SIDNEY — Sidney City Schools continued to make great strides in 2015.

“In pushing forward with implementing the Ohio Improvement Process, the district has worked hard to establish collaboration among grade level teachers through Teacher-Based Teams, utilizing common planning time to help better meet the needs of students,” said Superintendent John Scheu. “This fostering of collaboration has extended up throughout the district to Building Leadership Teams, and a District Leadership team.”

His report continues:

In 2015, the district saw the expansion of the Workforce Academy program, agreed to new contracts with teachers and staff, advanced classroom and technology resources, and celebrated a number of student accomplishments including many from FFA.

Workforce Academy Expansion

On the heels of a successful introduction year of the Workforce Academy program at Sidney Middle School and Sidney High School, another layer of the program was introduced at the start of the 2015-2016 school year. RCI Academy is a pilot program funded by Ross Casting and Innovations through which students experience a new, challenging educational experience by learning advanced skills needed to be successful in college or in the workplace. Accelerated topics include technology basics, safety, quality assurance, business processes, management and operations, public speaking and other related topics. Additionally, a Careers Academy II class was added, which allows students to continue the development of a personal career plan as well as expose them to in-demand careers in Shelby County. The Workforce Academy at SHS and SMS is a partnership with the Workforce Partnership and area businesses.

New Contract Agreements

The Sidney Education Association (SEA) and Sidney City Schools Board of Education approved a new four-year contract with teachers in the spring of 2015, effective for school years 2015-2019.

The cost for health insurance remained at 80% employer, 20 percent employee paid. Base pay increases of 3.75, 3.75, 3.0, 3.0 are in effect for each consecutive year of the new contract.

Almost five years ago, all employees in the school district took a 2.75 percent pay reduction with salaries frozen the following three years. At that time, Sidney City School District’s future was in doubt; financial well-being was a major issue. With the help of salary concessions all employees made and close oversight of the district’s finances, the future of Sidney City Schools is back on solid financial ground. The goal of securing this financial well-being both presently and in the future, and making the teacher salary schedule more competitive with area school districts was achieved with the new contracts. The same increases and insurance breakdowns were also approved for all other employees.

Advancing Resources

Because our community supported the district’s renewal levy in May of 2014, we have been able to budget for better resources. In working with SCS treasurer Mike Watkins, the curriculum and technology departments have been able to advance resources.

The curriculum department, in working with teachers, continues to adopt new curricula to replace outdated resources. Thus far, we have adopted a new K-5 math series, K-5 ELA series, and 6-12 ELA series, and are working this year to adopt a new 6-12 math series for implementation next school year. Many different factors are taken into consideration before committing to a purchase for a five-year period of time. Our teachers drive the decision-making for the purchase, with support from the curriculum team. Different resources are analyzed to determine how well they incorporate Ohio’s Learning Standards, the flexibility and support within the resources, the supports for our wide range of learners, and what blended learning opportunities exist.

In the past year, the technology department has worked hard to assess the technology needs of the schools as far as infrastructure, devices, and apps. The district is pleased to announce that it has made the power of Google Apps for Education available to teachers, staff, and students. This provides tools for collaboration, communication, and online, cloud-based file storage within the classroom. The district began with 120 Chromebooks in the Sidney High School English Department during the 2014-2015 school year. This past summer, the district rolled out over 600 more Chromebooks in the district.

Schools can use Google Apps for Education for classwork, collaboration, and communication. Students are provided secure Google accounts by the district, along with training and information on how to responsibly use these learning tools. Students and staff have access to Google Drive, Classroom, and Calendar. Drive offers access to word processing tools such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides, similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Classroom helps teachers quickly create and organize assignments, efficiently provide feedback, and easily communicate with their classes, while it helps students organize their work, complete and turn in assignments, and appropriately communicate directly with their teachers and peers online from any internet-accessible computer.

With the increase in the number of devices throughout the district, and as the state moves forward with pushing schools to shift to online testing, it’s important that our network meet the demands. This past summer, the district invested in a complete network infrastructure upgrade to ensure that.

FFA Success

The Sidney FFA Chapter competed in a number of career development events in the spring of 2015 and saw great success in their second year, including:

• Creed Speaking – Josie Broaddrick finished third overall at district and was a high placing individual in the county.

• Advanced Creed Speaking – Branden Davis finished third overall in the district and was a high placing individual in the county.

• The Milk Quality Products team, consisting of Branden Davis, Mamie Turnbill, Emily Reid and Everret Hogue, was 10th overall at state.

The Sidney FFA chapter, with 85 active members for the 2015-2016 school year has already competed in multiple career development events such as soils evaluation, job interview and food science.

• The Food Science team, consisting of Emily Reid, Josh Marruffo, Kelton Stockton and Dylan Smith, advanced from district contest to compete at state contest held at The Ohio State University. The team finished 10th overall at state, with high individual scores from Kelton Stockon finishing third overall and Dylan Smith finish 12th overall in the state.

Student Achievements

In the classroom, on stage, at the game, and within the community, our students continue to see success. Here are a few examples from 2015:

• Ian Humphrey, Logan Shultz, and Alex Willman – 2015 American Legion Americanism and Government Test Winners

• Three outstanding performances of SHS musical The Wizard of Oz

• SHS Academia – County Champions for 8th consecutive year; ranked 23rd in the nation among quiz bowl teams, 2nd in the state of Ohio; 2nd consecutive GWOC North title

• Jack Martin named 2015 National Merit Scholarship Finalist

• Sidney named GWOC North All-Sports Trophy winner for winter season 2015

• SHS Football – Lorenzo Taborn competed at the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl

• SHS Marching Band performed at Ohio Stadium

• SCS students and staff donated a record breaking amount to the Shelby County United Way Annual Campaign