising cruise for the Old West End. Photo by Don Lee

In an effort to provide continued protection for the historic neighborhood, Old West End Security will host its annual Margarita Cruise fundraiser Aug. 11, 2012.

The cruise will take place from 7:30-9:30 p.m. on the cruise boat Sandpiper located at the foot of Jefferson Avenue in Promenade Park downtown.

The cruise will feature a self-serve buffet, ice-cold drinks and “legendary” margaritas, as well as a unique and casual social environment for anyone wanting to have a relaxing night out, said Sara L. Haynes, OWE Security president.

“We really want people to come on the boat, socialize, have all the margaritas they can drink and an endless buffet of Mexican-oriented food,” she said.

Board members and residents will provide food and drinks while El Camino Real will donate the taco meat. All margaritas will be self-serve in a cooler with no bartender in attendance.

“It’s almost like you’re having a party with a bunch of your close friends,” Haynes said. “It’s very laid back and casual.”

Haynes said the cruise has been an annual fundraiser for more than a decade, serving as one of the multiple fundraising drives for the organization. However, more recently, she said OWE Security has shifted its focus.

“In the last five or so years, this has become our sole fundraiser for the organization,” she said. “We’ve been focusing less on fundraising and more on patrols.”

Registration for the cruise is $30 and the form can be found online at the OWE Security website. Seating is limited with a total of 80-90 spots open for the event.

The ship will depart from its Jefferson Avenue dock at 7:30 p.m. and travel down the Maumee River to Rossford before turning back around. As an added bonus, OWE Security will host a casual auction featuring items donated by both local businesses and residents of the historic neighborhood.

Items donated for the auction include a pearl necklace worth $150, homemade wine and a weekend at a cottage in northern Michigan. All money received from the auction, as well as from the event registration, goes toward funding the organization’s efforts, Haynes said.

“Those auction items augment this,” she said. “We probably make a net of maybe $2,000.”

The net amount of $2,000 consists of all funds raised after cruise-related expenses, including the rental costs for The Sandpiper and the provided food and drinks, said Nabeel Jabarin, OWE Security treasurer.

“All of the money we bring in during a given year, 92 percent of that goes to funding the patrols,” Jabarin said. “The other 8 percent goes to administrative costs.”

To protect residents of the Old West End, OWE Security employs the services of Signal 88 Security, an armed-guard company based out of Omaha, Neb.

The agency patrols the neighborhoods multiple times a day and is paid on a per-patrol basis.

While neighborhood membership fees pay for patrols during crucial hours of the day, Haynes said this annual fundraiser is the perfect opportunity to pay for more necessary patrol hours.

“We’re a lot of fun, but we’re responsible. Our focus is to make as much money as we can so we can pay for more patrols and introduce more people to OWE Security,” Haynes said. “When it comes right down to it, it’s not just a ‘fun-raiser,’ it’s a fundraiser. We want to expand our donor base … We’re neighbors watching out for neighbors.”

Old West End Security is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing safety and security to residents of the neighborhood through subscription-based memberships that pay for daily patrols. To join the organization or to register for the cruise, visit OWE Security online at www.oldwestendsecurity.com.

Chicago to play sold-out show in Sylvania

By
Vicki Kroll
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Chicago will take the stage Aug. 7, 2012, at Centennial Terrace in Sylvania. Photo by Henry Diltz

