Throughout my time in the journalism program at Miami, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what reporting was like. After completing this seminar though, I realize now that I had no idea how labor intensive reporting really is. I covered Fairfield City Schools for my beat, and at first, I had a lot of trouble generating story ideas, especially when we turned in the initial story memo, I had a lot of trouble coming up with six feasible story ideas. The school board elections were probably the biggest deal, so I thought the majority of my stories were going to center on that. After getting out and talking to different sources though, I really stretched my expectations of what kind of stories I would write while covering this beat. I had incredible luck contacting sources, and I’m so thankful for that because deadlines are stressful, as I’ve learned. What’s great about Fairfield is that it’s such a close, tight-knit community that it’s willing to help former students out anyway it can. My parents both have worked in the school system, so I was also lucky in that respect because I was able to better identify what sources I needed to use since I knew how a school system is laid out and who the key players are. In contacting them, I made sure to start early because I’m one of those people who can’t wait until the last minute to do things, so I think that also contributed to my success in sourcing. Overall, I would like to think I grew tremendously as a journalist over the course of this class because it felt like a real, professional reporting job, and that’s how I treated it. Further, I felt like I worked harder for this class than most other reporting classes I have taken here, and I took this one the most seriously. Since I am graduating soon, I think I have a better idea of what real reporting is going to look like should I decide to go that route.
-- Emily Stewart
Nov. 20, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Fairfield Hopes to Curb Bad Behavior with OISM
BY EMILY STEWART
SEPT. 11, 2007
Fairfield Freshman School launched a new disciplinary plan with the new school year to curb inconsistent handling of misbehavior.
Fairfield City Schools, recently named the largest district in the state of Ohio, began implementing the Ohio Integrated Systems Model (OISM) two years ago to address academic needs and behavioral problems among its large student population.
“It’s our hope that students come into school and know how to behave,” Freshman School Assistant Principal Matt Wissman said. “Unfortunately, some do not, so it’s up to us to teach them how to behave. That’s where OISM comes in.”
Wissman, a team of six teachers, a guidance counselor, and the district’s school psychologist formed a training committee in January to get OISM up and running at Fairfield Freshman this fall. This year’s freshman class is one of the largest in school history with more than 800 students enrolled. The school was the last in the district to add OISM, but is the first school to actively use it at the secondary level since Fairfield Senior High School’s plan is still in the works to accommodate its population of more than two thousand students.
The OISM plan has three distinct goals: respect, responsibility and problem-solving. To achieve those goals, OISM breaks discipline issues down into five steps: defining a problem, analyzing it, setting goals for resolution, planning the resolution and evaluating the process. Committee members like Freshman School Guidance Counselor Jean Platt value this new system over previous disciplinary systems that varied from classroom to classroom.
“Before, our disciplinary system was very haphazard and individualistic,” Platt said. “Now we have more uniform rules for every classroom, and there’s a paper trail of disciplinary action before getting parents and administrators involved.”
Platt said common misbehaviors among students are bad language, disrespect (for peers and teachers alike) and making too much noise in the halls. Teachers now must meet with errant students and have them complete a form to report how they feel about a situation and what they should’ve done in place of that particular behavior. The form then asks students to work with their teachers to implement and enact a plan to prevent that behavior from recurring. If that proves ineffective, teachers are encouraged to issue detentions and contact parents at least twice. The last stop is a principal’s office referral and, subsequently, Saturday school detention, suspension or other punishment.
“With our old disciplinary system, some teachers would send students straight to the principal’s office, and under our new OISM plan we leave administrators out until the problem becomes unmanageable,” Platt said. “So we’re asking teachers to enforce school-wide rules all can adhere to. For example, if a student’s feet don’t cross the threshold of the door by the end of the bell, they’re considered tardy with no questions asked. If the problem persists past a verbal warning, that’s where the new plan starts.”
To ensure that all incoming freshmen understand the new OISM system, Fairfield Freshman School required an orientation for all incoming students to explain the new system. Any students absent the first day and/or late transfer students will also have to attend a mandatory videotaped orientation.
“Our lunch was short the first day so we could have mandatory orientation,” new student Chelsea Sewell said. “We have a lot of rules to follow, and they’re rules we’ve had all the way through school, but they seem to be pretty serious about us following them this year.”
Fairfield Freshman School is especially emphasizing the use of hall passes this year, especially with classrooms reaching or exceeding the maximum number of 30 students. Students are required to sign out when they leave the room and sign in when they get back so teachers know exactly how long they’re gone, and whether they are using passes everyday to get out of class.
“We have different color passes to use to go to the bathroom, office, etc., and they said they would be checking to make sure we have passes in the hallway,” Sewell said. “It’s different than what I’m used to at school, but you never know how strict they’re going to be.”
The OISM training committee has placed posters throughout different parts of the building to remind students of appropriate behaviors.
“The posters are located in different spots in the building to accommodate what good behavior looks like for that part of school, so there’s no excuse for unbeknownst bad behavior,” Platt said. “It’s another way for us as a faculty to present a united effort in confronting disciplinary problems given the large number of students we have.”
Fairfield District School Psychologist and OISM Committee Member Ray Soh believes “uniformity” among staff will be a key to OISM’s success.
“When teachers speak a common language students will follow suit,” Soh said. “No longer is the special education teacher asked to ‘look after’ students with high needs. All teachers who come into contact with the student will need to collaborate to design effective behavior interventions.”
Soh has been actively involved in implementing OISM at the elementary and secondary levels, and provides inservice training to teachers and administrators on the OISM model. His role at Fairfield Freshman is to help teachers design intervention plans for students with behavioral issues before getting the administration involved.
“We analyze behavior data [based on principal office referrals] to monitor the nature of behavior problems in the school. Monitoring data is an important part of my job,” he said. “Our OISM team will meet monthly throughout the year to discuss assessments and interventions.”
Soh echoes Platt’s optimism that OISM will work better in reducing disciplinary problems.
“OISM is a prevention model, and we identify students who are falling through the cracks to provide intervention and support so they can be at the expected benchmarks,” he said. “We won’t know how we’re really doing until the school year really gets going and have our first monthly meeting in a few weeks. We are, though, highly optimistic that we will see definite improvement from class to class.”
SEPT. 11, 2007
Fairfield Freshman School launched a new disciplinary plan with the new school year to curb inconsistent handling of misbehavior.
Fairfield City Schools, recently named the largest district in the state of Ohio, began implementing the Ohio Integrated Systems Model (OISM) two years ago to address academic needs and behavioral problems among its large student population.
“It’s our hope that students come into school and know how to behave,” Freshman School Assistant Principal Matt Wissman said. “Unfortunately, some do not, so it’s up to us to teach them how to behave. That’s where OISM comes in.”
