Mansfield City Schools

Lex easels Abu Dhabi-bound

LEXINGTON -- A Lexington company that manufactures high-end art equipment will send its biggest order to date to the Middle East next month.

Jeffrey L. Penny, president of Klopfenstein Art Equipment, said 510 steel easels will soon be shipped to Abu Dhabi to be used in 15 newly built schools.

The small manufacturing company, which employs seven, has recently taken on numerous temporary workers to fill the order.

"We're building 50 easels a day," Penny said.

He was surprised to get a telephone call from Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, although the company's art equipment is sold all over the world -- mostly to universities.

"I got a call one day from one of the architects ... He said, 'I worked on Klopfenstein equipment when I was in college, and I recommended you guys,' " Penny said.

The easels are being produced from raw steel right inside the factory off Mill Street behind the Moose Lodge.

The company was originally founded by late brothers James and William Klopfenstein in Crestline.

In the mid-1950s, the brothers were students at The Ohio State University. They shared a creative bent, a natural engineering talent and a father who owned a machine and metal fabricating shop.

This unique combination of interests, talent and technology needed only a spark to flash into life as a small art equipment manufacturing company. That spark was to come from one of the brothers' art professors who one day remarked that, "If someone could develop a ruggedly constructed steel easel, built to last, and be simple yet versatile -- then they would have the makings of a successful business."

The brothers took this comment to heart and, working from their father's shop, they began building prototypes of a revolutionary steel art easel.

Each prototype was "classroom" tested and evaluated by art students and professors at Ohio State.

After much testing, modification and improvement, the brothers felt satisfied with their design and began the business of manufacturing and selling the most innovative and ultra-functional artist's easel ever conceived and rendered in rigid steel tubing, Penny said.

By December 1999, the brothers were ready for retirement. Penny purchased the operation after selling his plastics fabricating business and looking for a new challenge.

Early in 2000, Stan Butler joined the business as production manager and Penny's business partner. Today the two childhood friends continue to produce innovative, "built to last" art equipment products designed and manufactured especially for art professionals and art students.

Mansfield City Schools want tea party suit dropped at Senator Tea ...

MANSFIELD — Mansfield City Schools has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party Association against the school district.

The tea party group sued the district in April, claiming the school violated its civil rights when it withdrew permission for a controversial event to take place on school grounds.

The non-school event was a presentation by Usama Dakdok, characterized by some as “anti-Islam,” on March 28.

The district filed a response to the tea party’s lawsuit May 25. It claims the school acted within its rights when it withdrew permission for the event, and that it did so for student safety.

“Defendants withdrew permission for the lecture due to concerns about student safety based upon the uncertainty caused by receipt of numerous emails from unknown people around the country and subsequent lack of assurance from local law enforcement personnel regarding student safety and order at the event,” the district states.

Mansfield Superintendent Dan Freund announced the morning of March 28 that the school would not host the event, citing safety concerns echoed by police about the number of people who would turn out to support or oppose Dakdok.

The tea party group accused the district of canceling the event because of pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Mansfield branch of the NAACP and other organizations.

“Defendants specifically admit that the only discussions held with representatives from either the CAIR or the NAACP was one telephone conversation on March 24, during which Freund informed an individual from the NAACP that despite its objections, defendants intended to allow the March 28 lecture to continue as scheduled,” the district states.

Freund told the News Journal on March 25 the tea party event would be allowed, and defended the right of groups — including those with controversial views — to use school facilities.

The district says its position changed when it became clear student safety was an issue. Mansfield police Chief Dino Sgambellone told the News Journal on March 29 it was his belief that allowing the tea party event on school property presented a potentially dangerous situation.

The tea party group has said the school should have been able to provide adequate security. The group believes the district denied its freedom of speech by not allowing the event. The group was able to find an alternate location for its speaking event, and it was held the same day without incident.

Social studies curriculum improvement

Mansfield City Schools, Outdoor Human Relations Program, student guide, 1982-1983

Dissertation abstracts international, The humanities and social sciences

Dental summary

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