Chicago’s cool logo seems to stand for quality music.
The rock band with all that brass has the numbers to prove it: five No. 1 albums, 21 Top 10 singles, more than 100 million in international album sales.
For more than four decades, the group has released sequentially numbered records emblazoned with that familiar design that trumpets its signature sound.
“Just the fact that we’re out here 45 years later is special. It certainly has outlived any of our expectations. I mean, this is timeless legacy territory we’re talking about,” said trombone player James “Jimmy” Pankow.
“And little did we know when we wrote these songs that they would become the fabric of people’s lives of all ages,” he said. “We look into an audience and we see people from 10 to 70 all experiencing this stuff on their own level.
“You can see people looking at each other and remembering where they were or what they were doing when they discovered these songs. They associate important moments in their lives with these songs.”
Think “Make Me Smile,” “Colour My World,” “Just You ’n’ Me,” “Old Days,” “Alive Again” —penned by Pankow — and “Saturday in the Park,” “25 or 6 to 4,” “Beginnings,” “Wishing You Were Here,” “Call on Me,” “If You Leave Me Now,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” “You’re the Inspiration,” “Hard Habit to Break,” “Look Away” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”
“Just walking on that stage and seeing these faces light up and seeing these people celebrating in the aisles and just going nuts over this music is an amazing reward in itself,” Pankow said during a call from a tour stop in Denver.
Chicago will take the stage Aug. 7 at Centennial Terrace in Sylvania. Gates open at 6:30 p.m.; the sold-out show will start at 8 p.m.
“Right now, the band is just popping on all cylinders. This current ensemble is the longest running; of course, four of us are still original,” Pankow said.
The lineup features founding Chicago members Pankow, singer and keyboard player Robert Lamm, trumpeter Lee Loughnane, and saxophonist and woodwinds player Walt Parazaider.
Rounding out the band are singer and bass player Jason Scheff, who replaced Peter Cetera in 1985; guitarist Keith Howland, who came on board in 1995; Tris Imboden,who has been playing drums for Chicago since 1990; and singer and keyboardist Lou Pardini, who joined the group in 2009.
“So many artists are smoke and mirrors and lip-syncing and all the tricks because they need help coming across with their music. But this band does it the old-fashioned way: It’s just incredible musical ability,” Pankow said.
“People come to a show and they not only hear this music performed identically to the record that they’ve listened to for so long, but they see it performed as well. We give them a show.”
And that horn player wearing wrist sweatbands has fun.
“We love what we do; we’re very passionate about this,” Pankow said. “I love getting on that stage every night. It’s a powerful drug; I’ve gone on stage with a 104 fever and strep throat, and walked off feeling like Superman with the adrenalin I receive from that audience.
“We’re very, very blessed to be able to do this for so many years … And as long as we can do it and as long as we can do it well, we’re going to do it.”

Charter school racks up more than 1 million reading minutes

By
Erin Holden
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Tonajha Frazier starts her day with 20 minutes of reading. Photo courtesy Horizon Science Academy Springfield.

A reading initiative at a Toledo charter school was launched last year with the aim of helping students discover reading can be fun.

Horizon Science Academy Springfield started each school day with a 20-minute, uninterrupted block of reading time called the Focused Reading Opportunity for Growth (FROG) program. During that time, all members of the school community — from the youngest students to the school’s director — stopped and read books of their choosing.
Those at the school spent a total of 1,131,000 minutes reading during the school year, which translates to 18,850 hours, 785 days or 2.15 years.
“We had been thinking for a while about how to get students focused and ready to learn in the mornings. They come in and they are kind of chaotic. We thought it would be a good time to use as a reading focus,” said Instructional Coordinator Erin Schreiner.
“All the educational research shows the more you read, the better you read. Too often students are reading only things that are assigned to them. By letting kids pick their own books, it shows reading is something fun and enjoyable you can do.”
The program has been a hit with students, Schreiner said.
“The kids will talk about how they are reading a really good book and another student will ask if they can borrow it when they’re done,” Schreiner said. “That’s a kind of dialogue we wouldn’t have had before and that’s the way we want kids to be talking about books.”
Stephanie Sweat, head of the school’s English department, noticed the new interest as well.
“As soon as one student is done with a book, someone else wants it. That’s a new phenomenon this year. I haven’t experienced that in the past. I’m always on the hunt for books,” Sweat said, adding that students in an after school movie club she has hosted for three years started asking about reading the books movies are based on this year.
Parents have also noticed a difference, Schreiner said.

“One parent said his son never used to read for pleasure. He was always playing video  games. But now he’s seen him kind of switch and sees reading as something he does as a leisure activity,” Schreiner said.
Eighth-grader Chase Keeler said he likes being able to choose his own books and thinks FROG has improved his reading skills.
“It helps you learn new words,” Keeler said. “I read a lot faster than I did at the beginning of the year.”
Seventh-grader Jacob Wolfe said he enjoys FROG because it helps him discover new books.
“The teacher will have books we’ve never heard of and we get to see what other people read, too,” Wolfe said.
Eighth-grader Isis Walker said FROG rekindled her interest in reading. “I used to like reading, but didn’t do it all the time. Since FROG, I’ve had a lot more chances to read and I’m a lot more into it than I used to be,” Walker said.
Sixth-grader Taylor Kelley said she likes books better than movies.
“Books have a lot more detail than movies, so it’s a lot better,” Kelley said.
It’s too early to tell if the program will improve grades, but improving reading skills tends to improve performance in other subjects as well, Schreiner said.
“Reading is not just a stand-alone subject,” Schreiner said. “To do well in science, you needto read; to do well in social studies, you need to read. Even math. The ability to comprehend the written word is important.”
Horizon Science Academy Springfield, located at 630 S. Reynolds Road, enrolls students in kindergarten through eighth grade and plans to continue FROG next year.
For more information, visit www. horizonspringfield.org

