The Lakota Board of Education once again approved an inter-district open enrollment policy, which allows students the opportunity to apply to attend Lakota schools despite not living in the school district.
Information and applications will be made available no later than Wednesday. Applications are due, along with all required documents, by June 7. Applicants will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.
As part of the enrollment process, families will need to complete and submit the following information:
Open Enrollment Application
District Registration Packet for the requested grade level
Student’s original birth certificate
Parent/guardian ID
Proof of residency (current mortgage statement, current lease, or current real estate tax bill), and any custody documents
For kindergarten students only: current record of immunizations.
For more information after Wednesday, visit Lakota enrollment center website on lakotaonline.com or call 513-682-4120.
The inter-district open enrollment was first made available last summer for the 2012-2013 school year. Previously, Lakota has not had the capacity to accept students who live outside the district because population growth had been so steep for so long.
More recently, the enrollment has been on the decline, as slightly more than 500 fewer students enrolled in the Lakota school district in 2011-2012 compared to the 2010-2011 school year. During that span, the district-wide enrollment went down 3 percent.
To let West Chester and Liberty Township residents catch up with the news that they need to know, WestChesterBuzz.com will list and link to all of last week’s top local stories every Monday.
WestChesterBuzz.com also recently added a new video page last week. To view West Chester and Liberty Township related videos, visit westchesterbuzz.com/videos.
Yosselin Villatoro beams at her eighth birthday party March 16. The year before, Yosselin’s family was preparing for her surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Photo taken by Cara Owsley.
Yosselin Villatoro is a ‘survivor’ – Sue Kiesewetter again shared the story in The Cincinnati Enquirer of Yosselin Villatoro, who recently celebrated her eighth birthday. Villatoro was diagnosed just before Christmas in 2011 with osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs. Recently, she told her grandmother that she was a “cancer survivor.”
Butler County resists switching to full-time judges - Sheila McLaughlin reports for The Cincinnati Enquirer: Thomas Moyer, the late Ohio Supreme Court chief justice, tried for more than a decade to eliminate the use of part-time judges across the state. They more recently came under attack by Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser. He called one local judge “the fox in the hen house” and was instrumental in getting the judge kicked off of 10 drunken driving cases.
Punxsutawney Phil is off the hook – Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser has since changed his mind and dismissed the charge of “misrepresentation of early spring” against the groundhog. Gmoser said Phil is a scapegoat for the misinterpretation of his handler. Phil’s handler has “stepped up to the burrow to take full responsibility for misrepresenting said Defendant’s prediction of an early spring,” he said in the official looking dismissal document.
The Woodland 6th grade girls’ team won their 4th consecutive March Madness championship. Photo provided.
‘Lakota Style’ March Madness – Around 1,300 Lakota elementary students on 146 different teams helped raise more than $13,000 for local non-profits by participating in this month’s March Madness “Lakota Style” basketball tournament. Last year, the event raised $3,000.
AK Steel forecasts first quarter loss – AK Steel Holding Corp. said Friday it expects to post a net loss of between 9 cents and 13 cents per share in the first quarter. The West Chester Township-based parent of AK Steel said it is dealing with lower levels of steel shipments and below average spot market demand compared to the fourth quarter.
Lakota West grad Brigit Reder makes professional roster – Lakota West graduate and former Ball State soccer player Brigit Reder has recently made the preseason 25-person roster for the Western New York Flash of the National Women’s Soccer League. On the roster, Reder joins Abby Wambach and Caril Lloyd, both members of the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Tammy Randall burst into tears when her granddaughter said the four words she’s waited months to hear.
“I’m a cancer survivor,” Yosselin Villatoro told her grandmother one day after school this month.
“I stood there and cried,” said Randall, who has custody of Yosselin and her 6-year-old brother Freddy.
“With all she’s been through and struggled with – to finally have her say that, well, all I can say is I’ve been waiting a long time to hear those words.”
Yosselin Villatoro beams at her eighth birthday party March 16. The year before, Yosselin’s family was preparing for her surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Photo taken by Cara Owsley.
