The science teacher at Orrville City Schools is also an officer with the nearby Lawrence Township Police Department.

The local superintendent says there was little opposition to the move from the district about an hour southwest of Cleveland.

But the plan’s critics say it’s a repackaging of ideas that voters soundly rejected months ago.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson says his plan to reshape the Cleveland schools is not about politics – it’s about quality education.

“It has nothing to do with whether or not you’re a good Democrat or a good Republican, whether you support unions or you don’t support unions, whether you support charters or public schools. This is about how do we educate our children.”

Jackson says the district has been making progress, but it’s too slow, and the schools will soon need to plug a 65 million dollar hole. His plan includes some ideas that some see as radical.

It would allow the sharing of levy money with charter schools that are sponsored by or work closely with the district. It would create a governing body that would set and monitor standards which would be exempt from sunshine laws requiring open records and open meetings.

And it would make big changes in contracts with teachers’ unions. The district could extend the school day or the school year without getting union approval. No tenure would be offered for new teachers, and contracts will be limited to two years. Seniority would no longer be the key factor in deciding layoffs or callbacks. And if a teacher gets the district’s lowest rating of “ineffective” two years in a row, that teacher could be fired.

The plan has the strong support of Gov. John Kasich and other Republicans. But some of those ideas bother Rep. Sandra Williams, a Democrat of Cleveland, who offered qualified support for the plan, but says she hasn’t agreed to co-sponsor the plan in the House.

“I believe that the mayor’s plan has merit. I agree with about 70% of it. There are only a few things that I do not agree with.”

But one of the state’s two teachers unions has many things that it finds problematic in the mayor’s plan, and is very worried that if it’s approved, other school districts will want the same changes. Melissa Cropper is president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, and she says that will destroy collective bargaining rights of teachers around the state.

“I find it very ironic that they stand up there and say how important it is to involve the teachers voice, but they don’t have a teacher standing up there with them. I think that makes a statement right there.”

Other critics of the plan – including House Minority Leader Armond Budish of Beachwood in suburban Cleveland – say it amounts to a partial retread of Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining reform law that was soundly rejected by voters last fall. Jackson, who supported the repeal of Senate Bill 5, says those who are concerned about the plan including some of the ideas from it shouldn’t be.

“I am opposed to anything that eliminates collective bargaining. But I’m also opposed to collective bargaining standing in the way of educating children.”

Cleveland Democratic Sen. Nina Turner was also an opponent of Senate Bill 5. But she supports Jackson’s plan.

“To allow anybody to drag this debate totally about Senate Bill 5 is the wrong way to look at it. We should start with what is in the best interest of Cleveland’s kids, and then work from that. And absolutely – we definitely have to be fair to the teachers. So I understand their concerns, but that’s not the position that I’m starting at.”

Jackson says if someone has better ideas than the ones he’s come up with, he’d like to hear them. Cropper with the OFT says the Cleveland Teachers Union has a plan that she says improves student outcomes without taking away collective bargaining rights of teachers.

“Let’s work this out. We don’t need legislation to make it happen – we just need to all be together at the same table to make it happen. If they want to go through with Senate Bill 5 language, then we’ll go through with Senate Bill 5-like efforts to stop it.”

But Jackson says that he won’t accept any plan that involves incremental changes – because he says the community won’t be willing to approve a levy request unless there is major change in the Cleveland schools.

The Ohio House could vote on Senate Bill 5, a measure that nearly guts collective bargaining rights of public employees, as early as tomorrow.

Mindy Hall heads the Bexley Education Association which represents the District’s 173 teachers. She said teachers and the administration worked together hammer out a new contract before SB 5 becomes law.

Mindy Hall is a third grade teacher at Maryland Avenue Elementary School. The new contract expires in July 2015.

After nearly 30 years in education, teacher Bucky Walters won’t have a job at Linden McKinley Stem Academy after this school year. For the past 10 years, Walters worked in the Columbus district as a health teacher. “I’m stunned I’ve been teaching 29 years, 10 in the district and because I don’t have dual certification they say I get laid off. I can’t believe it,” said Walters.

Walters came to the meeting to find out if there was any hope for his job. He doesn’t think so.

“I think most other teachers will get rehired. I don’t think I’m one of those people unfortunately,” said Walters.

Teacher Dawn Ayres is worried about how she’ll pay the bills. She taught health for 10 years at Northland High School.

“They don’t pay us enough for me to have a very large savings account. I’m a single mom so I’m just trusting something will come up for me that will be even better than what I’ve had for the past 10 years,” said Ayres.

Ayres says she may shift to a nursing career.

First year music teacher, Jamie Henderson plans to stay in education.