Wissman, a team of six teachers, a guidance counselor, and the district’s school psychologist formed a training committee in January to get OISM up and running at Fairfield Freshman this fall. This year’s freshman class is one of the largest in school history with more than 800 students enrolled. The school was the last in the district to add OISM, but is the first school to actively use it at the secondary level since Fairfield Senior High School’s plan is still in the works to accommodate its population of more than two thousand students.
The OISM plan has three distinct goals: respect, responsibility and problem-solving. To achieve those goals, OISM breaks discipline issues down into five steps: defining a problem, analyzing it, setting goals for resolution, planning the resolution and evaluating the process. Committee members like Freshman School Guidance Counselor Jean Platt value this new system over previous disciplinary systems that varied from classroom to classroom.
“Before, our disciplinary system was very haphazard and individualistic,” Platt said. “Now we have more uniform rules for every classroom, and there’s a paper trail of disciplinary action before getting parents and administrators involved.”
Platt said common misbehaviors among students are bad language, disrespect (for peers and teachers alike) and making too much noise in the halls. Teachers now must meet with errant students and have them complete a form to report how they feel about a situation and what they should’ve done in place of that particular behavior. The form then asks students to work with their teachers to implement and enact a plan to prevent that behavior from recurring. If that proves ineffective, teachers are encouraged to issue detentions and contact parents at least twice. The last stop is a principal’s office referral and, subsequently, Saturday school detention, suspension or other punishment.
“With our old disciplinary system, some teachers would send students straight to the principal’s office, and under our new OISM plan we leave administrators out until the problem becomes unmanageable,” Platt said. “So we’re asking teachers to enforce school-wide rules all can adhere to. For example, if a student’s feet don’t cross the threshold of the door by the end of the bell, they’re considered tardy with no questions asked. If the problem persists past a verbal warning, that’s where the new plan starts.”
To ensure that all incoming freshmen understand the new OISM system, Fairfield Freshman School required an orientation for all incoming students to explain the new system. Any students absent the first day and/or late transfer students will also have to attend a mandatory videotaped orientation.
“Our lunch was short the first day so we could have mandatory orientation,” new student Chelsea Sewell said. “We have a lot of rules to follow, and they’re rules we’ve had all the way through school, but they seem to be pretty serious about us following them this year.”
Fairfield Freshman School is especially emphasizing the use of hall passes this year, especially with classrooms reaching or exceeding the maximum number of 30 students. Students are required to sign out when they leave the room and sign in when they get back so teachers know exactly how long they’re gone, and whether they are using passes everyday to get out of class.
“We have different color passes to use to go to the bathroom, office, etc., and they said they would be checking to make sure we have passes in the hallway,” Sewell said. “It’s different than what I’m used to at school, but you never know how strict they’re going to be.”
The OISM training committee has placed posters throughout different parts of the building to remind students of appropriate behaviors.
“The posters are located in different spots in the building to accommodate what good behavior looks like for that part of school, so there’s no excuse for unbeknownst bad behavior,” Platt said. “It’s another way for us as a faculty to present a united effort in confronting disciplinary problems given the large number of students we have.”
Fairfield District School Psychologist and OISM Committee Member Ray Soh believes “uniformity” among staff will be a key to OISM’s success.
“When teachers speak a common language students will follow suit,” Soh said. “No longer is the special education teacher asked to ‘look after’ students with high needs. All teachers who come into contact with the student will need to collaborate to design effective behavior interventions.”
Soh has been actively involved in implementing OISM at the elementary and secondary levels, and provides inservice training to teachers and administrators on the OISM model. His role at Fairfield Freshman is to help teachers design intervention plans for students with behavioral issues before getting the administration involved.
“We analyze behavior data [based on principal office referrals] to monitor the nature of behavior problems in the school. Monitoring data is an important part of my job,” he said. “Our OISM team will meet monthly throughout the year to discuss assessments and interventions.”
Soh echoes Platt’s optimism that OISM will work better in reducing disciplinary problems.
“OISM is a prevention model, and we identify students who are falling through the cracks to provide intervention and support so they can be at the expected benchmarks,” he said. “We won’t know how we’re really doing until the school year really gets going and have our first monthly meeting in a few weeks. We are, though, highly optimistic that we will see definite improvement from class to class.”
Fairfield High School Continues Work on FATC
BY EMILY STEWART
SEPT. 25, 2007
Fairfield Senior High School is putting the finishing touches on its Fairfield Athletic Training Complex (FATC) this week in hopes of officially opening by mid-October.
The high school, in a partnership with the Fairfield Community Foundation, undertook this donation-based project in March to expand the existing weight room for both physical education students and student-athletes.
“My impression is that the previous weight room was too small and overcrowded for the large number of students the high school has now,” Fairfield Community Foundation Executive Director Betsy Hope said. “The high school really sold the concept of a new facility to the community very well, and the Fairfield community has responded in sound donations to the project.”
The high school put up a certain amount of money for the facility, and FATC drew more than $80,000 in additional individual and business donations since it broke ground in March. Interim Assistant Superintendent Rob Amodio says the FATC wouldn’t be a reality if it weren’t for the outpouring of support from the Fairfield community.
“We’re going to have a donor board in the complex with the names of those individuals and groups that helped make the FATC possible as a way of recognizing them and saying thank you,” Amodio said. “Local businesses like Jungle Jim’s were really helpful in raising money, but we got the bulk of the money from individual donations.”
This year marks the 10th year the high school has been open at its location on Holden Blvd. in Fairfield. The weight room has always been one of the most used rooms in the building. It is used all four periods of the school day, and about two to three hours after school. The room was initially used for students and athletes combined. After the school received a grant from the National Fitness Foundation, the athletic department transformed the space into a fitness center with treadmills, bikes and elliptical machines for physical education students only.
Then in 2001, the athletic department built a separate weight room called “The Cage,” adjacent to the Fairfield arena and wrestling room. It became the space where student-athletes could do physical training as part of the “Bigger Faster Stronger” program using free weights and weight machines. It was so small, though, that no two athletic programs could use the facility at the same time.
The FATC is more than double the size of “The Cage,” and has enough equipment to allow multiple athletic programs to train at the same time. It also features more free weights and machines given its larger size. The focus of the FATC is strength and speed training, and the high school is in the process of hiring a speed/strength coach to work with any and all athletic programs.
“Everyone, from marching band to golf teams, will be participating in the new facility,” Assistant Athletic Director Randy Hambrick said. “We’re still going to utilize the weight machines in the original weight room, but we’re looking forward to implementing the speed/strength training for all sports similar to the programs colleges use.”
Hambrick, a Fairfield graduate who has worked as assistant athletic director the last three years, has been involved in the project since day one. He said the FATC was supposed to open in June, but problems with lights and floors delayed its completion.
“We’re getting the lights hung this week, the carpet and rubber floor are being donated in kind, and the weight machines are getting painted as we speak,” he said. “We’re hoping to officially open in two weeks, and we’re anxious to get the students started using it.”
