COPLEY — The Copley-Fairlawn City Schools Board of Education hired Adam Pittis as head Copley High School boys basketball coach for the 2009-10 season.

The board, at a special June 12 meeting, also hired Pittis as a special education teacher at the high school.

Pittis comes to Copley from Harrison Central High School in Cadiz, where he was a boys basketball coach and a special education teacher. Pittis previously coached and taught in New Philadelphia and Zanesville.

The board also accepted the resignation of Arrowhead Primary School Principal Jolene Reinhart, effective Aug. 1. Reinhart, who formerly was an elementary school principal with the Barberton City Schools, was hired in June 2008 and served one year as Arrowhead principal. She replaced long-time Arrowhead principal Gary Novak.

OSBA assisting school board candidates

COLUMBUS — Individuals considering running for their local school board can learn more about the public office through the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA).

The OSBA will conduct a workshop for those who haven’t made up their minds whether to run for office or not.

The free, two-hour session will be conducted July 25 from 10 a.m. to noon at the association’s Columbus office building, 8050 N. High St. The roles and responsibilities of board of education members and basics of how to run a campaign will be covered.

Call (800) 589-OSBA or (614) 540-4000 to register, or e-mail your name, address, phone number and district to Laurie Miller, OSBA workshop specialist, at L_miller@ osba-ohio.org.

Ohio citizens wishing to run for a board of education must file a nominating petition with their county Board of Elections by Aug. 20 at 4 p.m.

The legal qualifications for school board members are that the person be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, a resident of the school district and a registered voter for at least 30 days preceding the election.

For more information, visit osba-ohio.org/boardcan.htm.

    — By Stephanie Kist

Online forecaster shows how community would improve if education outcomes rise

DOWNTOWN AKRON — A year ago, United Way of America laid out an education goal to cut in half the number of high-school dropouts during the next decade. Here in Summit County, the local United Way has joined the effort by promoting school-readiness programs.

A new interactive Web tool — The Common Good Forecaster™ — allows one to forecast how things might change in the community if educational outcomes were to improve.

In partnership with the American Human Development Project, the United Way created the forecaster to show the ripple effects of people’s educational attainment on their health, financial stability, children’s academic performance and community involvement.

According to the United Way of Summit County (UWSC), some of the statistics on the current state of our education system include:

• Nationally, more than 26 percent of the nation’s young adults do not graduate on time.

• Young adults in the United States are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma — a phenomenon not shared by any other industrialized country in the world.

• A high school graduate will earn on average 74 percent more over a lifetime than a high school dropout.

• Those who earn a diploma are 15 percent more likely to be employed than their peers who drop out.

The forecaster goes beyond linking education to economic returns, but also to the social returns like public safety, low birth weight and voting.

The Common Good Forecaster is free and available to the public at www.liveunited.org/ forecaster.

“Here in Summit County, we’ve put our stake in the ground trying to ensure that children are ready to learn when they enter kindergarten,” said UWSC President Bob Kulinski. “Study after study shows that kids who enter school prepared to learn are much more likely to excel and thrive. And children who are succeeding in and enjoying school are more likely to graduate.”

    — By Stephanie Kist

Nonprofit donates handheld computers to Akron schools

WEST AKRON — Portage Path Elementary School teacher John Bennett began each morning with morning announcements custom-designed on PowerPoint. His first-grade class, dubbed the Dream Factory, listened to learn if “Max” would join them that day.

Max is a hand-held computer game about the size of an iPod; his technical name is TeacherMate. He sports a 2.5-inch color screen, 512 megabytes of internal memory, an SD slot for expandability, a built-in microphone and speaker, earphones and eight control buttons with a battery life of four hours.

Max is programmed with reading and math software designed as games. Children are invited to record what they read on the screen into a built-in microphone and listen as the computer plays back their voice readings. Teachers can use a learning management system on their personal computer to differentiate instruction for each student when students are using the hand-held devices. One connection enables the teacher to reprogram the devices at once and recharge the batteries. The teacher also can download information about the progress each student makes on the devices.

“As the students record their voices,” Bennett explained, “I can listen in as I meander around the room. Next fall, I will more closely monitor reading levels in differentiated groupings in relationship to specific goals set on Max for each group. There is no question that limiting the time to 15 to 18 minutes helps to maximize engagement each day. The intensity of engagement has not dropped at all.”

Innovations for Learning, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization, equipped more than 8,000 first-grade students in Chicago public schools with its TeacherMate hand-held computers. And this spring, Innovations for Learning started pilot programs in Akron; Round Rock, Texas; Detroit; Tampa, Fla.; and Baton Rouge, La.

Chase provided funding for the devices in Akron and other cities as part of its national initiative to improve education. Akron Public Schools received 112 TeacherMates, which were donated to five elementary schools — Leggett, Mason, McEbright, Portage Path and Robinson. Akron schools will continue in the pilot program next year.