“Because I believe in education and I have passion for what I do,” said Henderson.

The administration says the layoff of 113 teachers comes after taking into account teachers who will retire and resign at the end of the school year. The district also projects losing 2500 students in the district for next year and wants to keep its promise to save money since the last levy was passed.

Battelle for Kids Executive Director Jim Mahoney likes to quote Albert Einstein who said, “Not everything that counts can be counted.” That’s especially true for effective teachers, says Mahoney.

“They gauge and fit their instruction to meet the needs of kids,” he says. “They are able to set targets and do lots of formative assessments with kids; they’re continually assessing kids as they go. These folks are not trying to drill and suck every last multiple choice question out of a kid, they are truly innovative and creative – those things are not the enemy of learning.”

Mahoney says that for the past year Battelle has been gathering information from 37 urban, suburban and rural school districts to find teachers who’ve achieved the greatest academic growth from their students. Now Battelle is developing online courses that will help other teachers implement creative ways of learning.

The Ohio School Board Association trade show is packed with vendors. They’re hawking the newest and coolest school items from interactive white boards to comfy student desks.

Students from Tremont Elementary School in Upper Arlington test out a new piece of playground equipment. It’s called Neos. Neos is not something one might ordinarily see on a playground. With its flashing lights and radiating sounds it looks like it belongs in an arcade.

Blake Hobson is a managing partner of Playworld – the company that sells Neos and other playground equipment. Hobson said this toy is more than just fun – it promotes wellness and other benefits like hand-eye coordination.

“When you look at playground equipment this is something totally new because it gets them interacting with each other, and for that sixty second time period they’re actually moving and breaking a sweat,” Hobson said.

Neos has nine games and three skill levels from which to choose. These students are playing one of the games that help their hand-eye coordination. Green and red lights flash across the toy and the students must press their team’s color. The team with the most points at the end of sixty seconds wins. The Neos costs $30,000. And Blake said it’s something a school might choose if they already have the essentials like swings and slides.

Sci-Tech has gadgets that look like small remote controls. Todd Boone, with Buckeye Educational Systems, said Sci-Tech allows teachers to program questions into a PowerPoint presentation and students can answer the questions with their hand-held gadgets.

“What this does for the teacher is it gets a response from every student in the class, not just the couple at the front of the class that always wants to answer the questions. The teacher can then get a grade, download it to a management system and track them and actually give them a class participation grade,” Boone said.

Boone said teachers can also use Sci-Tech to get students ready for tests.

“There actually is a function that you can go into a fastest finger contest so as you’re reviewing for a test the teacher can actually set it so it’s timed and the first student to press the button gets the first chance to answer the question. If they get it right they get points. If they don’t then it locks them out and the other kids get a chance at it. So, it is very fun and they really love it,” Boone said.

Also at the trade show is the overhead projector. But this isn’t the opaque projector you may remember from the 1960s or even the 1990s. This one is smaller, streamlined and digital. Michael Tracey is president of Affiniti Professional Sales. Tracey said this projector uses a digital camera to project objects onto a screen or whiteboard.

“So now anything that’s being shown under the camera can also be shown onto the big screen and with the software you can now capture that image,” Tracey said.

Tracey said these captured images can be downloaded on a computer and students can go back and review them later.

More than 50,000 teachers and administrators are expected to attend this year’s conference and trade show.

Tuesday’s announcement came after a report by The Columbus Dispatch found that a state and local discipline system allows educators in the classroom despite misconduct that includes child abuse, assault and theft.

The report found that although a new law requires schools to report teacher misconduct to the state, many schools handle their problems in-house.

Several problem teachers were quietly moved to new districts and continued teaching.

Husted said lawmakers will examine both the law and the state’s school system bureaucracy to find out where the problems lie.

The district’s teacher’s union agrees.

Columbus Education Association president John Grossman says 550 district teachers are currently eligible to retire… if each of those teachers opts to take the district’s offer. Grossman says that could significantly help the district’s budget crisis. Grossman says removing the most high income salaried employees from the districts responsibilities could save hundreds younger teacher’s jobs. District officials say 83 percent of their budget is salaries and benefits. Another option the district is likely to propose is closing schools. Grossman says closings are necessary, but not at the expense of successful programs currently in place. Grossman says the union has offered to delay teacher bonuses for achieving better test scores in the classroom. He says removing that option could save nearly 3 million dollars.

Also in the works, the district presenting a November operating levy. Grossman says the district should use the levy as a catalyst to create different programs, create more alternative schools and a science high school. Superintendent Gene Harris says she plans to present a finalized proposal to the board of education at its afternoon meeting tomorrow.