The Fairfield Community Foundation is still accepting donations for the FATC. If interested, contact Betsy Hope, executive director, at (513)-829-6355.
SEPT. 25, 2007
Fairfield Senior High School is putting the finishing touches on its Fairfield Athletic Training Complex (FATC) this week in hopes of officially opening by mid-October.
The high school, in a partnership with the Fairfield Community Foundation, undertook this donation-based project in March to expand the existing weight room for both physical education students and student-athletes.
“My impression is that the previous weight room was too small and overcrowded for the large number of students the high school has now,” Fairfield Community Foundation Executive Director Betsy Hope said. “The high school really sold the concept of a new facility to the community very well, and the Fairfield community has responded in sound donations to the project.”
The high school put up a certain amount of money for the facility, and FATC drew more than $80,000 in additional individual and business donations since it broke ground in March. Interim Assistant Superintendent Rob Amodio says the FATC wouldn’t be a reality if it weren’t for the outpouring of support from the Fairfield community.
“We’re going to have a donor board in the complex with the names of those individuals and groups that helped make the FATC possible as a way of recognizing them and saying thank you,” Amodio said. “Local businesses like Jungle Jim’s were really helpful in raising money, but we got the bulk of the money from individual donations.”
This year marks the 10th year the high school has been open at its location on Holden Blvd. in Fairfield. The weight room has always been one of the most used rooms in the building. It is used all four periods of the school day, and about two to three hours after school. The room was initially used for students and athletes combined. After the school received a grant from the National Fitness Foundation, the athletic department transformed the space into a fitness center with treadmills, bikes and elliptical machines for physical education students only.
Then in 2001, the athletic department built a separate weight room called “The Cage,” adjacent to the Fairfield arena and wrestling room. It became the space where student-athletes could do physical training as part of the “Bigger Faster Stronger” program using free weights and weight machines. It was so small, though, that no two athletic programs could use the facility at the same time.
The FATC is more than double the size of “The Cage,” and has enough equipment to allow multiple athletic programs to train at the same time. It also features more free weights and machines given its larger size. The focus of the FATC is strength and speed training, and the high school is in the process of hiring a speed/strength coach to work with any and all athletic programs.
“Everyone, from marching band to golf teams, will be participating in the new facility,” Assistant Athletic Director Randy Hambrick said. “We’re still going to utilize the weight machines in the original weight room, but we’re looking forward to implementing the speed/strength training for all sports similar to the programs colleges use.”
Hambrick, a Fairfield graduate who has worked as assistant athletic director the last three years, has been involved in the project since day one. He said the FATC was supposed to open in June, but problems with lights and floors delayed its completion.
“We’re getting the lights hung this week, the carpet and rubber floor are being donated in kind, and the weight machines are getting painted as we speak,” he said. “We’re hoping to officially open in two weeks, and we’re anxious to get the students started using it.”
The Fairfield Community Foundation is still accepting donations for the FATC. If interested, contact Betsy Hope, executive director, at (513)-829-6355.
Fairfield West Elementary to Launch SafePlace
BY EMILY STEWART
OCT. 9, 2007
Fairfield West Elementary School will soon launch a trial run of the Fairfield SafePlace Program as it continues background checks on volunteers this week.
The Fairfield SafePlace Program, sponsored by the Fairfield Community Connection, recruits volunteers to help parents who can’t be home when their children get home from school. They walk along popular bus and walking routes in the neighborhood to make sure children have a place to go after school. If their parents aren’t home, volunteers can offer a home close by for help.
Parent Heather Smith helped start the program two years ago after her son was left without care when Fairfield West had an unplanned two-hour early dismissal. When her (then) 6-year-old son got home, he was unable to get inside their apartment building since she was still at work. It just so happened other neighbors weren’t home either, and the boy sat outside the building by himself for almost two hours.
“It just wasn’t a really good thing that happened to him, not to mention traumatic,” Smith said. “I figured if it happens to me, it has to happen to other parents.”
At the time, Smith was conducting research on community programs and found that communities across the nation were using safe place programs. Her findings, along with her son’s incident, prompted efforts toward the Fairfield SafePlace Program.
“Initially I wanted to show that a ‘nobody’ like me in the community could make a difference,” she said. “First I went to the Fairfield Police Department for help, and they forwarded me on to the United Way. United Way then forwarded me on to the Fairfield Community Connection, and it finally snowballed to the right group.”
The Fairfield Community Connection is a group that examines community needs and connects with other social agency groups and/or citizens to help solve problems. Over the years, Fairfield Community Connection has started the Fairfield Community Foundation, a food pantry for the elderly and a program providing ambulatory equipment to senior citizens. Now it’s lending a hand to the Fairfield SafePlace Program.
“We’re really a community think tank,” Fairfield Community Connection Chairman Howard Dirksen said. “Heather came to our meeting about a year and a half ago and voiced her concerns about her inability to be home when her son got off the bus. So we decided to offer community support in doing the work to gather volunteers throughout the city to help her and other parents with the same problem.”
Dirksen, a former teacher and Fairfield City Councilmember, believes students who have a place to go after school might be protected from the dangers of bullies, drugs and alcohol.
“We’re trying to help parents and students deal with toxic culture through parenting programs like SafePlace,” he said. “Our main goal is to see that nothing happens to these children. In doing so, we are trying to provide people who can look after them and make sure they have somewhere to go when their parents can’t be around.”
Volunteers for the program have to attend an orientation session and subsequent training so they know where to get further assistance when needed. All volunteers also face a free background check through the Fairfield Police Department.
“We need evidence that volunteers will be beneficial to our program, especially since we’re dealing with children,” Dirksen said.
The process is thorough and, therefore, time-consuming, Smith said.
“Background checks are taking a while and aren’t done yet,” Smith said. “A volunteer applicant could be flagged if police have been to that person’s house a number of times and never even arrested anyone. We’re being careful.”
According to the city’s Web site (www.fairfield-city.org), more than 1,400 crimes have been reported so far in 2007 in Fairfield, most of them thefts. Although the crime rate has gone down from 2006, the city is seeing a slight increase in sexual offenses with 16 reported rapes through this August versus 12 during this same period in 2006.
The National Alert Registry’s Web site (www.registeredoffenderlist.org) lists 43 registered sex offenders in Fairfield city limits. Seven offenders live less than a mile from Fairfield West Elementary School. That’s why people like West Elementary Third Grade Teacher Angie Persiani, who is also a mother of three boys attending elementary school, are stressing the importance of thorough background checks for volunteers in the SafePlace Program.
“We’ve heard a little about the program at school, and it sounds great, but my concern is leaving my kids with strangers,” Persiani said. “As a parent, you tend to worry about pedophiles and criminals coming after your children, so it makes me feel better that they’re doing background checks. Otherwise, how do parents know the people they’re trusting their kids with when they’re not around?”
