The Board of Education has implemented a community-based Planning Commission to be a research and advisory resource for the school district. The Commission will assist the Board by researching and/or evaluating assigned issues and topics, and reporting its findings and recommendations to the Board for consideration. The purpose of the Commission is also to assist the Loveland community in becoming better informed about a variety of issues related to the schools. The Planning Commission has four Sub-Committees:
Communication/Community Engagement Subcommittee
Tasked with researching additional, innovative, and alternative ways to increase communication and engagement between the school district and the community. Members include:
Kelley Deer
Tara Hamilton
Jeff Hawk
Lisa Moorhead
Lynn Oury
Michael Shiverski
Facilities Subcommittee
Tasked with understanding the facilities assessments and current master plan, researching ways to revisit the master plan, and recommending a timeline. Members include:
Daniel Colletto
Brad Combs
Leah Jewell
Kevin Kimnach
Alvin Kressler
Warren Winning
Finance Subcommittee
Tasked with investigating opportunities for Loveland City Schools to increase income that does not raise local property taxes and researching effective practices in reducing expenditures. Members include:
Donel Autin
Brad Goldie
Matthew Hammer
Jill Jones
Craig Lewis
Nathan Libby
Lynn Mangan
Kirk McCracken
School Improvement/Student Experience Subcommittee
Tasked with understanding the current school improvement process and providing input to goals, benchmarks, and comparison districts for the implementation of the Portrait of a Tiger while optimizing our current resources. Members include:
Susan Craig
Lisa Saletta
Alexander Topala
Lindsey Willmann
Natasha Young
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland City School District Board of Education has announced that it is seeking community members for a Planning Commission. The commission will assist the board with researching and evaluating a variety of assigned issues and topics relating to the schools.
“We see this as an opportunity to engage our community in a variety of issues affecting our schools on an ongoing basis,” said Board President Dr. Kathryn Lorenz. “I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to capitalize on residents’ expertise, ideas, and dedication to the success of our schools as it relates to finances, facilities, school improvements, student experience, communications, and community engagement.”
The Planning Commission will have a maximum of 25 participating members. At capacity, it will be composed of seven faculty and staff members and 18 citizens of the school district. The residents, who will be appointed by the Board of Education, will reflect the diversity of the community. Student participation will also be sought, in particular for the committee on school improvement and student experience.
At Community Meeting #2 on November 28, students shared their needs as they relate to the Loveland Schools facilities.
A ballot issue is expected in November 2019.
Community Meeting #3 is on January 23
A news release from the Loveland School District
On November 28, the Loveland City School District held the second Building Tiger Nation Community Meeting, with over 100 members of the Tiger Family and greater Loveland community in attendance. In a presentation of the results of the educational facility evaluation conducted over the past six months, a panel of students and teachers shared their personal experiences regarding the implications of the current school facilities on teaching and learning at Loveland.
“It was very powerful to hear directly from the ‘experts’ on their impressions and experiences, and see the correlation to the hard data collected during the evaluation process,” said Superintendent Dr. Amy Crouse. “Some of the needs we heard about are recurring themes throughout the district, while others are specific to certain building and campuses. Taking into account enrollment projections and the fact that we can’t provide all the programming we wish to due to space limitations today, our buildings compromise our students’ educational needs.”
Community members toured the “gallery” and learned about specific needs in the various school buildings.
The educational facility evaluation, which has been part of the assessment phase in the master planning process, focused on five main areas and how the school facilities currently perform in each: whether there is adequate academic square footage; building navigation (taking into account hallways, circulation spaces within the buildings, as well as parking and traffic patterns); the potential for expansion of buildings at the various campuses; how the buildings serve students and staff in terms of health and wellness; and whether the buildings and learning spaces are inspirational and relevant for today’s students.
“It’s like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole,” said Cincy Rack, third grade teacher at Loveland Elementary School. “The biggest, single challenge every year is ‘how am I going to make my space work?’”
Loveland High School Sophomore Anna Colletto spoke of navigation issues and a particularly difficult area in the overcrowded hallways: “Students trying to get upstairs are struggling, students trying to get to their classes are struggling, and students trying to get into their lockers are struggling. It takes two to three minutes just to get through that portion of the hallway, which takes up our five-minute break to get to the next class.”
The meeting was the second in a series to inform the Loveland community about the facilities master planning process since the start of the 2018-19 school year. Finance Committee meetings, open to the public, continue to be held monthly. The master planning process now moves from the assessment phase on to the translation phase, and the first options for a master plan will be developed over the coming weeks. They will be presented to all Loveland stakeholders at Community Meeting #3 on January 23, and will then be evaluated, prioritized, and finalized. The master plan, along with financing suggestions, will be presented to the Loveland Board of Education in spring, likely April or May. A ballot issue is expected in November 2019.
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland City School District is moving forward in its master planning process to determine the needs of the school buildings and facilities. All stakeholders in the Loveland community – parents, students, teachers, residents and businesses – are invited to attend Community Meeting #2 in the Loveland Intermediate/Middle School cafeteria (757 South Lebanon Road) on November 28, 6:30-8:30 PM.
This is the second community meeting during the master plan assessment phase and will focus on the ability of the Loveland school buildings to accommodate the delivery of education as it compares to the stakeholder vision for the Tiger student experience and research related to 21stcentury learning. The first meeting, held in September with more than 100 community members in attendance, presented data from the physical building assessments completed over the summer.
The purpose of the physical building assessments and educational facility evaluation conducted in 2018 is to provide data for decision-making regarding a master plan to be presented to the Loveland Board of Education in spring 2019. Community Meeting #3 is planned for January 23.
(Registration is not required to attend.)
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Terrah Floyd is the Interim Treasurer & CFO of the Loveland City School District
By Terrah Floyd,
Loveland’s recent update to the district’s financial projections show that the district remains committed to keeping the promises made from the last levy – to make the last levy last through 2018 through conservative fiscal management while maintaining excellent educational opportunities for the students we serve. The district’s forecast, called the five-year financial forecast, was approved by the Board at the April 17 Business Meeting. The five-year financial forecast is a tool that aligns our income and expenses to our district’s current and future goals with respect to academics, operations and facilities. There are some updates to note.
The district is investing in additional school building safety and security updates. These are needed in order to keep pace with the current safety and security needs and to reflect the changing times.
First, the forecast shows that the district is investing in additional school building safety and security updates. These are needed in order to keep pace with the current safety and security needs and to reflect the changing times. They include placing fire-code approved locks on interior doors of our buildings, and plan for increased school resource officer presence.
Plans include placing fire-code approved locks on interior doors of our buildings, and plan for increased school resource officer presence.
The district is engaging in a Master Planning process with the community. This is an investment, and it is critical to the long-term planning and operations of the district. Aging buildings bring significant costs, and in order to help minimize these for the future we are working now to make sure that we are deliberate about our next steps.
In fact, we will be able to stretch it a bit longer, and anticipate that an operating levy will be needed in 2019.
Loveland continues to stretch every dollar and to wisely plan for the future. Our Board of Education kept the promise of making the last levy last through 2018. In fact, we will be able to stretch it a bit longer, and anticipate that an operating levy will be needed in 2019. Operating levies fund the day-to-day operations of our schools like staff, programs, textbooks and supplies.
To provide you with relevant history, the Loveland City School District passed a 5.6 mill operating levy in May of 2014; passage of the levy provided the district the opportunity to invest in and enrich the excellent education we provide by enhancing the classroom experience for the 4,800 students we serve. None of these investments could have happened without your support, and – as always – we offer a sincere thank you to those who believed in our mission and continue to support our district.