Patience, price-matching keys to back-to-school shopping

By
Erin Holden
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Joni Meyer-Crothers with her husband, Jamie, and four of their seven children. Toledo Free Press photo by Sarah Ottney.

Like most area parents, Joni Meyer-Crothers of Sylvania has back-to-school shopping lists to tackle before fall — but she’ll probably spend far less money than most.
“I have four right now going to school and we spend $15 per child at the most, and that’s mainly the backpack they want,” Meyer-Crothers said. “We do mostly penny deals.”
Meyer-Crothers is an “extreme couponer” frequently featured in the national media, including TLC’s “Extreme Couponing,” “The Today Show,” “Rachael Ray,” “FOX News” and AOL’s You’ve Got.
She and her husband, Jamie Crothers, have seven children ranging in age from 6 to 25. She started couponing to save money on groceries after Jamie was laid off from his automotive job, and it has grown to become both a passion and a lifestyle.

For back-to-school shopping, Meyer-Crothers recommends looking online for deals.
“I use a combination of print and online coupons, but usually around school time, you’ll find more online,” Meyer-Crothers said.
Her own website, www.freetastesgood.com, features daily deals on back-to-school items. Type “Back to School” in the search bar or click the “Back to School” link on the righthand sidebar.
“As coupons come out, I’ll be updating that all the time,” said Meyer-Crothers, who also has a Facebook page, “Saving and Sharing for Christ.”
Another good website is coupons.com, Meyer-Crothers said.
“People are going to want to check them daily because it can change every day,” she said. “As it gets closer to school, they will start adding more.”
Print online coupons even if you don’t plan to use them right away,Meyer-Crothers said.
“Even if you’re not going shopping that day, print it out because usually they only allow a certain number to be printed,” she said. “By next week it might be gone, or even the next day.”
Comparison shopping between stores can sound daunting, but many couponing blogs will do the price-matching for you, Meyer-Crothers said.

“You don’t have to go through all the ads to save money,” she said. “It’s all spelled out for you in most of the blogs.”
Walmart will price-match any store’s coupon as long as it carries the item, she said.
“That’s a huge benefit because then you don’t have to go to all the different stores,” Meyer-Crothers said.
Walmart is the only local store that will actually pay shoppers for purchasing certain items, Meyer-Crothers said. For example, if an item costs $1 but the shopper has a coupon for $2 off, not only will the item will be free, the shopper will get $1 in change.

“That’s huge,” she said.
Another tip for back-to-school shopping is to partner with other parents.
“If you each take a store, you can get all the same deals, but it makes it easier on you,” she said. “Not only money, but time is precious for everyone and you want to make sure you are making the most of both.”
It’s more cost-effective to do back-to-school shopping gradually, Meyer-Crothers said.
“People want to do it all in one day, but that’s not going to save a whole lot of money,” Meyer-Crothers said.
“They’re probably going to spend three to four times more. You really want to start now and do it up until school starts. Most people are going to the store once a week anyway, so by the time three to four weeks are up, you’ll have all the school supplies you need. Peoplecan save at least 75 percent if not more if that’s how they shop at school time.”
Couponing class
Besides keeping her own family’s expenses down, Meyer-Crothers is passionate about helping others do the same.
Her next couponing class will be 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at Sylvania Area FamilyServices, 5440 Marshall Road, Sylvania. Cost is $10 and five nonperishable food or hygienic items. Space is limited to 40 participants. Participants must pre-register by visiting freetastesgood.com. Type “Sylvania Area Family Services” into the search bar to find registration information.
Giving back is another passion for Meyer-Crothers, who regularly donates groceries and  items to local charities. She also partnered with Toledo Free Press last year to take a local mother on a holiday grocery shopping trip.
When back-to-school shopping, pick up a few extra sale items if possible and donate them to local charities or school supply drives, Meyer-Crothers said.
“My big thing would just be when getting out there to think about kids that don’t have a lot,” she said. “Most people can afford to pick up a few extras, so give back and help somebody else out.”
Participants at Meyer-Crothers’ most recent couponing class were asked to bring school supplies to donate.