This is Persiani’s first year back teaching since she had her children, and she has always been around when her boys get home from school. Now that she’s gone back to work, she has to rely on someone else to watch them until she or her husband can get home.
“I’m lucky because my parents can usually pick the boys up or they can go to a neighbor’s house if we’re really in a bind,” she said. “There are always going to be kids who can’t get in their houses after school though. That’s why the SafePlace Program sounds so great, especially if they find the right volunteers to help keep an eye on the kids.”
The SafePlace Program has been advertised primarily through parent-teacher newsletters and has so far recruited 25 volunteers for its trial run. Dirksen believes more volunteers are needed though to make the program work more effectively.
“Most of our volunteers now are parents and grandparents who aren’t working during the day,” he said. “We’re not expecting every single volunteer to be available every single day, so hopefully others will join in soon.”
If the SafePlace Program proves successful, Dirksen hopes it can expand to the four other elementary schools in the Fairfield City School District.
“If it proves viable and effective, we would like to extend it into the other elementary schools,” he said.
If interested in volunteering for the Fairfield SafePlace Program, contact the Fairfield Community Connection at 874-5526 or visit www.fairfield-city.org.
OCT. 9, 2007
Fairfield West Elementary School will soon launch a trial run of the Fairfield SafePlace Program as it continues background checks on volunteers this week.
The Fairfield SafePlace Program, sponsored by the Fairfield Community Connection, recruits volunteers to help parents who can’t be home when their children get home from school. They walk along popular bus and walking routes in the neighborhood to make sure children have a place to go after school. If their parents aren’t home, volunteers can offer a home close by for help.
Parent Heather Smith helped start the program two years ago after her son was left without care when Fairfield West had an unplanned two-hour early dismissal. When her (then) 6-year-old son got home, he was unable to get inside their apartment building since she was still at work. It just so happened other neighbors weren’t home either, and the boy sat outside the building by himself for almost two hours.
“It just wasn’t a really good thing that happened to him, not to mention traumatic,” Smith said. “I figured if it happens to me, it has to happen to other parents.”
At the time, Smith was conducting research on community programs and found that communities across the nation were using safe place programs. Her findings, along with her son’s incident, prompted efforts toward the Fairfield SafePlace Program.
“Initially I wanted to show that a ‘nobody’ like me in the community could make a difference,” she said. “First I went to the Fairfield Police Department for help, and they forwarded me on to the United Way. United Way then forwarded me on to the Fairfield Community Connection, and it finally snowballed to the right group.”
The Fairfield Community Connection is a group that examines community needs and connects with other social agency groups and/or citizens to help solve problems. Over the years, Fairfield Community Connection has started the Fairfield Community Foundation, a food pantry for the elderly and a program providing ambulatory equipment to senior citizens. Now it’s lending a hand to the Fairfield SafePlace Program.
“We’re really a community think tank,” Fairfield Community Connection Chairman Howard Dirksen said. “Heather came to our meeting about a year and a half ago and voiced her concerns about her inability to be home when her son got off the bus. So we decided to offer community support in doing the work to gather volunteers throughout the city to help her and other parents with the same problem.”
Dirksen, a former teacher and Fairfield City Councilmember, believes students who have a place to go after school might be protected from the dangers of bullies, drugs and alcohol.
“We’re trying to help parents and students deal with toxic culture through parenting programs like SafePlace,” he said. “Our main goal is to see that nothing happens to these children. In doing so, we are trying to provide people who can look after them and make sure they have somewhere to go when their parents can’t be around.”
Volunteers for the program have to attend an orientation session and subsequent training so they know where to get further assistance when needed. All volunteers also face a free background check through the Fairfield Police Department.
“We need evidence that volunteers will be beneficial to our program, especially since we’re dealing with children,” Dirksen said.
The process is thorough and, therefore, time-consuming, Smith said.
“Background checks are taking a while and aren’t done yet,” Smith said. “A volunteer applicant could be flagged if police have been to that person’s house a number of times and never even arrested anyone. We’re being careful.”
According to the city’s Web site (www.fairfield-city.org), more than 1,400 crimes have been reported so far in 2007 in Fairfield, most of them thefts. Although the crime rate has gone down from 2006, the city is seeing a slight increase in sexual offenses with 16 reported rapes through this August versus 12 during this same period in 2006.
The National Alert Registry’s Web site (www.registeredoffenderlist.org) lists 43 registered sex offenders in Fairfield city limits. Seven offenders live less than a mile from Fairfield West Elementary School. That’s why people like West Elementary Third Grade Teacher Angie Persiani, who is also a mother of three boys attending elementary school, are stressing the importance of thorough background checks for volunteers in the SafePlace Program.
“We’ve heard a little about the program at school, and it sounds great, but my concern is leaving my kids with strangers,” Persiani said. “As a parent, you tend to worry about pedophiles and criminals coming after your children, so it makes me feel better that they’re doing background checks. Otherwise, how do parents know the people they’re trusting their kids with when they’re not around?”
This is Persiani’s first year back teaching since she had her children, and she has always been around when her boys get home from school. Now that she’s gone back to work, she has to rely on someone else to watch them until she or her husband can get home.
“I’m lucky because my parents can usually pick the boys up or they can go to a neighbor’s house if we’re really in a bind,” she said. “There are always going to be kids who can’t get in their houses after school though. That’s why the SafePlace Program sounds so great, especially if they find the right volunteers to help keep an eye on the kids.”
The SafePlace Program has been advertised primarily through parent-teacher newsletters and has so far recruited 25 volunteers for its trial run. Dirksen believes more volunteers are needed though to make the program work more effectively.
“Most of our volunteers now are parents and grandparents who aren’t working during the day,” he said. “We’re not expecting every single volunteer to be available every single day, so hopefully others will join in soon.”
If the SafePlace Program proves successful, Dirksen hopes it can expand to the four other elementary schools in the Fairfield City School District.
“If it proves viable and effective, we would like to extend it into the other elementary schools,” he said.
If interested in volunteering for the Fairfield SafePlace Program, contact the Fairfield Community Connection at 874-5526 or visit www.fairfield-city.org.
Fairfield Board Candidates Take Sides on Issues
BY EMILY STEWART
OCT. 25, 2007
With Halloween creeping up on the calendar, the Fairfield community isn’t as wary of the usual haunts this year as it is of another looming presence: the upcoming Fairfield School Board election.
The Nov. 6 election is fast approaching, and with two spots open, Candidates Erik Rivera and Lee Maloney are squaring off against Candidates Diana Bailey and Jerome Kearns on the issues of school spending, funding and hiring a new school superintendent.
Rivera and Maloney are both endorsed by Citizens for Accountability and Responsible Education (CARE) and current board member (and CARE Founder) Arnold Engel. Rivera ran for school board and was defeated in 2005, and now he wants to get elected alongside Maloney to back Engel on the issues of controlling school spending.
