- The leaders of Akron City Schools say they want a “reset” after dealing with a concerning uptick in behavioral issues in the district since the start of the school year. According to this piece, that means fewer open doors into buildings, more metal detectors at those doors (and random use of them elsewhere in buildings during the day), and higher staff presence in the halls at class changes (wonder where these folks are coming from during a chronic staffing shortage). “Reset” indeed. There is nothing in here about what students or parents might want in relation to same. Too bad. (Akron Beacon Journal, 10/26/21)
- The leaders of Solon City Schools most emphatically do not want a “reset”. Why would you when you can apparently stare down a pandemic without batting an academic eye? “We again have the number one performance in the state on the state achievement tests,” the district supe announced at this week’s elected school board meeting. “Now, those numbers are lower than our typical numbers, but they are higher than everybody else’s numbers.” Well said, sir…I suppose. (Cleveland.com, 10/25/21)
- While CEO Eric Gordon doesn’t ask for a “reset” here, it does sound like the students of Cleveland Metropolitan School District might require one. Despite returning to fully in-person learning this school year, CMSD’s chronic absenteeism rate is more than 47 percent already in the first months of the year. When polled, a small group of students told CEO Gordon that about 21 percent of their absent peers were skipping due to “pandemic stress”, 18 percent were skipping because they were “not feeling supported” as students, 16 percent were “scared of getting Covid”, and 11 percent were “unmotivated or feeling lazy”. Sobering. Additionally, there is some discussion here of the slight rebound in student enrollment generally in the district from last year’s lows. My attention was drawn by the boost in ninth grade enrollment specifically. Not because it was so large (almost 1,000 students), but because of the reasons tendered to explain it. District officials suggest it was the opening of two new high school buildings this year that did it. But the teachers union president says it was due to the Say Yes to Education college scholarship program. “If they’re not in a district high school, they’re not getting scholarship dollars,” she said. Which is both incorrect (as the very-knowledgeable-on-the-topic Patrick O’Donnell notes) and extremely petty. So…no “reset” for her then. Still business as usual. (The 74, 10/26/21)
- More than 20 months into the educational-disruption part of this pandemic and some folks are still working to fix broadband access for families. Case in point, East Liverpool City Schools, which recently received $34,000 from the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and broadband connectivity for district families. They got an additional $13,500 to purchase tablets for preschoolers. (WYTV-TV, Youngstown, 10/25/21)
- Meanwhile, you can add Archbold Area Local Schools to the list of districts with non-pandemic uses for federal pandemic-relief funding. To wit: “Areas of priority for the use of these funds are athletics, lunchroom, technology, building environment upgrades, salaries/benefits and capital equipment upgrades.” Thus the district supe told his elected school board earlier this week. “Ultimately, these funds will be used to support areas that otherwise would have been negatively impacted, and as a result, would have been supported by the general fund or permanent improvement fund.” Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, but I do hope y’all enjoy your fancy new “building environment” from atop that fiscal cliff. (The Crescent-News, 10/26/21)
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