Gadfly Bites 10/1/21—“Please know”

Jeff Murray

10.1.2021

This week, Barberton City Schools announced it was suspending its main transportation routes until at least October 7 due to the “challenges of delivering education and services to students during a pandemic.” So, school is open but we won’t transport your kids? Is there any precedent for something like this…outside a drivers strike, that is? (WKYC-TV, Cleveland, 9/29/21) Barberton parents were given two options during the transportation shutdown: transport your kids on your own or put ‘em in remote learning. (Honestly, who even knows what we mean when we say “remote learning” these days?) The parents and grandparents interviewed here are, to me, extremely accepting of and very stoic regarding what appears to be a huge situation begging some important questions. On the other hand, these are families who are able to drive their kids to school, so perhaps their perspective is a bit different than others’. (WKYC-TV, Cleveland, 9/30/21)
Oddly enough, folks in Massachusetts quoted in this story on same say that while there are bus driver shortages all over the country, they ‘cannot be blamed on the pandemic’. To summarize: No blame and no victims, no cause and no cure. No problem! Substitute teacher shortages, also discussed here, seem to worry the quoted folks a little more. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/30/21) The transportation coordinator for Akron City Schools has some grim talk on the topic: “I keep saying this…but many districts, are right on the edge of, it’s all going to start tumbling down. It's just going to start failing.” However, he seems to concur that said failure is a long-gestating problem rather than a new pandemic wrinkle, and despite the long-term warning, solutions remain thin on the ground even now. (Akron Beacon Journal, 10/1/21)
Not to be outdone, perennial transportation trouble-plagued Dayton City Schools has apparently been underpaying some of the drivers they actually do have. Facts in the case seem to be in dispute, based on this report, with fingers of blame pointing in different directions depending on who you talk to. (Dayton Daily News, 9/28/21)
Potential boosts in student absenteeism is a background issue in the foregoing stories. But what about the data already recorded during the pandemic? This report from northeast Ohio shows some pretty huge numbers of chronic absenteeism in the 2020-21 school. To wit: Euclid City Schools reported 72.7 percent of its students chronically absent, Lorain City Schools reported 63 percent, and Cleveland Metropolitan School District reported 54 percent. None of those school districts commented for this piece, but one dropout recovery charter school did. And the director of school culture at Promise Academy says that the design of the school and the outside time commitments of their older students with job and family responsibilities fully explains their 99.8 percent chronic absenteeism rate, and she suggests a new definition might be required. (News 5, Cleveland, 9/29/21)
And speaking of the pandemic, Mason City Schools will soon start its “Test and Stay” pilot program in hopes of ending mass student and staff quarantines going forward. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/28/21)
We learned last week that Columbus City Schools will be spending millions of dollars to do virtually nothing regarding STEM education in the district. By comparison, Lakewood City Schools is buying about $34K worth of robots using some donated funds. The cost sounds a bit more reasonable, as does the plan to program them to play soccer or whatever it is. But honestly, kids, listen to Uncle Jeff: Hack ‘em, replicate ‘em, take ‘em apart, program ‘em to do your sister’s homework. Whatever you want. That is STEM education. (Cleveland.com, 9/29/21)
Finally this week: I think this “college prep night” is really just a traditional college fair by another name. But holding it during a semi-professional sporting event and at the ballpark site is a pretty interesting adaptation. (WDTN-TV, Dayton, 9/29/21)