Gadfly Bites 10/22/25—The state of things

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1. Fordham’s Chad Aldis is among the voices urging Ohio to stay the course on the science of reading, despite disappointing results on state tests in the previous school year. You can count Elyria City Schools literacy specialist Andrea McKenzie among the hopefuls too. Because the kids who started with SoR-aligned curricula in kindergarten in her district in 2022 are now at the all-important third grade year. “This is the moment I have been waiting for,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for these students to get to third grade to see this through, so I feel like this is the year.” (The 74, 10/22/25)
   
   

2. We have already had one occasion in these clips to say hello to Akron City Schools’ new treasurer Wayne Bowers back when he first hove onto the scene proclaiming a gloomy outlook on the future of the district’s finances. Here is a proper introduction, courtesy of a profile from the ABJ. Bowers seems like a good guy, with a clear vision of what he wants and a working knowledge of how things operate. It’s too bad, then, that he’s probably going to be buried in a landslide of sass, as per his eye-opening and all-too-frank descriptions of those operations and how he’s going to try to change them. (Akron Beacon Journal, 10/21/25)
   
   

3. It’s “The state of…” presentation season here in Ohio. Let’s start with the State of Youngstown schools. Everything is great there, based on this reading by the supe, except for those dastardly charter and private school students messing up busing for everyone else. (Vindy.com, 10/21/25)
   
   

4. There is very little detail on the current state of Cleveland Metropolitan School District in this coverage of CEO Warren Morgan’s recent “state of the district” event. Most of the piece is dedicated instead to discussing which buildings are to be closed and consolidated to deal with continuing student enrollment declines and concurrent budget woes. The details are still lacking, but Morgan sounds more serious than ever about those closures. Most tellingly, CMSD’s intradistrict school choice application portal—which typically opens in mid-November for the following school year—will definitely not be opening this November. Likely because everyone will be dealing with a much-reduced number of available buildings and default assignments at that time. (Signal Cleveland, 10/22/25)
   
   

5. Next up is the “state of school transportation” in Ohio, from the perspective of the Ohio School Boards Association. Sounds like the message is there are not enough drivers (blame: Amazon), there is not enough flexibility (blame: “Nobody wants to start at 10 o’clock when there’s buses available”), there is less money (blame: the General Assembly), and there are still too darn many kids (blame: those dastardly charter and private schools). Charming stuff. (Statehouse News Bureau, 10/21/25)
   
   

6. As I have long said, districts clamoring for state-level fixes for their transportation complaints need to be careful what they wish for. Case in point: Senate Bill 93, unveiled in the Finance Committee yesterday, would not only overhaul school funding in a pretty profound way, but would also take student transportation away from districts and create a single countywide system to serve all students who want it, regardless of school type attended. As if those two things won’t generate enough heat on their own, SB 93 also proposes making interdistrict open enrollment mandatory rather than voluntary, and would make it easier for districts to merge. (Cleveland.com, 10/21/25)
   
   

7. To end the day with some great news: Lake Center Christian School in Hartville, Ohio, is on the grow, and its previous (and clearly beloved) community hub had to be converted to additional classroom space to educate all those kiddos. Luckily, the very supportive community (school, citizens, municipal leaders, businesses) helped build a new commons space to keep the historic ties between Lake Center and Hartville tight. You love to see it. (Your Ohio News, 10/22/25)

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