At an Oct. 4 school board work session, Engel proposed a series of cuts he said would help save the district money. He suggested cutting 25 percent of the overall staff, all teacher aides and five assistant principals among other cuts. Rivera supports Engel’s proposal claiming the school board spending is “disgusting.”
“We don’t have a funding problem, we have a spending problem,” he said. “Our board’s hands are tied too tightly, and that’s not the kind of board we need. Mr. Engel is a tireless individual, and like him, I plan on representing all of the community, even those who oppose Mr. Engel.”
Rivera is a Cincinnati St. Xavier High School graduate who has been self-employed in Fairfield for the last 15 years. He’s concerned that surplus money the board has now is quickly running out, so his first priority if elected would be hiring a new school superintendent to help curb the spending problem.
“We need to start working more with less,” he said.
Interim Superintendent Kathy Milligan, who’s been in the Fairfield district more than 30 years, came out of retirement to fill in as a temporary superintendent when the current school board couldn’t find a suitable replacement for retiring Superintendent Robert Farrell before the academic year started. Rivera believes the district needs a permanent replacement, and Maloney agreed it should be the new board’s first priority.
If elected, Maloney would work to find a superintendent who could help Fairfield achieve an “excellent” rating on the Ohio State Report Card, which determines a portion of school funding. Fairfield missed the “excellent” mark in 2006-07 by nine students of 10,000 enrolled.
“We want our next superintendent to be someone who can get us back that ‘excellent’ rating,” he said. “We need to be willing to give the best education this community is willing to pay for.”
Maloney is a retired retail business manager who has lived in Fairfield for more than 20 years who has put his four children through Fairfield schools. Since 1999, Maloney’s been collecting data about the current state of Fairfield schools, and like Rivera, he doesn’t like what he sees in terms of spending.
“I know Fairfield is a good district, and my roots are forever in Fairfield, but I’m concerned about the senior citizens,” he said. “School levies and periodically asking for more money in taxes is driving us out of the community because of deficit spending, and that responsibility rests with the board. We need to look at what sacrifices can be made.”
While Rivera and Maloney criticize how the district spends its money, Bailey and Kearns believe state funding is the real problem with local school finances.
“I don’t think anyone that gets elected to a school board is there to mismanage money,” Bailey said. “Our funding system is broken, and therefore, no one can promise you that we can save money on taxes.”
Bailey said she and her husband have come to love the Fairfield School District in their 14 years in the community, and she accredits Fairfield for giving her daughter the opportunity to go to college. If elected, one of her priorities would be to work together with other districts to address the state funding issue.
The Ohio State Supreme Court found Ohio’s reliance on property taxes as the source for school funding unconstitutional in 2000, but ordered it be fixed at “deliberate” speed---meaning there’s no definite deadline to come up with a solution. Bailey said she would like to form a committee with other school boards in Butler County and take funding concerns to Gov. Ted Strickland in Columbus.
“No one in Ohio has a clear answer as to how we should fund the schools,” she said. “But I am willing to help form a committee so that we can address legislation about it.”
Bailey also opposes Rivera and Maloney on the issue of finding a new superintendent, and said she has been impressed with the job Milligan has done so far.
“I think the best thing to come out of the last search for a superintendent was Kathy Milligan,” she said. “She’s very committed to the schools, and she exhibits the qualities of what a good superintendent should look like. I hope she can stay.”
Kearns echoed Bailey’s sentiments about Milligan and believes Fairfield already has a superintendent who has achieved the “excellent” rating.
“We had 100 percent graduation rate in 2006-2007, seven Commended Scholars and one National Merit Finalist, so I think we already have a competent superintendent in place,” Kearns said. “To be a superintendent is a tough job because you have to be an expert in curriculum, community relations and have a commitment to a big community like this one. I think those qualities are all in Kathy Milligan.”
Kearns and his wife moved to Fairfield three years ago from a community he called “unsupportive” of its school district. He ran for Fairfield School Board in 2005, and like Rivera, was defeated by an incumbent candidate. Nevertheless, he said he attends almost all school board meetings and serves on a number of committees like the finance committee and dress code revision committee. He also has worked actively in earning grants for the new Fairfield Athletic Training Complex. As Assistant Director of Operations for Butler County Job and Family Services for 13 years, Kearns knows what it’s like to do more with less, he said.
However, he too believes the root of the district’s money problem lies with state funding.
“I don’t have an answer as to how we should fund our schools, but I’m willing to pursue that answer,” he said. “Our current system doesn’t work, and we know we need sustainable resources to live and grow for our kids.”
Kearns vowed to be first accessible, communicative and decisive, if elected, to the school board.
“School boards are not managers, they’re leaders,” he said. “It’s their job to build public support and demand quality public education for our children. On Nov. 6, we can either fall back or move forward.”
Want to find out more about the Fairfield School Board Candidates?
• For more information on Candidates Erik Rivera and Lee Maloney, visit www.care-ff.org
• For more information on Candidate Diana Bailey, visit www.4Fairfield.com or www.dianaforschoolboard.com
• For more information on Candidate Jerome Kearns, visit www.4Fairfield.com or www.myspace.com/kearnsforschoolboard
OCT. 25, 2007
With Halloween creeping up on the calendar, the Fairfield community isn’t as wary of the usual haunts this year as it is of another looming presence: the upcoming Fairfield School Board election.
The Nov. 6 election is fast approaching, and with two spots open, Candidates Erik Rivera and Lee Maloney are squaring off against Candidates Diana Bailey and Jerome Kearns on the issues of school spending, funding and hiring a new school superintendent.
Rivera and Maloney are both endorsed by Citizens for Accountability and Responsible Education (CARE) and current board member (and CARE Founder) Arnold Engel. Rivera ran for school board and was defeated in 2005, and now he wants to get elected alongside Maloney to back Engel on the issues of controlling school spending.
At an Oct. 4 school board work session, Engel proposed a series of cuts he said would help save the district money. He suggested cutting 25 percent of the overall staff, all teacher aides and five assistant principals among other cuts. Rivera supports Engel’s proposal claiming the school board spending is “disgusting.”
“We don’t have a funding problem, we have a spending problem,” he said. “Our board’s hands are tied too tightly, and that’s not the kind of board we need. Mr. Engel is a tireless individual, and like him, I plan on representing all of the community, even those who oppose Mr. Engel.”
Rivera is a Cincinnati St. Xavier High School graduate who has been self-employed in Fairfield for the last 15 years. He’s concerned that surplus money the board has now is quickly running out, so his first priority if elected would be hiring a new school superintendent to help curb the spending problem.
“We need to start working more with less,” he said.