Fifteen months ago, just before Christmas 2011, Tammy and her husband, Keith, got the devastating news that their then-6-year-old granddaughter had osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs.
Since then, Yosselin has undergone four surgeries – including one to remove 8 inches of her femur, replacing it with an expandable metal rod – to remove the cancer. Another operation is scheduled June 14 to lengthen the rod since Yosselin has grown 2.5 inches in the last year.
In December, doctors gave the Randalls the news they had been praying for since the ordeal began: Yosselin was in remission and if her now quarterly tests remain the same – her next scan will be done in June – she will be declared cancer free in five years.
“I told Yosselin, but I don’t think she really believed it until she said those words after she did a school report on Sally Ride,” Randall said. “Even though Sally died of cancer (in July), Yosselin recognized she had survived cancer.”
(Ride, a physicist, in 1983 became the first American woman astronaut to orbit the earth.)
“It’s breathtaking just to watch her grow into a beautiful young lady,” Randall said with tears in her eyes.
“She had her first sleepover at a friend’s house, and I was a nervous wreck. It was the first time she’s been away since the diagnosis.… It went well.”
Yosselin is now going to school most days, and the family is settling into a routine that doesn’t involve constant doctors’ visits and runs to the hospital every time Yosselin gets a cold or fever.
She still tires easily and frequently takes a nap after school. Her immune system is getting stronger, but, when she does get sick, it takes longer to recover and the illness tends to be more severe than before the cancer diagnosis.
Physical therapy that Yosselin is undergoing has strengthened her leg enough that she bears full weight on it. Yosselin uses her walker at Cherokee Elementary – where she is a second-grader – only as a safety precaution as her leg strengthens.
Classmate Savannah Evans is glad Yosselin is back in the classroom full time.
“My favorite part is spending time with her,” Savannah said. “She’s the kindest person in the whole world.”
Yosselin likes physical education and art classes and was excited to help her team win a race.
“In gym class I get to run and exercise my leg and that’s good,’’ Yosselin said. “We did a one-legged relay race – you gotta take big hops – and we had teams and my team won because of me. I’m the fastest hopper.”
For her eighth birthday, Yosselin invited her entire class, along with family and friends, to a birthday party that featured a live Candyland game set up in the family’s basement. It was quite different from her seventh birthday when there was no party as the family prepared for surgery to insert the rod into Yosselin’s leg.
For five weeks before the party Randall worked on re-creating the Candyland game board complete with Chocolate Mountain, Lollipop Woods, Snowflake Lake, Peanut Acres, King Candy and Peppermint Forest.
More than two dozen children turned out.
“I’m lucky, very, very, very lucky to have a birthday party with this many people,” Yosselin said.
McKibben Demographic Research made a presentation this week to the Lakota Board of Eduction on the school district’s projected enrollment.
According to the study, Lakota’s enrollment is expected to go down by 1,040 students, or 6.1 percent, by the 2017-2018 school year.
“This isn’t a Lakota problem or a Cincinnati problem or an Ohio problem,” said Jerome McKibben, who presented the study to the school board on Jan. 28.
“We see this trend in successful suburban school districts all across America.”
Interesting statistics in enrollment study
Population in school district -
Has increased from 74,433 in 2000 to 94,639 in 2010
Is projected to grow to 100,516 by 2020
Number of 10-14 teens is projected decrease from 8,266 in 2010 to 7,320 in 2020
The median age is projected to go up from 36.9 in 2010 to 40.7 in 2020
Ages 50+ are projected to go up from 26,729 in 2010 to 36,264 in 2020
McKibben noted that districts like Lakota have high graduation rates, high rates of students going to college, and high rates of graduates leaving their hometown.
“They don’t marry the boy or girl next door,” he said. “They marry the boy or girl in the next dorm.”
McKibben also said that the fastest growing household type in this area over the next ten years will be empty-nesters.
The Lakota Board of Education approved this week its school calendar for 2014-15.
According to the calendar, school would begin Aug. 21, 2014. Students would be off Nov. 26-28, 2014 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
A two-week winter break would begin on Dec. 22, 2014, with students returning to class Jan. 5, 2015. Spring break would begin March 30, 2015, with students returning April 6, 2015.