The collected supplies will be given away to more than 200 Sylvania area children at a carnival hosted by Sylvania Area Family Services and North Point Community Church, said Dottie Van Drieson, social services coordinator at Sylvania Area Family Services.
“Every time she has a class, whether it’s here or if it’s local, the food comes back to us. For one of the ‘Extreme Couponing’ shows she did, all the food came to us,” Van Drieson said. “She’s been very kind and generous to our organization. It really helps us. At times when our pantry is getting low, she brings in food and we’re able to feed 10 to 20 families with what she brings in.”
Meyer-Crothers’ next big project is a how-to book on extreme couponing for TLC’s Discovery  Communications due to be released this winter by Penguin Books.
“I just finished my last chapter, so it’s getting very exciting,” MeyerCrothers said.

For more information, visit www.freetastesgood.com.

Montessori schools foster independence, love of learning

By
Erin Holden
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A young student works on visualizing math concepts at Montessori.

When Toledo natives Jason Thomas and his wife Sally Gladwell moved back to the city with their young son, they planned to enroll him in public school when the time came.
Then they stumbled upon West Side Montessori.
Gladwell discovered the private school while researching child care for 8-month-old Henry and fell in love.
“I was just flipping through the phone book and set up an appointment,” Gladwell said. “I floated out of the place. It was so consistent with what we wanted for our children. I recall calling Jason as soon as I got to my car and saying, ‘You and Henry have to come and see this place. This is everything we want for our kids.’”
The American Montessori Society describes its model as an innovative, child-centered approach to education that aims to foster a child’s natural inclination to learn. Developed in Rome in 1907 by Maria Montessori, there are now more than 4,000 Montessori schools in the United States and thousands more worldwide.
“Our children are taught how to think, not what to think,” Gladwell said. “The curriculum is fashioned after naturally occurring milestones in brain development.”
Today, Henry, now 10, as well as Sam, 7, and Eleanor, 4, love school, their parents say.
“There are no struggles to get our kids to want to be at school,”
Gladwell said. “As summer approached, they would say, ‘Oh, I’m really going to miss school.’ That to us makes it feel like West Side is an extension of our home life for them, like everything we are veryintentionally trying to do at home is being supported by what’s happening at West Side. That value in that is just immeasurable. You can’t convert that into a tuition payment.”

New building
West Side, which enrolls children age 13 months through eighth grade, will open a new building this school year on its Bancroft Street campus. The facility, for toddlers through third-graders, will replace a building the school formerly leased on McCord Road. The school also has a campus in Perrysburg.
Unlike the McCord Road location, the new 30,000-square-foot building was purpose-built for the Montessori curriculum, said Lynn Fisher, head of school and founder of West Side Montessori.
The building features winding paths that meet at a crossroads featuring a 15-foot blue ceiling painted with clouds. At the center is a light tube representing the sun. Each spacious classroom features child-level windows and a porch.
“There’s a very natural feel to the space, very organic,” Fisher said. “It definitely does not look like a traditional school.”
A “natural playground,” featuring logs, rocks and equipment that utilizes the natural contours of the landscape, will be built in stages.
“That will be quite different than anything in Toledo,” Fisher said. “It’s designed for children to be very active and very creative. We think it will be really exciting.”
Montessori philosophy
Almost all children thrive in a Montessori environment, said Joy Perozek, co-director and lead teacher at Toledo’s Montessori Day School, which enrolls students age 18 months to kindergarten.
“I wish every child had the opportunity to be in the program,” Perozek said. “Montessori is just such a great foundation for further education.”
Children who are academically advanced, independent or curious tend to do especially well, said Sister Pat McClain, principal and president of Lial Catholic School in Whitehouse, which enrolls pre-kindergarten to eighth grade students.