Interim Superintendent Kathy Milligan, who’s been in the Fairfield district more than 30 years, came out of retirement to fill in as a temporary superintendent when the current school board couldn’t find a suitable replacement for retiring Superintendent Robert Farrell before the academic year started. Rivera believes the district needs a permanent replacement, and Maloney agreed it should be the new board’s first priority.
If elected, Maloney would work to find a superintendent who could help Fairfield achieve an “excellent” rating on the Ohio State Report Card, which determines a portion of school funding. Fairfield missed the “excellent” mark in 2006-07 by nine students of 10,000 enrolled.
“We want our next superintendent to be someone who can get us back that ‘excellent’ rating,” he said. “We need to be willing to give the best education this community is willing to pay for.”
Maloney is a retired retail business manager who has lived in Fairfield for more than 20 years who has put his four children through Fairfield schools. Since 1999, Maloney’s been collecting data about the current state of Fairfield schools, and like Rivera, he doesn’t like what he sees in terms of spending.
“I know Fairfield is a good district, and my roots are forever in Fairfield, but I’m concerned about the senior citizens,” he said. “School levies and periodically asking for more money in taxes is driving us out of the community because of deficit spending, and that responsibility rests with the board. We need to look at what sacrifices can be made.”
While Rivera and Maloney criticize how the district spends its money, Bailey and Kearns believe state funding is the real problem with local school finances.
“I don’t think anyone that gets elected to a school board is there to mismanage money,” Bailey said. “Our funding system is broken, and therefore, no one can promise you that we can save money on taxes.”
Bailey said she and her husband have come to love the Fairfield School District in their 14 years in the community, and she accredits Fairfield for giving her daughter the opportunity to go to college. If elected, one of her priorities would be to work together with other districts to address the state funding issue.
The Ohio State Supreme Court found Ohio’s reliance on property taxes as the source for school funding unconstitutional in 2000, but ordered it be fixed at “deliberate” speed---meaning there’s no definite deadline to come up with a solution. Bailey said she would like to form a committee with other school boards in Butler County and take funding concerns to Gov. Ted Strickland in Columbus.
“No one in Ohio has a clear answer as to how we should fund the schools,” she said. “But I am willing to help form a committee so that we can address legislation about it.”
Bailey also opposes Rivera and Maloney on the issue of finding a new superintendent, and said she has been impressed with the job Milligan has done so far.
“I think the best thing to come out of the last search for a superintendent was Kathy Milligan,” she said. “She’s very committed to the schools, and she exhibits the qualities of what a good superintendent should look like. I hope she can stay.”
Kearns echoed Bailey’s sentiments about Milligan and believes Fairfield already has a superintendent who has achieved the “excellent” rating.
“We had 100 percent graduation rate in 2006-2007, seven Commended Scholars and one National Merit Finalist, so I think we already have a competent superintendent in place,” Kearns said. “To be a superintendent is a tough job because you have to be an expert in curriculum, community relations and have a commitment to a big community like this one. I think those qualities are all in Kathy Milligan.”
Kearns and his wife moved to Fairfield three years ago from a community he called “unsupportive” of its school district. He ran for Fairfield School Board in 2005, and like Rivera, was defeated by an incumbent candidate. Nevertheless, he said he attends almost all school board meetings and serves on a number of committees like the finance committee and dress code revision committee. He also has worked actively in earning grants for the new Fairfield Athletic Training Complex. As Assistant Director of Operations for Butler County Job and Family Services for 13 years, Kearns knows what it’s like to do more with less, he said.
However, he too believes the root of the district’s money problem lies with state funding.
“I don’t have an answer as to how we should fund our schools, but I’m willing to pursue that answer,” he said. “Our current system doesn’t work, and we know we need sustainable resources to live and grow for our kids.”
Kearns vowed to be first accessible, communicative and decisive, if elected, to the school board.
“School boards are not managers, they’re leaders,” he said. “It’s their job to build public support and demand quality public education for our children. On Nov. 6, we can either fall back or move forward.”
Want to find out more about the Fairfield School Board Candidates?
• For more information on Candidates Erik Rivera and Lee Maloney, visit www.care-ff.org
• For more information on Candidate Diana Bailey, visit www.4Fairfield.com or www.dianaforschoolboard.com
• For more information on Candidate Jerome Kearns, visit www.4Fairfield.com or www.myspace.com/kearnsforschoolboard
MOM Awaits Fairfield Board Election Results
BY EMILY STEWART
NOV. 6, 2007
As the four candidates running for the Fairfield School Board await results from today’s elections, so do 200 mothers who are part of the group Moms On a Mission (MOM).
Fairfield Mothers Jeni Brodsky and Sharon Ko formed the self-described “pro-schools” group in 2004 after a working together to help promote an operating levy for the district. Three years later, MOM has regrouped with a new mission in mind: get candidates Diana Bailey and Jerome Kearns elected to the school board.
“This board election is just as important, if not more important than passing the levy in 2004,” Brodsky said. “People may have forgotten about us since then, but we haven’t forgotten, and we’ve never gone away.”
MOM began to remobilize after current Fairfield Board Member Arnold Engel filed a lawsuit in September against Hannah Goodman, a Fairfield graduate who was a friend of Brodsky’s son David. Engel brought the suit in response to a letter Goodman wrote to the editor of The Fairfield Echo over the summer that criticized his behavior toward students and (what he calls) “pro-levy” parents during the levy campaign of 2004.
“We try to educate our kids to have opinions, and when he tried to sue Hannah, that just set wrong with us,” Brodsky said.
Engel is endorsing candidates Erik Rivera and Lee Maloney for this board election, who are part of his group Citizens for Accountability and Results in Education (CARE). Should these two get elected, the majority vote would be in favor of Engel, who has recently proposed a series of budget cuts that would take Fairfield schools to the state minimum level.
“He’s trying to get his two candidates elected to the school board, and he said those two will do whatever he tells them to do,” Brodsky said. “So we feel we need to stand up for our kids.”
With just a few issues on this November’s ballot, MOM fears that few voters will make it out for this election. MOM is attempting to be more visible in an effort to get as many voters out to the polls as possible, Brodsky said.
“It will be a challenge getting people to take the time out to vote since there aren’t a large number of issues on the ballot this year,” she said. “We know Rivera and Maloney supporters will be out, so we want to make sure we do our part to get Bailey and Kearns supporters out too.”
Since the beginning of October, MOM has been handing out fliers, holding rallies in Fairfield/Fairfield Township, attending all school board meetings and taking out ads in The Fairfield Echo to encourage the community to not only vote, but to vote for Bailey and Kearns.
“Schools are a direct reflection of our community, and this election is critical,” Ko said. “We want the community to get fully informed so they can pick the responsible and qualified candidates, and we think those two candidates are Jerome and Diana.”
Although campaigning has been at the heart of MOM’s cause, Heidi Bruzina, the group’s “public face” in this election campaign, says that by getting involved in the school board race, MOM is working for the children, not the politics.