When Lakota students started this school year, they saw fewer teachers, staff specialists and have fewer course options, thanks to about $10.5 million in sweeping budget cuts approved March 12 by the district’s school board.
The Lakota board voted to accept in 2012 some of the deepest budget reductions in the 18,000-student district’s 55-year history. The district is running out of money after voters have rejected three tax hikes in two years.
The board votes brings an end to a rare string of public discussions on hundreds of details in the five budget-cutting plans – pre-school, kindergarten and elementary, junior and senior high, athletics and district-wide operations – brought to the board in the last two months by Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia.
“It saddens all of us that we have to face these issues,” Mantia told an audience of more than 200 residents and school employees in Lakota East High School’s auditorium, “but we are not the federal government, and we can not spend more money than we bring in.” she said.
The cuts in Ohio’s seventh-largest school system were projected to include 141 teaching, classroom specialist, school nurse and school staff positions, and nine school and central office administrators. Also downsized was the amount of time students will have for arts, music and physical education activities; class periods for high school students; and the number of graduation credits required, from 21 to 20.
Lakota officials simultaneously introduced a new core curricular program designed to help meet tougher pending state standards. Officials have contented that the reduced times in arts, music and gym classes will allow for more instruction in core subjects.
Longtime Lakota parent Lisa Babcock criticized the board for shrinking the learning options for her children. She has already taken some of her kids out of Lakota for private schools and may soon remove all her children due to this latest round of budget cuts.
“I know things are going to get worse,” said Babcock.
The board voted on each reduction proposal separately, and the closet margin was a 3-2 vote, with members Julie Shaffer and Joan Powell opposing the out-sourcing of Lakota’s pre-school program to Butler County’s Head Start program.
Lakota officials said the $10.5 million in reductions for 2012-13 will balloon to nearly $11 million due to increased payments for unemployment compensation and severance pay.
At the time of the cuts, Lakota’s annual operating budget was $154 million. Furthermore, after the cuts were announced, the district faced a projected budget shortfall of $14.1 million in 2015.
Lakota Local Schools still faces financial hole
UPDATE: Lakota Schools have slowed but not stopped its financial bleeding, officials said during a school board meeting on Oct. 22.
The school system – impacted by three tax levy defeats in the last two years all resulting in historically deep personnel and program cuts – still faces insolvency in 2014, officials said.
“There’s not much change bottom-line. We are predicting our spending deficit will return,” said Lakota Treasurer Jenni Logan during the district’s five-year, financial forecast, which is mandated bi-annually by state law.
“We are still going to balance our budget this year and need to keep our eye on next year and make decisions,” but Logan, added that “predictability beyond fiscal year 2013 is challenging (and) the long-term financial direction of the district must be addressed.”
She said Lakota faces a $1.8 million projected budget deficit by 2014.
Despite the news last week that Lakota continued its streak of earning the state’s highest academic rating of “Excellent with Distinction” for the 2011-2012 school year, officials at the Butler County district are worried.
Lakota is Southwest Ohio’s second largest school system.
Bus transportation has been eliminated for thousands, classes are larger, and dozens of teacher, building staff positions and central office jobs have been eliminated as budgets have been cut $35 million in the last three school years.
The district’s $146 million operating budget for this school year is less than it spent in 2009. Lakota receives 40 percent of its annual operating budget from state funding and 60 percent from local tax revenue.
Earlier this year, school families in Lakota thought they might see the district try for another school tax hike before the end of 2012. But with the state’s biennium budget proposals coming in early 2013 – and deadline for state funding approval set by that state budget facing a deadline of June 30, 2013 – that unknown budget factor helped prompt district officials’ earlier decision to avoid the ballot this year.
The school board took no budgetary actions after the presentation.
“There are more things we don’t know now than we do know. Additional information is needed before we assume revenue beyond January 2013,” said Logan.
Volunteers build a house for a 7-year-old’s family as she copes with cancer
WestChesterBuzz.com will count down the area’s top 12 stories of 2012 this month, concluding with West Chester’s most discussed topic of the year on Sunday, Dec. 30.
