Iarussi addresses concerns, goals in state of Marion Schools address
Marion City Schools Superintendent Dr. Ron Iarussi delivered the “State of the Schools” address Monday, explaining the current strategic plan and inviting community partners to share as well.
Focusing on the updated four pillars of Literacy, Learning, Leadership and Legacy, the meeting allowed leading members of the Marion City Schools administration to outline both their goals to be achieved by 2024 and share success stories they’ve experienced thus far.
Each pillar team also highlighted community partners that contribute to the district’s success, including The Ohio State University at Marion, Marion Technical College, Marion Can Do!, Marion Public Library, The Village Network and the Marion Family YMCA.
State of diversity, equity and inclusion
In the meeting, the district addressed some of the community’s concerns including reports of a lack of inclusion within the district and behavioral issues among students.
Opening up to discuss the goals of the Leadership Pillar, Diversity and Equity Supervisor Johnnie Jackson explained the importance of mentoring and community partnerships, including the district’s plans to revive a partnership with Ohio State Marion.
Coordinator of Student Life and Diversity Inclusion at Ohio State Marion Kathleen Clemmons-Keller explained the history of the partnership was rooted in the Growing Our Own program that she helped launch when working for Marion City Schools over 20 years ago.
“Working with Johnnie, we are trying to reestablish something,” Clemmons-Keller said.
Jackson closed his portion on the Leadership Pillar by thanking his coworkers for their work and partnership in advancing belonging work throughout the district.
“I want to give a shoutout to many of my colleagues. Our pillars are volunteer, and teachers and administrators and principals that come on a Wednesday or Thursday morning and they commit their hour or hour-and-a-half to this work, I really want to say thank you to them,” he said.
“They do such a wonderful job allowing us to push some of our belonging work, whether its focused on staff or focused on students.”
State of behavioral intervention
Later in the State of the Schools meeting, the topic of behavioral concerns and intervention techniques surfaced.
Student Affairs Supervisor Kathy Butler, who leads the social emotional initiatives through the Learning Pillar, addressed the behavioral concerns that have been the topic of much community conversation and the steps the district is taking in response.
“Each building has been asked to identify, ‘What are your biggest behavioral challenges within the building?’” Butler said.
“From there we bring it back and look at what strategies might be helpful for those interventions. We look at those data monthly and look at what’s working and what’s not,” she continued.
Butler explained the district has seen success with restorative conversations, the PAX Good Behavior Game and revisiting vision statements among elementary students.
She then invited Traci McCarty, the regional director of behavioral health organization The Village Network, to speak about installing trauma-informed classrooms in the district.
McCarty explained The Village Network’s goal of helping meet student needs by creating the first trauma-informed classroom during the pandemic.
“A beautiful thing that happened out of the pandemic for us was this great opportunity to Zoom for the first time with Kathy Butler to start dreaming and envisioning – what would a trauma-informed classroom look like for Marion City? And so we, with a lot of time on Zoom were about to create an intensive day treatment classroom for the kids,” McCarty said.
She said the practice the organization uses in the classroom to engage with students is “Regulate, Relate, Reason.” The intensive classroom has a therapist on-site to help kids regulate their emotions and engage relationally so teachers can reason with them.
State of district finances
To close the meeting, Treasurer Veronica Reinhart also shared how changes in the Ohio Department of Education’s funding model for fiscal year 2022 will affect the district.
In the last 25 years, this is only the second time the state has changed its funding model, Reinhart said.
Previously calculated through the number of eligible students who live within the city limits regardless of enrollment status, the new funding model will focus on the number of students the district actually educates.
In total, Marion City Schools will receive just under $41 million under this new funding model this year, she said.
Story by: Sophia Veneziano (740) 564 – 5243 | [email protected]
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