- Cheers to the team at KIPP Columbus, whose brand-new school building hosted an open house on October 26. The incredible school building, beautiful wooded grounds in the heart of the city, and motivated staff combine to create a learning environment unparalleled in Columbus. Check out the pictures at the link above and go visit if you can. Great stuff.
- Jeers to those in the Monroe Local School district—board members and citizens alike—who have spent years blocking a local church group from buying a mothballed high school. Their boundless ire has now attracted the attention of an outside organization objecting to the latest offer on church-state grounds. The delayed sale has already cost the district money it can’t afford to waste with the potential for much more if a court case ensues. What was already a giant mess threatens to turn into a proper train wreck for no good reason, to the further detriment of students.
- Cheers to the staff of School Choice Ohio, who recently unveiled a nifty online voucher-eligibility tool to give families some initial information about whether their child can participate in one of Ohio’s programs. Voucher-eligibility rules are fairly opaque for many parents, with lot of variables involved (income, assigned school, school attending, future-year assignments, etc.). The new SCO tool is a great way for parents to get a head start on figuring out their options.
- Jeers to the board members of West Geauga Schools, who voted to start the shutdown of open enrollment in their district. After a heated tussle at the end of last school year ended in the status quo, the board again revisited their open enrollment policy late last month. None of the choices on the table were winning propositions for students currently attending via open enrollment, but the policy the board settled on (to allow those currently open enrolled to stay through graduation but to close grades K–5 to any future open enrollment) shows minimal concern for those folks and open contempt for those who might want something better for their kids. But Cheers to the 300 high school students who staged a peaceful walkout from their classes prior to the board vote in support of keeping open enrollment fully open.
- And finally, Cheers to the students, staff, and administrators of Newark Digital Academy, which was one of four Charter School of the Year winners from the Ohio Alliance of Public Charter Schools. This award was based in part on some very good report card numbers last year, but the alternative schooling method itself—serving students in the district at risk of dropping out—looks to be working for many of those students just by its very nature as a different way of “doing school”.