Sue Kiesewetter reports:
Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012 marked a new beginning for 7-year-old Yosselin Villatoro and her family.
That’s because, on that day, Yosselin, her 6-year-old brother, Freddy, and grandparents, Tammy and Keith Randall, moved into a new house built for the family by volunteers.
Before they could move in, they were greeted that evening by 30 to 40 community members, who wanted to reveal the home they built for the family.
“It was unreal. Totally unreal,” Tammy Randall said. “You always hear about all the bad. This is a good thing. People came together for strangers, for a cause, for a 7-year-old child battling cancer, and it is just wonderful.”
No longer will they worry that mold or walls separating from the floor in their old, flood-damaged home would compromise Yosselin’s delicate immune system damaged by months of chemotherapy.
There are no uneven floors or too-narrow hallways to hamper her movement with her walker or wheelchair as she gradually builds up her strength to walk unaided.
“It’s wonderful,” said her grandmother, who has custody of Yosselin and Freddy. “I thank God. He gave me all the answers and these wonderful people that have helped us.”
Keith Randall, kisses his granddaughter, Yosselin Villatoro, 7, after seeing the inside of the their new home for the first time in Liberty Township. The family’s home old home was torn down and rebuilt after after a group of friends from Vineyard Community Church in Springdale learned of Yosselin’s diagnosis of osteosarcoma. A New Chance Foundation and and High Pointe Custom Homes tore down the old flood-damaged home and built a new one on the same land. Yosselin, is now in remission of the bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs. Photo shot by Cara Owsley on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2012.
The family’s life changed dramatically nearly one year ago when doctors told the Randalls that Yosselin had osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs.
Since that December 2011 diagnosis just before Christmas, Yosselin has undergone four surgeries – including one to remove eight inches of her femur, replacing it with an expandable metal rod – to remove the cancer.
She has been hospitalized dozens of times for chemotherapy treatments, infections and transfusions.
Through it all, a group of dedicated volunteers joined the family on their journey, expanding the circle of help as needed.
“And all these strangers came together and created all of this for a 7-year-old little girl,” Tammy Randall said. “Who does that anymore? It needs to be out there, it really does.”
It all began with a phone call offering help and support from Kristan Dooley, the mother of one of Yosselin’s classmates at Cherokee Elementary School who was concerned about Yosselin after she had missed several days.
“It started out that we’ll pray for you, get meals and buy gas cards,’’ said volunteer Angie Roehm. “We started by redoing Yosselin’s room – a few families, our parents and close friends.”
From there, the group thought about redoing three or four parts of the house but soon discovered that wouldn’t be an option because of the extent of the damage.
Money the Randalls had put aside for the repair work – which had begun before Yosselin’s diagnosis – was diverted to mounting medical bills. Repairs were halted – until the volunteers stepped in.
“At every step that we took toward what we felt was the right thing to do – what we felt God was calling us to do – our circle of volunteers from the community grew,” Roehm said.
“We started out with doing a few core things to make the house more livable, but we knew we needed to do more.”
Eventually that core group of about 10 partnered with A New Chance Foundation and Lebanon-based High Pointe Custom Homes to tear down the old house and construct the new, 2,100-square-foot brick and stone ranch home .
Dooley estimates 300 to 400 volunteers helped build the home.
“I woke up today at 3 o’clock this morning and I felt like it was Christmas,” Dooley said. “This is the moment we have been waiting for – for the past 10 months. The realization that this is all happening and all these pieces are being put together just gives me butterflies.”
Once construction began, the family wasn’t allowed in the house – until it was unveiled.
Besides building the house, the group provided new appliances, filled the cabinets with plates, cups and silverware. They put new towels in the bathrooms, sheets and comforters on new beds, a couch in the great room, along with table and chairs in the kitchen and canisters on the counter.
Things are so much better now, Tammy says, pointing to Yosselin, who can stand unaided on both legs for short periods of time. That’s something she couldn’t do just two months ago.
“She’s touched a lot of lives,” Randall said, her eyes tearing up. “She’s brought everyone together.”
