ASHLAND – With his guitar slung over his shoulder, Ashland City Schools Supt. Doug Marrah opened his State of the Schools address with a sing-along rendition of the Van Morrison classic “Brown Eyed Girl.”
“I’m going to keep doing this until everyone sings,” Marrah joked before launching into another chorus, joined by the audience.
Marrah, who is entering his sixth school year as superintendent, used the song to break the ice before getting down to the business of addressing what is happening in Ashland City Schools.
“I was thinking, ‘What would I call this, the State of the Schools?’ And it’s really the great people doing great things for our children of our community every day, and the great things that happen for our kids here in Ashland City Schools,” Marrah said. “I’m really lucky because I was able to be a teacher here, I was able to be a principal here, and now I’m the superintendent here. Really, for me, I love coming to school every day. I love being an Ashland Arrow. My feet hit the floor and I love doing what I’m doing. If I ever change my mood and think I’m going to work instead of going to school, I’ve got a problem. I just love doing what I do.”
Marrah highlighted five areas during his State of the School address: Programs, technology, finances, facilities and future.
Programs
The superintendent pointed to several areas where Ashland City Schools excels in its program offerings, including Title I reading programs, STEM programs, Advanced Placement courses and College and Career Plus.
“If you remember the Post Secondary programs, kids at Ashland High School would leave the high school and go to AU, OSU-Mansfield or North Central State. That is still available, but it’s morphed into a program called College and Career Plus. College and Career Plus at our high school gives our kids 24 credits available to them and they never leave the high school.”
College and Career Plus offers courses such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Speech and, the course Marrah said was the most popular, Game Design.
“We just had to buy another group of computers,” Marrah said because of the growth of the Game Design class.
Technology
Marrah said that when he came back to Ashland as superintendent in 2011, one of the biggest deficiencies he saw was not having enough computers and other devices for students to use.
In the past five years, the district has purchased 139 desktops, 274 iPads, 481 laptops, 657 Chromebooks and 36 Surface Pros.
“We are putting machines in our students hands and in our teachers’ hands, trying to stay current,” Marrah said.
Finances
The superintendent told the audience that the district has just hired a new treasurer, Sue Guthrie. Guthrie, who currently is treasurer at Elyria City Schools, will officially start on Sept. 6.
Marrah praised Sheryl Shaw Stewart who has worked as a part-time treasurer for the district since Gina Deppert left the district in April 2015 to work at Sandusky City Schools.
“We really believe that we continue to be great stewards of the taxpayers’ money. But that also hasn’t come easy,” Marrah said.
The superintendent said that when he took over, the district was overstaffed and after federal stimulus dollars ran out, the board was facing the possibility of asking voters for a levy.
“So we rolled up our sleeves and talked to our unions, we talked with our principals, had some really difficult times and then we made two rounds of cuts and realigned our schools and did things to straighten our budget out,” Marrah said. “It’s very painful because you have to tell great people they don’t have a job. I hate doing that, but it’s what we had to do.”
For the 2015-2016 school year, the district had $32,664,125 in revenue and $29,513,874 in expenditures. Marrah said 76 percent of the expenditures were in salary and budgets, down from 87 percent in 2011.
“We’ve really worked to get that tightened up and still trying to find the best ways we can serve our kids,” Marrah said.
“The education that our kids get from our teachers is worth every penny that our taxpayers pay,” Marrah said.
Facilities
The district put in place a $37 million facilities plan that included a new middle school, Reagan Elementary School, Archer Auditorium at the high school and other improvements to district buildings.
Marrah said the projects were funded 59 percent by local funds and 41 percent state funding.
A slideshow with one photo taken each day showed the progress of the construction on Archer Auditorium.
The superintendent said both the middle school and Reagan projects finished under budget.
“Really, the under-budget piece is where we’ve been able to do extra things. We’ve been able to build the preschool addition at the new elementary school, all at the same dollars we started with,” Marrah said.
Plans are in place to improve the heating and cooling systems at both Taft and Edison and secure key fob entrances. Marrah said those project should be completed next summer.
The new district offices and bus garage at the former King Lanes on Claremont Avenue are a great addition for the district, Marrah said. The work at the building was completed using the funds from the sale of the Montgomery Elementary location last year.
Future
“The best part about our work is our future,” Marrah said, showing a picture of Ashland students. “That’s what our future is. Our future is what we’re going to do for kids.”
