SPECIAL REPORTS

Investigative Reports and In-Depth Analysis from the Plain Dealer

'Newcomers' to Cleveland public schools without English or American ways have 1 year to prepare for achievement tests

by Thomas Ott/Plain Dealer Reporter

Tuesday May 26, 2009, 9:13 PM

Thomas Ondrey/The Plain DealerNduwimana Anociatte, left, and Mpawenayo Faines, both from Burundi, brush up on their math in Newcomers Class, where non-English speakers are brought up to speed in English before being placed in age-appropriate classes at Joseph Gallagher School.

This is the third of three stories looking at Joseph M. Gallagher, a Cleveland elementary school that faces severe consequences if students' test scores don't improve.

Thomas Ondrey/The Plain DealerHasabint Marius, a fourth-grader from Burundi, learns from a computer in Newcomers Class at Joseph Gallagher School in Cleveland.

Part I: Gallagher test scores fail to reflect obstacles students face

Part II: Pressed to improve test scores, staff goes all out

Some children travel to Joseph M. Gallagher Elementary School from half a world away. Then another long and difficult journey begins.

These "newcomers," a Cleveland school district designation, know nary a lick of English when they arrive and are reeling from a polar change of cultures. Those in kindergarten through eighth grade are funneled to Gallagher; high school students go to Lincoln-West.

For teachers, the pressure is on from the start. They have only a year to get their charges ready for state achievement tests. The stakes are especially high this year since Gallagher is one of 10 schools in the district that could be closed if scores don't improve.

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Gallagher Elementary School, Part II: Pressed to improve test scores, staff goes all out

by Thomas Ott / Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday May 25, 2009, 8:01 PM

Thomas Ondrey / The Plain DealerLuis Diaz thinks he has the answer for teacher Lillian Supple in a second grade bilingual class at Joseph Gallagher School.

This is the second of three stories looking at Joseph M. Gallagher, a Cleveland elementary school that faces severe consequences if students' test scores don't improve. But the numbers don't tell the whole story at Gallagher.

CLEVELAND -- The staff at Joseph M. Gallagher Elementary School did not retreat behind excuses after district Chief Executive Eugene Sanders criticized the school's academic performance and threatened to shut down the building.

At Gallagher, teams met by grade level to plan academic strategy. The school devised its own teacher training programs and organized tutoring.

The specter of closing had hung over the school for years, leading many to view it as a bluff. Not this time, Principal Jennifer Rhone said. She sensed urgency and resolve among the staff.

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Gallagher Elementary School test scores fail to reflect obstacles students must overcome

by Thomas Ott/Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday May 25, 2009, 9:07 AM

Thomas Ondrey/The Plain DealerLinette Muniz listens closely to what her teacher says during a bilingual class at Joseph M. Gallagher Elementary School.

For the Cleveland school, it may have been a case of pass or perish. In October, district Chief Executive Eugene Sanders threatened to simply shut down or replace the staff at Gallagher and nine other so-called "turnaround" elementary buildings if their marks don't improve by 2010.

But is Gallagher truly a failure? That depends on how you measure success.

Test scores -- the official gauge -- don't reflect enormous obstacles that confront the West Side school every day. Some of the challenges are unique, even for the problem-laden district.

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Some law enforcement agencies joining forces, but regionalism not likely

by James Ewinger/Plain Dealer Reporter

Monday May 18, 2009, 7:30 AM

John Kuntz/The Plain DealerSummit County sheriff's SWAT team members, from left, Shane Smith, Joe Smith and team leader Matt Schaefer practice house-entry and room-to-room search tactics in an abandoned home south of Akron. It is one of several services that the large, well-equipped sheriff's office can provide to smaller communities that lack the money to do it themselves.

John Kuntz/The Plain DealerSummit County Sheriff's Deputy Tim Kensinger fires his weapon at the indoor range at the Robert Campbell Sheriff's Training Center next to Akron Canton Airport. With Kensinger is Deputy William Krill, a range instructor. The sheriff and Akron police are talking about sharing various functions, including equipment, purchasing and narcotics investigations.

REGIONALISM: Joining Forces
First in an occasional series

"Everybody's excited, but there's some anxiety," he said. Later, he will say the same thing that Lakemore Mayor Mike Kolomichuk said a month ago: "This should have been done years ago."

Kolomichuk is referring to the recent merger of the two departments' police forces that puts them in step with a national trend in which a growing number of communities are sharing resources as they watch their tax revenues shrink.