Yosselin’s immune system is improving and a slight rise in her temperature no longer sends the family to the emergency room. She is now receiving therapy twice a week to strengthen her leg muscles. She is allowed to put 50 percent weight on her leg and put both feet on the ground for short periods.
Yosselin received her last chemotherapy treatment Sept. 6 and only has to schedule appointments with her oncologist quarterly.
“Looking at her today – it was worth it,’’ Randall said. “Thank you, God, for everything.”
After next month’s doctor visit, the Randalls expect to hear four magic words: Yosselin is in remission.
Until then, she continues her therapy. She is coping with some memory loss from the chemotherapy treatments and her family is working to reduce Yosselin’s panic attacks.
After Christmas, she should be able to start second grade at Cherokee.
“We still have to be careful, but things are good,” Randall says. “We’re not done yet, but we’re in a better place.”
Enquirer reporter Adam Kiefaber contributed
Tuesday marked a new beginning for 7-year-old Yosselin Villatoro and her family.
That’s because Yosselin, her 6-year-old brother, Freddy, and grandparents, Tammy and Keith Randall, moved into a new house built for the family by volunteers.
Before they could move in, they were greeted Tuesday evening by 30 to 40 community members, who wanted to reveal the home they built for the family.
“It was unreal. Totally unreal,” Tammy Randall said. “You always hear about all the bad. This is a good thing. People came together for strangers, for a cause, for a 7-year-old child battling cancer, and it is just wonderful.”
No longer will they worry that mold or walls separating from the floor in their old, flood-damaged home would compromise Yosselin’s delicate immune system damaged by months of chemotherapy.
There are no uneven floors or too-narrow hallways to hamper her movement with her walker or wheelchair as she gradually builds up her strength to walk unaided.
“It’s wonderful,” said her grandmother, who has custody of Yosselin and Freddy. “I thank God. He gave me all the answers and these wonderful people that have helped us.”
Keith Randall, kisses his granddaughter, Yosselin Villatoro, 7, after seeing the inside of the their new home for the first time in Liberty Township. The family’s home old home was torn down and rebuilt after after a group of friends from Vineyard Community Church in Springdale learned of Yosselin’s diagnosis of osteosarcoma. A New Chance Foundation and and High Pointe Custom Homes tore down the old flood-damaged home and built a new one on the same land. Yosselin, is now in remission of the bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs. Photo shot by Cara Owsley on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2012.
The family’s life changed dramatically nearly one year ago when doctors told the Randalls that Yosselin had osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs.
Since that December 2011 diagnosis just before Christmas, Yosselin has undergone four surgeries – including one to remove eight inches of her femur, replacing it with an expandable metal rod – to remove the cancer.
She has been hospitalized dozens of times for chemotherapy treatments, infections and transfusions.
Through it all, a group of dedicated volunteers joined the family on their journey, expanding the circle of help as needed.
“And all these strangers came together and created all of this for a 7-year-old little girl,” Tammy Randall said. “Who does that anymore? It needs to be out there, it really does.”
It all began with a phone call offering help and support from Kristan Dooley, the mother of one of Yosselin’s classmates at Cherokee Elementary School who was concerned about Yosselin after she had missed several days.
“It started out that we’ll pray for you, get meals and buy gas cards,’’ said volunteer Angie Roehm. “We started by redoing Yosselin’s room – a few families, our parents and close friends.”
From there, the group thought about redoing three or four parts of the house but soon discovered that wouldn’t be an option because of the extent of the damage.
Money the Randalls had put aside for the repair work – which had begun before Yosselin’s diagnosis – was diverted to mounting medical bills. Repairs were halted – until the volunteers stepped in.
“At every step that we took toward what we felt was the right thing to do – what we felt God was calling us to do – our circle of volunteers from the community grew,” Roehm said.
“We started out with doing a few core things to make the house more livable, but we knew we needed to do more.”
Eventually that core group of about 10 partnered with A New Chance Foundation and Lebanon-based High Pointe Custom Homes to tear down the old house and construct the new, 2,100-square-foot brick and stone ranch home .
Dooley estimates 300 to 400 volunteers helped build the home.