“Children who just have a great love of learning, that independence can be nurtured here. The curious child does very well here,” McClain said.
Lial is Montessori-based, but also utilizes other curriculums, McClain said.
“Montessori has very specific materials whereas we are more diverse than that and feel free to use whatever materials we feel are good for the child,” McClain said. “It’s a very dynamic way of teaching and a very dynamic way of learning.”
An authentic Montessori program features multi-age groupings that foster peer learning, uninterrupted blocks of work time and guided choice of work activity.
Teachers guide rather than instruct, offering activities that meet eachchild’s interests and  needs. Classrooms are designed to allow movement and collaboration while also promoting concentration, independence and a sense of order.
“Once you step inside a classroom and see how children are being educated, it makes you think, ‘Who could I have been if I would have been educated this way?’ It’s very compelling,” Gladwell said.
The multi-age classroom format encourages peer-to-peer learning, McClain said.
“Children are learning from one another and being in a community of learners, very similar to a home environment, where siblings learn from siblings,” McClain said.
When children are able to work at their own level, they take ownership of their educational process, McClain said.
Parent reaction
Eileen Pasquarette enrolled her children at Lial Catholic School last year after moving to Monclova from Bowling Green. Her daughter, Tori, will be in seventh grade and her son, Nick, will be in third grade.

Although Lial is more expensive than the Catholic grade school they attended in BowlingGreen, Pasquarette said the investment is worth it.
“My daughter is able to work at a faster pace and is progressing faster, while my son is enjoying it more and talking about it more because it’s hands-on,” Pasquarette said. “They are learning to be more independent and more active in their learning and they are enjoying their learning more. I’m a big advocate for active learning. That’s the part of the Montessori style I really like. Plus it’s a Catholic school, which was a big thing for us. They value faith as a part of learning.”
Gladwell and Thomas also said it’s worth adjusting their lifestyle to keep their children at West Side.
“Everything else is superfluous to their education,” Gladwell said. “This is our one big chance to raise our kids and we want to do it right. When we hear other people say it’s really college that matters most or its really high school that you need to make the big investment, I guess I respectfully disagree. That foundation is so powerful and so important in the early years.”
For more information, visit www.montessoritoledo.org, www. montessoridaytoledo.com or www.lialschool.org.

Study: Toledo among America’s ‘Emptiest cities’

By
Caitlin McGlade
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AOL Real Estate has ranked Toledo the 10th emptiest city in the United States.
The team of reporters and editors, which posts real estate advice and information, cited rental and homeowner property vacancy rates for the list of the country’s 10 emptiest cities.

Toledo’s 11.5 percent rental vacancy rate and 3.8 percent homeowner vacancy rate landed the city behind Tampa, Fla., at No. 8 and Houston at No. 9 on the list.
Orlando, Fla., is the emptiest city in the country, according to the report, with 18.8 percent of its rental properties and 2.2 percent of its homeowner properties lying vacant. Dayton ranked second, followed by Memphis, Tenn., Detroit, Richmond, Va., Las Vegas and Atlanta.
On the other hand, a recent list appearing on The Daily Beast included Toledo among the best American cities from Minneapolis to Fargo in which to buy a home. Citing a median home price of $63,400 and the job growth rate at 2.1 percent, the news organization ranked Toledo ninth.
Demolitions and upkeep

The city enjoyed population growth from 1940 until 1970, reaching about 383,800. By 1980, the population sunk to 354,635. The trend continued; 287,208 residents were recorded in the 2010 census. Just 10 years prior, the census had recorded 313,619.
And so more than 2,300 houses in Toledo lie vacant today, according to the city’s 2012 vacancy registry.
The City of Toledo tears down about 300 properties a year, but the Lucas County Land Bank has identified at least 2,000 homes eligible for demolition. To remedy this, the county agency has secured a $3.6 million grant from the state attorney general’s office to tear down some 900 houses during the next 18 months.
After matching the grant, the land bank will invest a total of $6.8 million in the project, said Karen Poore, executive assistant to the Lucas County treasurer.

While the city pays to demolish these houses, it also picks up the growing tab to maintain their tangled lawns. Toledo’s $698,000 neighborhood beautification action (NBA) fund sends workers out with trash bags and lawn mowers to pluck glass splinters and trash from yards and cut unruly grass.
“When someone notices a property is vacant, all of a sudden someone realizes that’s a great place where you can clean your garage out to,” said Councilman Mike Craig. “You might havethree people there for three or four hours for most of the day cleaning up the trash and the debris in the yard.”
The city responded to 4,888 cleanup orders in 2009, 5,810 in 2010 and is on track to exceed 7,800 this year, said Jen Sorgenfrei, the mayor’s spokesperson.
Meanwhile, the budget for these clean up orders is getting more difficult to maintain. The NBA fund comes from Community Development Block Grant dollars. This year the NBA fund is at least $325,700 shorter than last year.

