Gadfly Bites 10/21/20 – Did somebody say “whipsaw”?

1. I have, I will admit, not been paying much attention to Tales from the Homestead (sequel to Ohio’s previous favorite soap opera Stories from the Crypt). I mean, I was holed up in the garage on vacation for a while. But really it’s just because the thing is such a freakin’ downer. To wit: In yesterday’s episode, I gather the The Governor told us that coronavirus cases are rising and lots of kids can’t go to school in person, which makes it doubly bad. This piece includes tweets, so you know its important information. (News19, Cleveland, 10/20/20) Thus… Parma City Schools returned to a fully-remote schedule on Monday after just three weeks of a hybrid model. (Cleveland.com, 10/19/20) Preble Shawnee High School returned to fully-remote learning due to a rash of actual cases among student athletes there. Sportsball contests were also cancelled in both Parma and Preble Shawnee. (WDTN-TV, Dayton, 10/18/20) And plans for Columbus City Schools to move from fully-remote to a hybrid model, scheduled to begin in earnest in a couple of weeks, have been scrapped until at least January. Also, make sure to take a look at those remote learning “attendance” numbers being reported in Columbus so far this year. We will be returning to that dismal theme below. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/20/20) Ditto for Cleveland Metropolitan School District, whose hybrid return plan for “academically vulnerable” students has also been put on ice until at least January. (The 74, 10/19/20)
    
2. Meanwhile, Delaware City Schools said this week that its hybrid-learning model is going great after the first nine weeks…and that it will continue for the foreseeable future. Side note from the board meeting, check this out: “In other matters, the board approved a motion regarding funds raised for the 2020 Dempsey [School’s] Washington, D.C. trip, which was cancelled due to the pandemic. The motion allows for families with a balance from the fundraiser to choose between remitting the funds as taxable income, applying the funds to future school district lunch expenses, or families can choose to donate to a school district scholarship fund for trips and events. Failure to respond on behalf of the parents will result in the funds being donated.” That doesn’t seem right, does it? (Delaware Gazette, 10/21/20) Meanwhile meanwhile, three school districts in Butler County are returning more kids to their buildings this week—with one moving from all-remote to hybrid, one expanding the number of in-person days/students in their existing hybrid model, and one (Talawanda City Schools) apparently jumping directly from all-remote to all-in person in one fell swoop. Although I may have misread that last one. Middletown and others sending more kids into buildings. (The Journal-News, 10/19/20) The elected board of Kettering City Schools voted this week to approve a hybrid plan, starting November 9. They are allowing for an all-remote options for families who are not comfortable with sending their children back into schools just yet. (Dayton Daily News, 10/20/20) Orange City Schools had a plan to move from all-remote learning to a hybrid model which was to begin this past Monday. That was scuppered when Cuyahoga County returned to a nasty red status—per Ohio’s Covid dashboard and Tales from the Homestead—which automatically stopped Orange’s plan per the board’s previously-approved reopening guidelines. Some folks were unhappy… (Cleveland.com, 10/16/20) …and now, somehow, those previously-approved guidelines are suddenly more like “suggestions”. “As recently as last week, I’ve bought into [the health guidance],” said the superintendent just yesterday. “But I’ve learned a lot about what’s going on around us and what’s going to continue going on around us, so I feel we may need to reconsider where we’re standing on this issue.” And the school board appears to be in reconsideration mode as well. (Orange-colored glasses, perhaps?) You can check out all the members’ reasoning on the issue in some detail in this piece. There are some negotiations with the local teachers union to be completed, the gang said during their in-person meeting last night. Once those are concluded, a new hybrid start date will be announced. (Cleveland.com, 10/21/20)
   
   

3. Have you chosen your favorite pandemic-era aphorism yet? I have. It’s the one that goes, “Teachers didn’t go into this job to teach kids online.” I’ve heard it a hundred times already and it is repeated again in the story clipped above. The spirit of that phrase seems to be in evidence in this piece covering the most recent meeting of the elected board of Lakewood City Schools. The subhead tells us that the “merits of remote learning” were debated during the Zoom call, but even those in favor of sticking with a fully-remote learning model seem pretty sure that there are no “merits” to learning online at all…except for, you know, not contracting the rona. (Patch.com, 10/20/20) While Columbus City Schools (above) gave us some detailed data on its dismal student remote attendance numbers, Youngstown City Schools’ Superintendent Joseph Meranto (is that guy still around?!) simply harangued his Zoom audience on the topic without any numbers required. Apparently their numbers are bad too, but supe says they’re doing everything they can, including sending school resource officers (that’s uniformed police officers, right chief?) to people’s houses. “We all want to go back…” he said. “…but we want to be safe first. What we’re doing here in Youngstown is probably one of the better models around, and other districts will tell you that.” Ohhhhh…kayyy. As an additional note: apparently concerned citizens have also been calling in to the district to report school-age kids being sighted out and about the community during “school hours”. Superintendent Meranto was quick to point out that those were probably not “his” kids. As paraphrased in the piece, he reminded everyone that “there are students in the district that don’t go to Youngstown schools, and those students aren’t their responsibility.” Some of those children [distasteful emphasis added by me, in the spirit of satire, of course] could be the students seen by individuals outside during school hours. (WYTV-TV, Youngstown, 10/20/20)
    
4. As all my dedicated Gadfly Bites subscribers know (thanks and well-wishes to all 19 of you!), I am loath to clip political stuff. I find teacher contract negotiations and strikes to be pretty political most of the time and thus try to keep them out of the clips. However, the recent conclusion of Gahanna-Jefferson City Schools first-ever teacher strike has got enough rona-relevant info to warrant inclusion today. To wit: the final contract details as enumerated in this piece are pretty darn interesting, including the various bargaining positions negotiated from along the way. Seems to me like a strange amount of concern about teachers being on camera and/or being recorded while teaching, but as a wise person said once one hundred times: teachers didn’t get into this business to teach online. Guess it must be true. (Columbus Dispatch, 10/19/20) The situation in Streetsboro City Schools is not at the strike-phase yet, but it might get there shortly. It is a similar situation as in Gahanna: teachers working without a contract when the rona hit. Complications ensued, as they say. (The Portager, 10/21/20)

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