“We have no real political aspirations. None of us got into this for power, prestige or to make any kind of political name for ourselves,” she said. “We simply care about the future of children in this community, and the future of this community itself. The issue of education is the future of our community, and it’s too important to just let it go.”
MOM’s first and foremost priority has always been the future of children, Brodsky added.
“Education is the key that gives you choices, and so this board election is really about the children,” she said. “We’ve become a part of this emotional side of education where we don’t just protect our own children, but all children. We’re the mother bears protecting our cubs.”
Accordingly, MOM plans to stay visible and organized throughout the community beyond these school board elections.
“We would like to stay energized and begin to lobby for some real changes to the unconstitutional way public schools are funded in Ohio,” Bruzina said. “I guess the old adage is true: if mom ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
NOV. 6, 2007
As the four candidates running for the Fairfield School Board await results from today’s elections, so do 200 mothers who are part of the group Moms On a Mission (MOM).
Fairfield Mothers Jeni Brodsky and Sharon Ko formed the self-described “pro-schools” group in 2004 after a working together to help promote an operating levy for the district. Three years later, MOM has regrouped with a new mission in mind: get candidates Diana Bailey and Jerome Kearns elected to the school board.
“This board election is just as important, if not more important than passing the levy in 2004,” Brodsky said. “People may have forgotten about us since then, but we haven’t forgotten, and we’ve never gone away.”
MOM began to remobilize after current Fairfield Board Member Arnold Engel filed a lawsuit in September against Hannah Goodman, a Fairfield graduate who was a friend of Brodsky’s son David. Engel brought the suit in response to a letter Goodman wrote to the editor of The Fairfield Echo over the summer that criticized his behavior toward students and (what he calls) “pro-levy” parents during the levy campaign of 2004.
“We try to educate our kids to have opinions, and when he tried to sue Hannah, that just set wrong with us,” Brodsky said.
Engel is endorsing candidates Erik Rivera and Lee Maloney for this board election, who are part of his group Citizens for Accountability and Results in Education (CARE). Should these two get elected, the majority vote would be in favor of Engel, who has recently proposed a series of budget cuts that would take Fairfield schools to the state minimum level.
“He’s trying to get his two candidates elected to the school board, and he said those two will do whatever he tells them to do,” Brodsky said. “So we feel we need to stand up for our kids.”
With just a few issues on this November’s ballot, MOM fears that few voters will make it out for this election. MOM is attempting to be more visible in an effort to get as many voters out to the polls as possible, Brodsky said.
“It will be a challenge getting people to take the time out to vote since there aren’t a large number of issues on the ballot this year,” she said. “We know Rivera and Maloney supporters will be out, so we want to make sure we do our part to get Bailey and Kearns supporters out too.”
Since the beginning of October, MOM has been handing out fliers, holding rallies in Fairfield/Fairfield Township, attending all school board meetings and taking out ads in The Fairfield Echo to encourage the community to not only vote, but to vote for Bailey and Kearns.
“Schools are a direct reflection of our community, and this election is critical,” Ko said. “We want the community to get fully informed so they can pick the responsible and qualified candidates, and we think those two candidates are Jerome and Diana.”
Although campaigning has been at the heart of MOM’s cause, Heidi Bruzina, the group’s “public face” in this election campaign, says that by getting involved in the school board race, MOM is working for the children, not the politics.
“We have no real political aspirations. None of us got into this for power, prestige or to make any kind of political name for ourselves,” she said. “We simply care about the future of children in this community, and the future of this community itself. The issue of education is the future of our community, and it’s too important to just let it go.”
MOM’s first and foremost priority has always been the future of children, Brodsky added.
“Education is the key that gives you choices, and so this board election is really about the children,” she said. “We’ve become a part of this emotional side of education where we don’t just protect our own children, but all children. We’re the mother bears protecting our cubs.”
Accordingly, MOM plans to stay visible and organized throughout the community beyond these school board elections.
“We would like to stay energized and begin to lobby for some real changes to the unconstitutional way public schools are funded in Ohio,” Bruzina said. “I guess the old adage is true: if mom ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Ivkovich Finds Niche at Fairfield
BY EMILY STEWART
Nov. 20, 20007
It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving, and at Fairfield High School, the halls are vacant, the classroom doors are locked and the building lights are dim. Tucked away on the bottom floor in a corner of the building though, there is one light is on, one door ajar and one woman working through the first day of the official holiday break.
Diana Ivkovich is Fairfield’s District Athletic Trainer, and her work never stops, not even for the Thanksgiving holiday. She’s used to that, though, after working in the Fairfield district for more than 15 years. In that time, she has grown even more attached to the district and her work, thanks in part to the students she treats on a day-to-day basis.
While the standard school week is five days long, Ivkovich works with student-athletes six days a week, with her hours depending on how many athletic events and practices are going on at the high school. She’s not only present at every practice and every home sports event, but she also shows up early to treat student-athletes before practices and games and stays late to treat them afterward. It’s a huge time commitment, especially during the fall sports season.
“Fall is by far the busiest time,” she said. “There are so many teams, athletes and venues compared to winter, so I’m glad that we’re switching into the winter season now because then my schedule won’t be as hectic.”
The Fairfield school system isn’t where Ivkovich originally thought she would end up. While attending Penn State University as an undergraduate, she started out majoring in accounting. She can’t remember whether it was macroeconomics or microeconomics that made her change her career path.
“Once I started to get into economics, that’s when I started to say, ‘I really don’t like this,’” she said with a laugh. “I knew I wanted to transition into sciences, but I wasn’t sure what. My adviser recommended I take introduction to athletic training, and so here I am.”
Becoming a certified athletic trainer in 1991, Ivkovich came to Fairfield the same year after a friend had heard the district was looking to hire a district athletic trainer.
“I saw a lot of potential and room to grow in Fairfield,” she said. “I’ve had some tough times over the years here, and I’ve thought about leaving before, but I don’t know if I would ever want to go to another district. This is my home.”
As the district’s only certified athletic trainer, Ivkovich has gone it alone for the majority of her tenure at Fairfield, having only the help of volunteer student assistants to get through the sports seasons. Volunteer assistants learn the basics of first aid, CPR and injury treatment. Even that help, left too much work, however. Then two years ago, the district hired Amber Gerken, another certified athletic trainer, to lighten the load.
“Before Amber, I was working sometimes up to 72 hours in a week. Two Saturdays in a row I remember I had JV football, boys’ and girls’ soccer in a row, and I ended up working from 10 in the morning to 9 at night,” Ivkovich said. “Amber’s been such a help. Now I work, at most, 50 hours a week.”
Gerken, a 2003 Miami University graduate, came to Fairfield as part of Oxford Physical Therapy’s Outreach Program, where trainers split their time between working at the clinic and an assigned school district. In 2005, Gerken was hired as a full-time assistant to Ivkovich, and believes she couldn’t have been paired with a better mentor.