Banks and mortgage companies that foreclose on these properties do not have to transfer official titles with the county treasurer’s office, so county books often still list the foreclosed upon homeowner as the present owner of a vacant property, Sorgenfrei said.
This leaves the responsibility of upkeep and fines to the former homeowner, who is unable to pay.
City records list BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP as the single largest holder of the vacant properties, followed by American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc.
“So who ends up paying for that? Me and you,” Sorgenfrei said. “It’s a lose, lose, lose situation. But you can’t blame [the banks and mortgage firms] because, what are they going to do, send a mortgage agent out to mow the lawns?”
Craig said this adds just another element that pushes Toledo into that Top 10 list. The total assessed value for Lucas County properties has dropped by 20 percent since 2006.
From homeowner to renter

Anna Mills, the president of the Toledo Real Estate Investment Association, said the market is changing from homeowners to renters.
“I find that the people I used to be selling houses to are now renting from me,” Mills said.
This is a testament to the ailing job market, Mills said. People are more likely to rent properties to avoid being tied down to a given place, so they are free to take off to wherever the jobs are.
She mentioned the Chrysler Toledo North Assembly Plant revival and the new Hollywood Casino Toledo as hopeful venues to spark jobgrowth. But for the most part, she said, the jobs are not here.
“We’re in the ‘crossroads of America’, they’re saying. We’re on the water, on the lake, on the river and we have all this and there’s no development,” Mills said. “There’s no amusement-type things along the lake and it’s amazing how we’ve not done much with our assets.”
She also attributed Toledo’s shrinking population to capital gain taxes and other local taxes. She said she hasn’t sold any of her rentals in years because of the taxes she’d have to pay. The maximum capital gains rate in 2010 was about 15 percent for most people, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
The November ballot will be stacked with levies.
“And people wonder why we’re losing people and then we’ve got seven levies on the property tax?”

Pounds: Half empty or half full?

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Tom Pounds
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On July 23, 2012, Toledo Free Press reported online that AOL Real Estate ranked Toledo the “10th Emptiest City” in the United States.

The list cited rental and homeowner property vacancy rates. Toledo’s 11.5 percent rental vacancy rate and 3.8 percent homeowner vacancy rate landed the city behind Orlando, No. 1 on the list, followed by Dayton, Memphis, Tenn., Detroit, Richmond, Va., Las Vegas, Atlanta, Tampa, Fla. and Houston.
That vacancy rates stands despite tearing down houses at a rate of about 300 a year.
So, is the Glass City half empty or half full?
In 1970, this area was home to about 383,800. The 2010 census recorded 287,208 residents.
What went wrong? The combination of over-reliance on the auto industry, underdevelopment of the waterfront and a business community that ceded leadership to media politicians has proven disastrous.
Toledo Free Press reporter Caitlin McGlade quoted Anna Mills, the president of the Toledo Real Estate Investment Association, as saying the market is changing from homeowners to renters.
“I find that the people I used to be selling houses to are now renting from me,” Mills said.
People are more likely to rent properties to avoid being tied down to a given place, so they are free to take off to wherever the jobs are.
Mills also credited Toledo’s shrinking population to capital gain taxes — she said she hasn’t sold any of her rentals because of the taxes she’d have to pay — and local taxes.
“And people wonder why we’re losing people and then we’ve got seven levies on the property tax?” Mills said.
For Realtors and a market that depend on people with money to spend, it is increasingly difficult to express optimism. I described the situation to a friend as a “buyer’s market,” and he responded, “Only if you’re buying a wrecking ball or a moving van.”
Toledo’s inclusion on this list must serve as a wake-up call toour community. If we choose to sleepwalk through this critical challenge, we stand to lose everything. Only by steadfastly maintaining that there is still potential to fill that glass — and acting on that potential by pushing our business leaders to take back the reins of investment and development — can we ever hope to move down and off lists such as these.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star.

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