Editor's Note:
This is part one in a three-part series examining Ashland City Schools’ reconfiguration effort. This story looks at past reconfigurations, the current one and responses from the community.
ASHLAND — Ashland City Schools has spent the better part of the last 40 years reorganizing the district, thanks, in part, to modernization.
It first became a district in a time of one-room school buildings, expanding as needed over the years.
That story is chronicled in a book, “The History of Ashland City Schools,” written by the district’s kindergarten through third grade students back in 2015.
But in the modern age, neighborhood schools can get expensive, said Supt. Steve Paramore. Buying equipment, maintaining heating and cooling systems and even turning on the lights all cost money. That money comes from taxpayers.
Paramore said one of the district’s goals is to be a good steward of those public funds. It’s part of the reason the school district is primed to go through with another reconfiguration, effective at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year.
Paramore announced the plan at 2024’s State of the City address.
Our coverage on the reconfiguration
The plan will make it so Edison and Reagan elementary schools — which both currently house kindergarten through third graders — become grade-band schools.
Preschool through first grade students will attend Reagan, while second and third graders will go to Edison. Teachers will also shuffle as the district attempts to even out the number of instructors at each grade level.
It will be the district’s third reconfiguration in the last decade. According to Paramore, it will be the district’s final reconfiguration for the foreseeable future, barring drastic changes in enrollment.
A local history lesson
From 1981 to 2025, the district shuttered the doors at six buildings: Arthur Street School, Pleasant Street School, Grant Street School, Montgomery School, Lincoln School and Osborn School. In that time frame, it also renovated Edison and Taft.
Taxpayers voted to build Reagan Elementary School and Ashland Middle School in 2012. Those buildings were completed in 2015.
Those school closures, renovations and new buildings resulted in several different arrangements for students.
Paramore, a product of Ashland City Schools, recalls several of those renovations and reconfigurations happening over the years.
He remembers going to Safety Town at Osborn in the 1980s, being honored for his golf prowess by the school board, and still runs into teachers he had when he was a student who shaped his experience at Ashland City Schools.
His first years teaching and his time as a building vice principal came in school buildings now demolished. Namely, he worked as an assistant principal at the old Ashland Middle School.
“As an adult now, it’s easy for me to reflect on all of the board members and the community members and the administrators and the staff members that had to probably do certain pushes at different points in their career to pass levies,” Paramore said.
Both Paramore and deputy supt. Linda McKibben said in 2014, the district discussed implementing the same configuration it’s moving to now. It decided against doing so back then.
Since 2015, the district’s configuration has remained the same.
“I really think every one of these reconfigurations have been done very thoughtfully,” McKibben said. She’s been in the district 35 years, and was an elementary principal during previous elementary school reconfigurations in the district.
“You know, (we’re) trying to always put the best interests of our community first, not what’s convenient for teachers, not what’s convenient for our administrators,” she continued. “I would love to spend the rest of my career being the principal at Lincoln, but that wasn’t what was discussed — and it wasn’t what our community needed.”
Reconfiguration response
While the district has emphasized its desire to meet community needs with the reconfiguration, this year’s effort has not been met with much feedback, at least publicly.
That hasn’t always been the case with other reconfigurations.
When the district closed Lincoln School and reconfigured back in 2012, for example, it did so with a split board vote, the Ashland Times-Gazette reported. Board members debated several reconfiguration plans.
Parent-teacher organization representatives also piped up at board meetings regarding that reconfiguration. Tiffany Sanders, then vice president of Taft’s PTO, raised concerns about how the reorganization would impact their ability to recruit volunteers for PTO activities.
But the board has heard no comment about the current reconfiguration at its meetings since Paramore announced the plan.
After the reconfiguration was announced, the district put out a survey to solicit parental feedback.
It was open last year, for a period from the end of February through mid-July, on the district’s website. Only 25 people responded.
Seven parents out of 25 said they felt uninformed about the reasoning behind the proposed reconfiguration. The rest responded they did feel informed.
Several raised questions and concerns, mainly about the logistics of transporting students to multiple school buildings.
Paramore addressed those community concerns at his latest State of the Schools address, which was meant to be a Q-and-A format on Jan. 22. That night, a small crowd of mostly school board members, teachers and administrators filled the room.
Paramore attributed the low attendance to the cold weather.
We have tremendous commitment to this school district, and that’s my job as the leader of the school district to carry that on, to pay that forward.
Supt. Steve Paramore, Ashland City Schools
His comments about the reconfiguration focused on the district’s efforts to make transportation as easy as possible for parents.
Title I
Title I is a federally funded program that helps schools in Ohio provide supplemental education to students in need.
The program’s goal is to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed in school.
How does Title I work in Ohio?
- Schools are eligible for Title I funding based on the percentage of students who participate in the Free and Reduced Price Lunch Program.
- Schools use Title I funds to provide additional instruction, support services, and professional development.
- Schools can also use Title I funds to help students who are experiencing homelessness.
- Schools can use Title I funds to help students who are neglected, delinquent, or at-risk.
He shared a new plan to shuttle students from Edison to Reagan — and vice versa — as needed. He encouraged parents to figure out their families’ transportation plans, and to sign up to use the shuttles if needed.
Why does it matter?
Paramore acknowledges the reconfiguration might be emotional for some teachers and community members. But he’s focused more on how the effort has the potential to benefit the district.
Those benefits, in his eyes, are plentiful. The plan allows for more collaboration between teachers at each grade level.
He’s not the first Ashland City Schools superintendent to champion that approach. In 2012, Doug Marrah advocated the benefits of a grade band plan during a previous reconfiguration effort.
Paramore has also pointed to unity and keeping as many Title I dollars in the district as possible as positive aspects of this year’s reconfiguration effort.
“We have tremendous commitment to this school district, and that’s my job as the leader of the school district to carry that on, to pay that forward,” he said. “I won’t be here forever, but I’m going to be here for a long time.
“So we’re going to be progressive. We’re not going to be afraid to make changes, but we also understand that change isn’t easy for a lot of people.”
