WG Parent Voices Concerns About Racial Slurs Against Son
November 2, 2017 by Jennifer Turkoc

A parent who said her teenage son has experienced racially charged comments at West Geauga Middle School called for more diversity training in the district at the Oct. 23 board of education meeting.

A parent who said her teenage son has experienced racially charged comments at West Geauga Middle School called for more diversity training in the district at the Oct. 23 board of education meeting.

Debbie Green, mother of the seventh-grader, came forward at the board meeting to talk about her son’s experiences.

She said the first encounter came when her son was outside in a tent participating in a sleepover at his house. A car came by and someone shouted the “N” word as they passed by.

Then, on “Crazy Hat Day,” at the school, her son wore a “Cat in the Hat” hat and someone commented he was a black in the hat, she said.

There was also a comment made on the bus questioning whether her son was a part of, or joining, the black KKK, Green said.

She believes there are also things going on her son hasn’t mentioned and she said as a parent, it hurts her greatly her son is being subjected to these comments.

She has emailed the principal of the middle school and all of her son’s teachers apprising them of the situation, she told the board.

Her family has considered moving, but they love Chester Township, where they have lived for eight years, she said.

“They don’t understand that there should be zero tolerance,” Green said about students and the district, adding she doesn’t want students feeling like they can’t be accepted.

“(I) would like to try to work to find something that we can do to make it better for all our kids,” she said.

School board members listened to Green’s input and board President Dan Thoreson said while they do not respond to public remarks during the meeting, the board will look into the matter.

In an Oct. 24 email Thoreson said the school board and Superintendent Richard Markwardt are “always interested when a parent shares concerns related to a student’s emotional well-being.”

“The board’s attention is heightened further when the concerns voiced relate to a particular group of students. The board fully expects the administrators to investigate such concerns, to address them in accordance with board policy and to correct them if they are substantiated,” he wrote. “The district has no tolerance for insensitive acts of intolerance or unkindness directed toward any of our students.”

The Superintendent, Richard Markwardt, also responded an Oct. 24 email.

“As a parent, I know how painful it is when one’s child is hurting emotionally or physically,” he said. “Our duty as school officials is to make sure that our school buildings are safe places for all of our students. I know that our principals take that responsibility very seriously. After hearing the parent’s concerns at the board meeting, I met with the student’s building administrators this morning to make sure that any incidents that occurred on school property had been addressed properly.

“In addition, we discussed further actions that we will undertake as a district to help all of our students to feel valued and welcome in our schools.”

In other business during Oct. 23 meeting, Sean Whelan, the district’s director of technology, gave a presentation on the GPS systems that are now on all buses and maintenance vehicles.

The district went with a brand called Synovia after considering robust functionality, cost and ongoing training and support.

The Synovia GPS system has access to the entire fleet via any web browser, Whelan explained.

“We’re able to drill down to specific vehicles,” he said.

The district can see the location of buses and detailed bus behavior. It’s able to connect to the Trapeze software the district already uses for routing buses, he explained, which allows the user to see different icons that provide various information.

Whelan said the user can check ignition start/stop, when the bus stops, when the door opens, speed and harsh braking.

Overall, the drivers seem to be doing a good job of maintaining safety, he said.

Every 30 seconds, there’s an update on what’s going on with the bus as long as cellular service is available. If the bus hits a dead zone, the system holds the data and transmits when it’s back in range, Whelan explained, adding there are sensors that can tell when the emergency door is open and when the bus is idling excessively.

By the second school semester, parents will be able to utilize real-time tracking of their student’s bus, telling them how long it will be until the bus arrives, said Whelan, who was impressed with the software.

“Every time you learn something, there’s something new that they’re showing us,” he said.

Karen Penler, district treasurer, also gave a presentation on the district’s five-year financial forecast.

“The fund balance is almost $38.6 million. We’ll have almost $26 million coming in, and we’ll have $26.5 million in spending,” she said. “This is the first year of our deficit spending. Projected deficit in 2022 will result in a negative balance of $2,040,733.”

In an Oct. 24 email, Penlar added, “The fund balance will be negative in 2022 requiring additional funding or significant cost cutting. The good news is that we were able to stretch it one additional year from our last forecast. This is mainly due to changes in our healthcare expenses and reductions in purchased services.”

Other details included in the five-year forecast were:

  • Geauga County property values will be made available to the district in December.
  • Property taxes are 70 percent of the district’s revenue. The district doesn’t get additional money if property values go up because of House Bill 920 (legislation passed by the state).
  • Most of expenditures come in the form of salaries, which make up 75 percent of the district’s budget.
  • Purchased services are higher than other districts outside Geauga County. For instance, special education services are shared with other districts. For students, being educated outside the district means it pays tuition to the other district. West Geauga added six children who are outside the district. In 2017, it is receiving $1.3 million in tuition from other districts.
  • There was a drop from previous years in capital outlays. The district was able to redo all technology infrastructure out of permanent improvement funds.
  • As of December 2019, there will be no more debt on the books.