MANSFIELD — A new way to honor students was discussed at the Tuesday evening Mansfield City Schools Board of Education meeting.Â
Jeff Cramer and Robert Watsons, of the school’s tech prep national honor society, presented their thoughts about adding a new national Technical honor society to “reach a different kind of student.”
“For the most part, the students find their ways in their senior and junior years of school,” Cramer said. “Not so much their freshman year. Sophomore year they are thinking about what they want to do — possibly go into a career in tech, and once they do find their knack, they join a path in tech.
“Once they do, they bloom. They start to do better in school because they have a purpose. Those students are sometimes held back from getting into the National Honor Society. With us adding on the Career Tech that gives that student another goal they can go for — another scholarship they can go for.”
Cramer proposed 3.0 GPA for students to enter. While the seniors National Honor Society’s GPA is 3.275 for entrance, the national Career Tech’s on average is 3.0.Â
“There are different scholarships available,” Cramer added. “We’re asking for the board to consider that.”
Board member Sheryl Weber said she agreed an additional honor program would be beneficial for these students.
“We have had some career tech students have that 3.275 GPA in the past, but not as many as we could have had if we had this National Honor Society,” she said. “It is a nationally recognized club. It is a proven one — not just something we are adding on as a club.”
The board also heard about a survey the school put out earlier this year.
The survey had nearly 700 responses, and both the board and Chery Ryan of Ohio’s School Board’s Association said they were disappointed with that figure. After Ryan said she expected a high number of responses due to the population of stakeholders — taxpayers — she expected the number to be closer to 900.
“With all of the alumni still in the area, we also thought we’d have more respondents,” said board president Renda Cline.
Although the numbers were lower than expected by both parties, Ryan said there was a solid number of responses from each demographic they were hoping to hear from, teachers, parents, students, alumni and members of the community.
Some highlights from the survey were:
When asked what was most important to the district, 46 percent of respondents said recruitment of quality staff and teachers was most important.Â
Fifty-two percent said safe school buildings were important.
Thirty-eight percent said the school board should prioritize student’s education for quality preparation after graduation.
In other news, Superintendent Brian Garverick told the school board about updates that needed to be made to be in accordance with the Ohio state school code.
“It’s a consistent action of reading and understanding the codes,” Garverick said in summary of the four revisions for class rank, homeless students, children and youth in foster care and sexual violence. “They are there so we can be familiar with the code and know where to reference in the moment.”
The board passed the revisions, 5-0.Â