By June 1, most of Lakemore's police force will be absorbed into the township's. The village will pay Springfield Township at least $400,000 a year for law enforcement service -- about half what Lakemore currently pays to have its own force of eight full-time officers and a few part-timers.

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Cuyahoga County land bank could launch Cleveland renewal

by Steven Litt/Plain Dealer Architecture Critic

Saturday May 16, 2009, 10:32 PM

Marvin Fong/The Plain DealerEarth Day Coalition volunteer Josh Koppen plants native grasses and wildflowers on a vacant lot off Holmden Avenue in Cleveland as part of a pilot program supported by Neighborhood Progress Inc. to find new ways to manage open land in the city. Such efforts could influence the new Cuyahoga County land bank.

• How the Cuyahoga County land bank will work

Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis is a popular guy these days.

His desk is awash in proposals for thousands of vacant and abandoned properties that will soon be scooped up by the powerful new county land bank he persuaded the Ohio legislature to authorize in December.

Urban farmers want to sprinkle the city with zero-fossil-energy greenhouses. Neighborhood activists envision parks, trails and community gardens. Rokakis even has a brochure from a businessman who wants to build a winery in Hough on Cleveland's East Side.

"We've been bombarded," says Rokakis, whose office has suddenly become a clearinghouse for ideas on how to reconfigure neighborhoods hollowed out by subprime lending and tens of thousands of mortgage foreclosures.

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Cuyahoga County social service agencies spend $120 million in salaries alone

by Laura Johnston/Plain Dealer Reporter

Tuesday May 12, 2009, 4:00 AM

Plain Dealer fileA Plain Dealer audit of county services has revealed that Cuyahoga County residents pay some of the highest taxes in Ohio for county agencies that could be deemed overstaffed and inefficient when compared with the state's other metropolitan counties.

• Cuyahoga County auditor's office spends more taxes than any other major Ohio county, analysis finds

• Cuyahoga County agencies have more workers, less efficiency than others in Ohio, analysis shows

The county spent $119 million last year on salaries for 2,800 social services jobs. Each of five agencies has its own executive director, and seven administrators made more than $90,000 each.

And while Cuyahoga County has more people working on child welfare and public assistance programs than any other county in the state, their efficiency -- calculated by the number of cases per employee -- is the worst among major Ohio counties, according to a Plain Dealer audit.

The analysis compared the number of cases, supplied by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, and the number of employees in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Montgomery counties.

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Cuyahoga County agencies have more workers, less productivity than others in Ohio, Plain Dealer analysis finds

by Laura Johnston/Plain Dealer Reporter

Sunday May 10, 2009, 4:15 AM

Plain Dealer file photoA Plain Dealer audit of county services has revealed that Cuyahoga County residents pay some the highest taxes in Ohio for county agencies that could be deemed overstaffed and inefficient when compared to the state's other metropolitan counties.

• Cuyahoga County auditor's office spends more taxes than any other major Ohio county, analysis finds

Cuyahoga County residents pay some of Ohio's highest taxes in return for some of the state's most bloated county agencies, where employees accomplish less work each day than counterparts in other metropolitan counties, a Plain Dealer audit has found.

The most packed payrolls: the treasurer and auditor. Treasurer Jim Rokakis has nearly twice as many employees as his Franklin County equivalent. The auditor's office has more than twice as many employees as Franklin County. And no other big county spends more to process a tax bill or appraise a piece of land.

In the county's social services agencies, too, public assistance and child welfare workers handle fewer cases than the average among the five major counties The Plain Dealer analyzed.

The newspaper analysis found heartening news, as well. The engineer gets more work out of his employees than counterparts across the state. The prosecutor's office handles more criminal cases per employee than any other county prosecutor.

The findings come from a three-month study of county offices inspired by recent campaigns for government reform and a blistering state audit in December of former Recorder Patrick O'Malley's office.

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Cuyahoga County auditor's office spends more taxes than any other major Ohio county, analysis finds

by Laura Johnston/Plain Dealer Reporter

Sunday May 10, 2009, 3:55 AM

Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo

Like most Ohio counties, Franklin and Hamilton have determined it's cheaper to hire outside appraisers to set property values, a task required of county auditors every three years.

"Formerly, it would be a two-year process working on it hard and a year where everybody stood around and drank coffee," said Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes. "It wasn't efficient to have a big staff that was working hard two out of every three years."

Auditors are also responsible for licensing dogs and vendors, testing scales, inspecting gas pumps and collecting hotel taxes.

For virtually every job Russo's office does, it spends more tax money than any other auditor's office in a major Ohio county.

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