Tornado Talk

Dover Schools Community Member:

We are grateful to have a strong community that values education, our students, and our staff. This issue of "Tornado Talk" is important as it highlights key action items from our March Board Meeting, but also shares discussion points from the board meeting about the District's financial future, specifically related to the Governor's most recent state budget proposal.

We encourage you to enjoy some of the highlighted programs and the progress we are making as a school community. We hope that as some of those most strongly vested in this high-quality public education experience, you also take some time to review the content related to school funding in Ohio's upcoming budget and reach out to our legislators with advocacy and support for our schools.

Have a wonderful Spring Break! 🔆

Sincerely,

Karie McCrate

Superintendent

For decades, school funding has been inadequate, inequitable, and overly reliant on local support through property taxes. The bipartisan Fair School Funding Model that Ohio has been phasing in for the last four years is the best solution we have seen to address this issue, as it establishes more accurate cost for educating each student, and more fairly distributes state funding among districts. This needs to continue and we need your help!

Rather than continuing implementation of this great work by fully funding the promised Fair School Funding Model, the Governor's current state budget dismantles it, resulting in cuts to public education that will negatively impact our school district and those around us.

Ultimately, if not changed, this will result in shifting more of the cost of educating our children back to the local taxpayers, or requiring reductions in programming that will impact the quality of education our students receive. When advocating for this formula, you are advocating for our local taxpayers!

Please click HERE or on the photo below for more information on this, including how to easily reach out to our representatives in Columbus to make our voice heard on behalf of the students and community of Dover City Schools!

Here, you'll find the most recent Board of Education Meeting Agenda, as well as approved minutes from the previous month's meeting(s). These are also always available on the District webpage. All regular meetings now begin at 6:00 pm.

March 10th Regular Board Meeting Agenda

February 10th Regular Board Meeting Minutes

February 25th Special Meeting Minutes

The Board of Education nominated longtime board member John Maxwell for the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA)'s “Recognition Award.” Mr. Maxwell has now earned all four OSBA STAR Awards that recognize Ohio school board members' dedication through four categories: Service, Training, Aptitude, and Recognition.

Service and Training awards are granted based on leadership and professional development, respectively. The Aptitude Award is earned by demonstrating board governance knowledge. This final award, Recognition, is our own community's expression of gratitude for his service and leadership. We celebrate that John is now eligible for Master Board Member recognition. More information on that is available HERE.

In 2024, only three school board members in the State of Ohio earned this recognition. Congratulations to Mr. Maxwell, and thank you for your continued service and dedication to the Dover City Schools community!

In March, the Board approved several more personnel items for the 2025-26 school year (next year!), which you can always see in full in the agendas and minutes. A few key teaching hires and transfers that were approved in March are noted here:

• Janet Conrad is transferring from teaching 4th grade at Dover Avenue to teaching 6th Grade Social Studies at Dover Middle School.
• Kaitlyn Dunlap will be serving as the new school counselor at Dover Avenue Elementary; Mrs. Dunlap has been with Dover Schools for many years and most recently has been an 8th grade English Language Arts teacher at DMS.
• Erin Spradling will be transferring into Reading Specialist (Title I) Teacher at South School, where she is currently a Kindergarten teacher.

• Alyana Bauer was hired for next year as an English Language Arts teacher at DMS. Alyana is a Dover graduate who is returning home to teach with one year of teaching experience in an area school.
• Terin Harris has also been hired for next year as an English Language Arts teacher at DMS. Terin is a currently a teacher at Perry High School.
• Zehnder Gibson was hired as a Science Teacher at Dover High School, where he also has done his student teaching with our DHS staff.

In August, Dover Schools conducts a New Teacher Academy for all new teaching staff, which includes a welcome reception at the August 2025 Board Meeting. We will provide more "welcome" and introduction to new teachers at that time.

All Dover residents should have received your annual financial update in the mail within the past few weeks. In case you missed it, click HERE or on the photo above to access it on our webpage.

For March, we have just two quick questions this week regarding our communications related to school finances.

Several first-grade students from Mrs. Hale's classroom shared some music with us from their annual first-grade musical this month. Enjoy a bit of our music from some of our youngest performers!

Here's a look back of some of the posts that drew the most engagement within the past month ...