Gadfly Bites 10/9/26—Owning it

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1. On the upside, student attendance is on the rise in Princeton City Schools. On the downside, their transportation troubles seem destined to grind on into a third week. On the upside, further negotiations are planned for today. On the downside, these negotiations are between the drivers and the third party private contractor with the district and its families entirely powerless to solve the problem—or even to influence the process—themselves. (Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 10/7/26)
   
   

2. As an antidote to the above, here’s a great story from East Cleveland City Schools. We’ve been touting their genuine academic improvements for some time now. Today, Signal Cleveland is touting their efforts to reduce chronic student absenteeism. There’s lots of great details for you to read here, but the two highlights for me is that a) all the attendance work stems back to the improvement plan the district put in place to earn their way out of academic distress status, and b) the same leader who created and implemented that plan—Superintendent Henry Pettiegrew II—says out loud and on the record that “Someone has to own attendance” in order to get it back on track. And when he says “someone”, he means himself. So good. (Signal Cleveland, 10/8/26)
   
   

3. Back to bad news: Cardinal Stritch Catholic High School in suburban Toledo announced yesterday that it would close in December, having found no viable path to remain open even for the full school year. (Toledo Blade, 10/8/26) Students interviewed by the Blade for this piece were understandably upset immediately after the announcement, but it seems wrong to assert that the school and the Diocese dropped this “surprise announcement” on them at the “last minute”. School officials have two months to work with impacted families to find new options, and I am sure that they will do so. There is no shortage of choices in the Toledo area. As to the “surprise” factor? Any non-district high school with only 69 students is not long for the world. This is not a surprise. (FYI, Blade folks: You should lead every Stritch story with that enrollment number; not bury it at the end.) (Toledo Blade, 10/8/26)
   
   

4. Actually, my main takeaway from the bad news story above is that the student enrollment pie in Ohio—especially in our urban areas—has likely been sliced as thinly as it can. We don’t actually need more choices of any kind. Which is good news, because we can now focus on making all the options we have great ones. I can’t tell yet whether Portage Leadership Academy is a great one, but this profile of the brand new charter school in Ravenna sounds promising. (News 5 Cleveland, 10/7/26)

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