Superintendent Dr. Talisa Dixon

On Wednesday, I met with the Transition Coordinators and the leadership of the Columbus Education Association (CEA). As I listened to the stories of the important work they do with our students, their compassion, care, and commitment to our students and their success was clear. My administrative team and I share this passion for all students. With this common vision in mind, I determined that changing the role of our Transition Coordinators was not the right decision. Therefore,  the Transition Coordinator program and the 26 Transition Coordinator positions will remain as they are currently.

I thank President John Coneglio and the leadership and members of the Columbus Education Association for their advocacy for the students that we all serve. The collaboration of the Columbus Education Association and Columbus City Schools shows that together we can make decisions that are in the best interest of our students and the community we serve.

As we look towards the future of our District and the academic programming we provide to our students, I have recommended that we create a task force comprised of a broad group of stakeholders to evaluate our special education program as a whole and decide as a community how we can best serve our students.

In regards to our Gifted Services programming, I have recommended that we move forward with a new, expanded plan instead of the earlier proposed plan. The additional staff that we will deploy to our schools will allow us to significantly increase the number of students who receive gifted services. I am committed to providing equitable opportunities to ALL students in Columbus City Schools, and I believe this will help achieve that goal.

CEA President John Coneglio

I would like to thank Dr. Dixon for meeting with the Transition Coordinators. The Superintendent’s decision to keep the Transition Coordinator program as is allows our members to continue to do what they do best — serve our students and their families. I appreciate that Dr. Dixon and the Columbus Education Association were able to come to a mutual understanding and agreement on how to best serve our students. It is not easy to reverse course once a decision has been made, and I applaud her willingness to make this tough decision.

While the District and the Columbus Education Association may disagree from time to time on the best way to serve our students, we all want what is best for our students and their families. We have been and will remain committed to working collaboratively to achieve this goal.

The Columbus Education Association is the union representing more than 4,000 teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors, psychologists, and other education professionals in Columbus City Schools. The Columbus Education Association is a proud affiliate of the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association.

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Over the past few years, our district has dedicated much effort to meeting the state’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee, resulting in a third-grade passage rate of 86.7 percent for the 2018-2019 school year.
Columbus City Schools has implemented a variety of strategies to raise the reading achievement of our third graders, including more time for reading instruction and intervention in the daily elementary schedule, offering professional development for teachers, enlisting reading buddies from the community, developing ELO and Super Saturday opportunities for struggling readers and creating summer enrichment bags for students.
CEA has joined hands with the district in this effort through our annual CEA book drive. For the fourth straight year, our focus will be on providing a new appropriate-level book in the district created summer enrichment packets for third grade students. Our campaign kicked off Thursday, February 6th and ends Tuesday, March 31st. Please support our campaign by donating two new books appropriate for children reading on the primer through third-grade reading level. A suggested book list has been given to your FR for your review.
At the conclusion of the campaign, there will be a drawing to win one of three $100 VISA gift cards. To be eligible for the drawing, donate at least three new books to the campaign. Give the books to your FR, or building campaign chair, and ask for a drawing entry form. You will receive one entry for every three books donated. The more books you give; the more chances you have to win. Complete and send the entry form to Teri Mullins at the CEA office no later than Thursday, April 9th. The drawing will be Monday, April 20th.
For more information regarding this campaign, contact Teri at CEA (614 253-4731), or at tmullins@ceaohio.org. Thank you for your support of our third graders. Together we can assist our students in reading improvement and meeting the standards.

• 2020 President’s Letter
• 2020 FR Letter
• 2020 Book Drive List
• 2020 Scholastic Ordering Directions
• 2020 GiftCard Entry Form

The Capital District will be holding elections for the President and Vice President positions.  The Declaration of Candidacy form must be filed with the Elections Chairperson prior to 4:30 p.m. of the deadline date of Monday, March 30, 2020 or bear a U.S. Mail postmark no later than midnight of the deadline date. Forms should be hand-delivered or mailed by U.S. Mail Service. No guarantee can be made for school mail service.

Capital District Declaration of Candidacy Form