“Diana and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, and that has helped us to build a professional relationship,” Gerken said. “Athletic training is something you really learn hands-on, and Diana’s hands-on experience is so invaluable, not just with the job itself, but with the students she works with also.”
In addition to her training beds stocked with athletic tape and gauze pads, Ivkovich keeps a countless number of picture frames, collages and scrapbooks along her back wall, received as gifts from student-athletes and student assistants year after year. Some of them date more recently, and some of them date back to 1995, shortly after she started at Fairfield.
One of the students featured in those pictures is Carrie Meyer, a 2004 Fairfield graduate and former student assistant to Ivkovich. Meyer worked for two years during high school as an assistant for boys’ basketball. During that time, she formed a close relationship with Ivkovich, one she maintains even now.
“Diana is like a second mom to me,” Meyer said. “It’s funny because I can’t remember if I ever taped one ankle when I was a trainer, but I remember just how fun it was to be around Diana every day after school during basketball practice.”
Meyer recently became engaged to her high school boyfriend, prompting Ivkovich to call a few days after to congratulate her. Meyer believes Ivkovich’s willingness to get to know students on a personal level sets her apart from other employees in the Fairfield district.
“Diana just wants to know everything she can about everyone she works with,” Meyer said. “She has this thing about when she’s in her office in the training room with the door shut, you don’t interrupt her. The only time she would shut her door, though, is if one of her students wanted to talk about something, good or bad. She’s always willing to lend an ear and drop whatever she’s doing to talk about what’s going on in your life. That’s what makes Diana special to a lot of people.”
Ivkovich highlights her relationships with the students as her favorite part of the job by far, which has helped her decide to permanently stay with the school system.
“I’ve thought about going to work at a clinic, but it just wouldn’t be the same,” she said. “The students are what make me want to work here because I get to have daily interaction with them. At the secondary level, you really hope to have an impact on students as they grow up so that you can help shape their lives in one way or another. I would like to think that I’ve impacted someone, somewhere.”
Nov. 20, 20007
It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving, and at Fairfield High School, the halls are vacant, the classroom doors are locked and the building lights are dim. Tucked away on the bottom floor in a corner of the building though, there is one light is on, one door ajar and one woman working through the first day of the official holiday break.
Diana Ivkovich is Fairfield’s District Athletic Trainer, and her work never stops, not even for the Thanksgiving holiday. She’s used to that, though, after working in the Fairfield district for more than 15 years. In that time, she has grown even more attached to the district and her work, thanks in part to the students she treats on a day-to-day basis.
While the standard school week is five days long, Ivkovich works with student-athletes six days a week, with her hours depending on how many athletic events and practices are going on at the high school. She’s not only present at every practice and every home sports event, but she also shows up early to treat student-athletes before practices and games and stays late to treat them afterward. It’s a huge time commitment, especially during the fall sports season.
“Fall is by far the busiest time,” she said. “There are so many teams, athletes and venues compared to winter, so I’m glad that we’re switching into the winter season now because then my schedule won’t be as hectic.”
The Fairfield school system isn’t where Ivkovich originally thought she would end up. While attending Penn State University as an undergraduate, she started out majoring in accounting. She can’t remember whether it was macroeconomics or microeconomics that made her change her career path.
“Once I started to get into economics, that’s when I started to say, ‘I really don’t like this,’” she said with a laugh. “I knew I wanted to transition into sciences, but I wasn’t sure what. My adviser recommended I take introduction to athletic training, and so here I am.”
Becoming a certified athletic trainer in 1991, Ivkovich came to Fairfield the same year after a friend had heard the district was looking to hire a district athletic trainer.
“I saw a lot of potential and room to grow in Fairfield,” she said. “I’ve had some tough times over the years here, and I’ve thought about leaving before, but I don’t know if I would ever want to go to another district. This is my home.”
As the district’s only certified athletic trainer, Ivkovich has gone it alone for the majority of her tenure at Fairfield, having only the help of volunteer student assistants to get through the sports seasons. Volunteer assistants learn the basics of first aid, CPR and injury treatment. Even that help, left too much work, however. Then two years ago, the district hired Amber Gerken, another certified athletic trainer, to lighten the load.
“Before Amber, I was working sometimes up to 72 hours in a week. Two Saturdays in a row I remember I had JV football, boys’ and girls’ soccer in a row, and I ended up working from 10 in the morning to 9 at night,” Ivkovich said. “Amber’s been such a help. Now I work, at most, 50 hours a week.”
Gerken, a 2003 Miami University graduate, came to Fairfield as part of Oxford Physical Therapy’s Outreach Program, where trainers split their time between working at the clinic and an assigned school district. In 2005, Gerken was hired as a full-time assistant to Ivkovich, and believes she couldn’t have been paired with a better mentor.
“Diana and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, and that has helped us to build a professional relationship,” Gerken said. “Athletic training is something you really learn hands-on, and Diana’s hands-on experience is so invaluable, not just with the job itself, but with the students she works with also.”
In addition to her training beds stocked with athletic tape and gauze pads, Ivkovich keeps a countless number of picture frames, collages and scrapbooks along her back wall, received as gifts from student-athletes and student assistants year after year. Some of them date more recently, and some of them date back to 1995, shortly after she started at Fairfield.
One of the students featured in those pictures is Carrie Meyer, a 2004 Fairfield graduate and former student assistant to Ivkovich. Meyer worked for two years during high school as an assistant for boys’ basketball. During that time, she formed a close relationship with Ivkovich, one she maintains even now.
“Diana is like a second mom to me,” Meyer said. “It’s funny because I can’t remember if I ever taped one ankle when I was a trainer, but I remember just how fun it was to be around Diana every day after school during basketball practice.”
Meyer recently became engaged to her high school boyfriend, prompting Ivkovich to call a few days after to congratulate her. Meyer believes Ivkovich’s willingness to get to know students on a personal level sets her apart from other employees in the Fairfield district.
“Diana just wants to know everything she can about everyone she works with,” Meyer said. “She has this thing about when she’s in her office in the training room with the door shut, you don’t interrupt her. The only time she would shut her door, though, is if one of her students wanted to talk about something, good or bad. She’s always willing to lend an ear and drop whatever she’s doing to talk about what’s going on in your life. That’s what makes Diana special to a lot of people.”
Ivkovich highlights her relationships with the students as her favorite part of the job by far, which has helped her decide to permanently stay with the school system.
“I’ve thought about going to work at a clinic, but it just wouldn’t be the same,” she said. “The students are what make me want to work here because I get to have daily interaction with them. At the secondary level, you really hope to have an impact on students as they grow up so that you can help shape their lives in one way or another. I would like to think that I’ve impacted someone, somewhere.”
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