Latest news with #JillAckerman
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Lima schools breaks ground for veteran memorial
May 5—LIMA — Visitors to Lima Senior High School will soon pass by the names of 600 graduates who served in the U.S. armed forces. Construction is now underway for the Veterans Wall of Honor, a monument to Lima schools alumni who enlisted or were drafted into the armed forces dating back as far as 1927 — 600 names and counting. The wall will stand 6 1/2 feet tall with six panels, each with enough space to display the names of 280 graduates from Lima Senior, South and Central high schools. District officials invited veterans, alumni and donors to a formal groundbreaking ceremony Monday to commemorate the start of construction, three years after fundraising began. "We are so proud of all our students who make the decision to enter military service," Superintendent Jill Ackerman told the crowd gathered outside the high school. Familiar names will include William Metzger Jr., who was killed during a bombing mission in World War II; Wayne Johnny Johnson, who secretly documented the names of his fellow prisoners of war in the Korean War; Charles Williams, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen; and "former students who walked the halls of this very building," Ackerman said. District officials started fundraising three years ago to erect the monument at the suggestion of Lima Senior alumuna Tamara Wilson, an officer for the Allen County Veterans Services Commission, who was inspired by a similar monument at Perry High School. No district funds contributed to the $70,000 project. Instead, district officials relied exclusively on contributions from local businesses and alumni such as the Lima Senior class of 1966, which raised in excess of $10,000 toward the monument. Donations will continue to be accepted to cover future maintenance and engraving expenses. "May it remind you that being a Spartan means something, and that service is one of our highest qualities," Wilson said. Featured Local Savings
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lima will open doors for 'Public Schools Week'
Mar. 20—LIMA — Lima schools Superintendent Jill Ackerman likes to say the district has something to offer for every student. She plans to open the doors to Lima Senior High School on Tuesday to show the public just how much the district has to offer now: from the high school's 12 career technical programs, student clubs and dual-credit classes to its orchestra program and classes for disabled students. "You want to see where your tax dollars are going?" Ackerman said. "We owe that to our community. Let us show you what we're doing." Lima schools will begin its annual Public Schools Week tradition with a 15-minute pep rally at the high school. The Lima Senior Marching Pride, Spartan Cheerleaders, Mayor Sharetta Smith and other speakers will welcome visitors, who are invited to tour the high school's career tech labs, view student artwork, make buttons in the graphics classroom or play in the kid zone until 7 p.m. "There are so many ways we are reaching every child," Ackerman said. "So many things we do to help the most vulnerable and most high-achieving students, and all those in between. So many ways we embrace students and their families regardless of their circumstances." Lima schools started Public Schools Week a decade ago to promote public schools amid the expansion of private school vouchers. Lawmakers initially created the publicly funded scholarships so students in low-performing Cleveland schools could afford to attend private schools. The scholarships are now available to any Ohio child, regardless of where they live or how much their parents earn. Ohio spent nearly $1 billion last school year on the scholarships, which now award as much as $6,166 per year for children in kindergarten through eighth grade and $8,408 for high school students. Families whose household earnings are at or below 450% of federal poverty level, or $144,675 for a family of four, are eligible for the full scholarship, while scholarships for the highest-earning families are capped at $616 per child in grades K-8 and $840 per child in high school. The expansion resulted in nearly 69,000 new scholarships awarded last school year. The majority of those scholarships went to students who already attended private schools, as private school enrollment grew be fewer than 3,000 students, according to an analysis of state data by Policy Matters Ohio, which opposes vouchers. Only 28 of the nearly 600 Lima students who used vouchers this year come from low-income families, Ackerman said during a press conference Thursday. The majority of those students "have never set foot in our district" and "spent their entire school careers in a private school," Ackerman said. "They have been paying private tuition without complaint but now take voucher money." Voucher opponents say private schools are not held to the same financial, academic and licensure standards as public schools, which are audited and graded for student performance. Supporters say accountability comes from parents, who can remove their children — and the child's scholarship — from a private school at any time if the school does not meet expectations. Lima schools joined a lawsuit challenging the legality of the voucher program, which opponents allege violates the Ohio constitution and diverts funding from public schools. The lawsuit is pending in Franklin County Common Pleas Court but is expected to proceed to trial this year. Any disruption to state or federal funding could jeopardize operations for high-poverty school districts like Lima schools: Only 11% of the district's per pupil spending comes from property taxes, amounting to $2,570 per student, according to the Cupp-Patterson report. The district is eliminating $500,000 from its budget due to the expiration of federal pandemic aid, though most of those reductions are coming through attrition, Ackerman said. The future of school funding is in flux as lawmakers draft the state's operating budget, which will determine funding for public schools and private school vouchers for the next two years, and as President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday to disband the federal Department of Education and return education authority to the states. Ackerman said she remains hopeful the order will direct federal funding to the states, rather than cut funding from schools. PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK SCHEDULE Lima schools will host a pep rally ahead of its annual district-wide open house next Tuesday. The pep rally will begin at 5 p.m. in the Lima Senior High School gymnasium, 1 Spartan Way, followed by the open house from 5:15 to 7 p.m. This year's open house will include: Free dinner prepared by the Spartan Inn culinary students—barbecue chicken, baked beans and potato salad Appearance by the Easter bunny, Spartan Ride, the Spartan basketball teams and cheerleaders Free books for the first 120 families in the library Student performances in the Joe Henderson Auditorium Student artwork Kid Zone with games, activities and face painting Meet and greet with the school resource officers and K-9s Tours of the career tech labs and student recording studio Health checks by patient care students Crafts in the graphics classroom Featured Local Savings
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Mercy Health donates to Lima schools meal program
Feb. 5—LIMA — Mercy Health presented a $50,000 donation to Lima schools at Wednesday's mayoral press briefing to go toward a weekend meal box for students to ensure have food over the weekend. Lima superintendent Jill Ackerman said students will be able to walk out of school with six pre-packaged, ready-made nutritious meals every Friday at Freedom Elementary School. "'Nutritious' was a key word for us," Ackerman said. "It's a peace of mind for us to know they will be fed over the weekend, and it's a relief for parents with rising food costs. It's also a peace of mind for the children to know when they're home, they're going to have some food that helps them stay healthy, and hopefully, it helps keep them on track with their grades and attendance." Tyler Smith, Mercy Health's director of community health, said the donation, which will go through a program run by the Children's Hunger Alliance, is important to address one of the biggest needs the healthcare provider sees in patients all the time, food insecurity. "It's mirroring what we're seeing within the hospital, and we know it's trickling out within the community," he said. "So we're thankful to have good partners like CHA and Lima schools. We've been pretty successful with the program we started in Leipsic a few years ago, and we know that the need was pretty drastic here in Lima." The CHA is a statewide non-profit that works to ensure food-insecure children get meals and started the same program with Mercy Health at Leipsic Elementary School in December 2022. "In the past year, over half a million kids in Ohio go to bed food insecure, which means they don't know where their next meal is going to come from," CHA regional director Jamie Harter said. "During the school year, a food insecure child can get three meals each of those five days they are in school every week, but they might not see food when the weekend hits." Mercy Health said more than 18,000 meals have been distributed to students at Leipsic Elementary, where the CHA offers meal boxes two weeks every month. Meal boxes come from a vendor in Bucyrus and will number at 1,440 meals per weekend. The program started October 2021 at Moler Elementary School in Columbus. For more information on the CHA, visit Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399. Featured Local Savings