“I woke up today at 3 o’clock this morning and I felt like it was Christmas,” Dooley said. “This is the moment we have been waiting for – for the past 10 months. The realization that this is all happening and all these pieces are being put together just gives me butterflies.”
Once construction began, the family wasn’t allowed in the house – until it was unveiled.
Besides building the house, the group provided new appliances, filled the cabinets with plates, cups and silverware. They put new towels in the bathrooms, sheets and comforters on new beds, a couch in the great room, along with table and chairs in the kitchen and canisters on the counter.
Things are so much better now, Tammy says, pointing to Yosselin, who can stand unaided on both legs for short periods of time. That’s something she couldn’t do just two months ago.
“She’s touched a lot of lives,” Randall said, her eyes tearing up. “She’s brought everyone together.”
Yosselin’s immune system is improving and a slight rise in her temperature no longer sends the family to the emergency room. She is now receiving therapy twice a week to strengthen her leg muscles. She is allowed to put 50 percent weight on her leg and put both feet on the ground for short periods.
Yosselin received her last chemotherapy treatment Sept. 6 and only has to schedule appointments with her oncologist quarterly.
“Looking at her today – it was worth it,’’ Randall said. “Thank you, God, for everything.”
After next month’s doctor visit, the Randalls expect to hear four magic words: Yosselin is in remission.
Until then, she continues her therapy. She is coping with some memory loss from the chemotherapy treatments and her family is working to reduce Yosselin’s panic attacks.
After Christmas, she should be able to start second grade at Cherokee.
“We still have to be careful, but things are good,” Randall says. “We’re not done yet, but we’re in a better place.”
Enquirer reporter Adam Kiefaber contributed
Parents in the Lakota Schools have until Friday to give administrators their input on the proposed school calendar for 2014-15.
Under the draft version classes would begin Aug. 21, 2014. Students would be off Nov. 26-28, 2014 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
A two-week winter break would begin on Dec. 22, 2014, with students returning to class Jan. 5, 2015. Spring break would begin March 30, 2015, with students returning April 6, 2015.
The last day of school for students is set for May 29, 2015, with graduation either May 30 or 31, 2015.
If needed, calamity makeup days would be Feb. 15, and June 1-4, 2015.
A final recommendation for the calendar will be made to the school board in December.
Lakota Schools have slowed but not stopped its financial bleeding, officials said during Monday evening’s school board meeting.
The school system – impacted by three tax levy defeats in the last two years all resulting in historically deep personnel and program cuts – still faces insolvency in 2014, officials said.
“There’s not much change bottom-line. We are predicting our spending deficit will return,” said Lakota Treasurer Jenni Logan during the district’s five-year, financial forecast, which is mandated bi-annually by state law.
“We are still going to balance our budget this year and need to keep our eye on next year and make decisions,” but Logan, added that “predictability beyond fiscal year 2013 is challenging (and) the long-term financial direction of the district must be addressed.”
She said Lakota faces a $1.8 million projected budget deficit by 2014.
Despite the news last week that Lakota continued its streak of earning the state’s highest academic rating of “Excellent with Distinction” for the 2011-2012 school year, officials at the Butler County district are worried.
Lakota is Southwest Ohio’s second largest school system.
Bus transportation has been eliminated for thousands, classes are larger, and dozens of teacher, building staff positions and central office jobs have been eliminated as budgets have been cut $35 million in the last three school years.
The district’s $146 million operating budget for this school year is less than it spent in 2009. Lakota receives 40 percent of its annual operating budget from state funding and 60 percent from local tax revenue.
Earlier this year, school families in Lakota thought they might see the district try for another school tax hike before the end of 2012. But with the state’s biennium budget proposals coming in early 2013 – and deadline for state funding approval set by that state budget facing a deadline of June 30, 2013 – that unknown budget factor helped prompt district officials’ earlier decision to avoid the ballot this year.
The school board took no budgetary actions after the presentation.
“There are more things we don’t know now than we do know. Additional information is needed before we assume revenue beyond January 2013,” said Logan.
Information and applications will be made available no later than Wednesday. Applications are due, along with all required documents, by June 7. Applicants will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.
