(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring Michael Johnson, superintendent of Bexley City Schools, appeared in This Week in Bexley on December 25, 2003.)

Johnson stresses ‘Best Practices’
By Ina Horwitz-Whitmore
This Week Staff Writer

Left: Mike Johnson is superintendent of Bexley City Schools. Click on the image to enlarge.

Mike Johnson, in his third year as the Bexley City Schools superintendent, said his current focus is on the implementation of what is known as Best Practices at the district’s school buildings.

The first two years of his administration, he said, were spent on developing a long-range strategic plan.

“The identification process is pretty much behind us and this year, we are in the implementation phases, Johnson said. “Virtually every one of the schools has a Best Practice defined. Best Practices is a concept aimed at enriching, enhancing and improving teaching methods and curriculum.

At Maryland Avenue Elementary, the staff is working on the “Effective School Best Practice.” Teachers have had a team coming in to evaluate progress, and the team pointed out several goals for improvement, mainly focusing on reading and mathematics, Johnson said.

At Montrose Elementary, the Best Practice focus is on what is known as Literacy Collaborative, a school improvement process.

According to Johnson, the program is being implemented in kindergarten, first and second grades. It is being prepared for implementation in the higher grades through a college class for credit.

At Cassingham Elementary, staff has identified its Best Practice as what is called the International Baccalaureate.

A staff member from each grade level traveled to Salt Lake City for additional training to develop the team, Johnson said. The attendees were expected to come up with several areas of study. Since they returned, community meetings on International Baccalaureate have been held with about 150 parents, Johnson said.

At the middle and high schools, staff has been working on an eighth through 10^th-grade International Baccalaureate program. Some teachers have received training. In a few months, the schools will bring in three staff members – a principal and two teachers from an International Baccalaureate program in a middle school in Toronto – to work with the staff, Johnson said.

On some of their late-start days, the high school and middle schools have planned to work on these improvements, he said.

“This is a first for our school district since I’ve been here – to meet together to work on instruction and improving instruction,” Johnson said. 

At the high school, new goals will be set by increasing the number of students participating in Advanced Placement classes.

“We plan to add three AP classes to the curriculum next year, and two more the year after that,” Johnson said.

Next September, AP Art (theory), AP Tech and AP International Business will be added, he said. In 2005, the plan is to add two AP science classes.

According to Johnson, the addition of AP classes will not result in hiring additional teachers. Instead, he said, it means staff would teach one less class.

“We’re identifying the teachers and training them,” Johnson said. “When you start implementing, it takes years to train a teacher: Best Practices is not a matter of more cost but a matter of more focus. All these programs will allow us to focus on how we spend money.”

The 40 Developmental Asset Program, a Best Practice in its second year, is districtwide. “We’re planning to measure and get feedback from nine-, 10- and 11-year-old students,” Johnson said.

Another area the district is exploring is all-day kindergarten.

“Whether it gets implemented is one thing, but we will explore variables associated with that,” Johnson said. “The first step is to determine if it is something we really want to do and the second step would be how to finance it. If there is not philosophical support for it, we’re not going to do it.”

Ohio is one of the few states that doesn’t finance all-day kindergarten, according to Johnson.

“I imagine if it were funded by Ohio on a full-time level, all of that (objections) would go away,” he said.

Johnson pointed to the official end of the school’s construction process as a positive in 2003. He said that the new cafeteria turned out well and opened up the whole front end of the school.

“I think the front of the school looks like it has some flow,” Johnson said. “Before, the existing architecture made it look so disjointed. Also, the back of the school holds up well. The Cassingham Complex has become a facility that allows us to enhance education, rather than having to take away from it. It had looked pretty old at one time. The new construction adds value to the instructional programs.”

With regard to the two levies in 2003 --- an 8.75-mill property tax that failed in May and the 3.5-mill property tax that passed in November ---  Johnson called the loss a “matter of economics.”

Said Johnson, “For one reason or another, people said ‘no.’ It took different forms, such as a frozen salary, a lost job, financial investments plummeting. It was difficult for all those economic reasons to say ‘yes.”’

“The community wanted us to look at our operations, and we cut $1.2-million,” he said. “The 3.5-mill levy passage gave the district more time to look at revenues and expenditures. We have formed the task forces.

“Residents saw we were asking for more time and have given us at least another 12 months to look at the issues.”

Johnson said that the district must do something to raise additional revenues in November 2004.

“Unless we ask our public for additional funds, we are not going to have enough money to operate as we currently do,” Johnson said. “So we’re going to be back by November of next year with either an income tax, a property levy, a combination or more cuts.”

He said that the income tax could enable the district to come back less frequently and allow it to explore possible ways to roll back property taxes.

“Whether that is a reality or not is yet to be determined,” Johnson said. “The idea (if it is a property levy) is to put an issue on the ballot that would get us back on a three-year cycle. It’s not good to go back and have a levy every year. Three years allows us to get into agreements with our teachers and other employee groups. It also cycles with property reassessments so it benefits homeowners as well as the school district. We want to get the timing right. It allows for the system to be more settled so as to not have a frequent levy (campaign) disrupt the flow of the school district. If we could avoid the three-year cycle altogether, it would be even better, but we can’t.”

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