Gadfly Bites 1/21/26—Slush, stench, wobble, and perspective

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Buckeye Local School District in Medina County has, by its own admission, a dismal track record of convincing voters to pass levies. After three dozen failures in 40 years, it seems that district leaders may have finally gotten the message, because they have decided to move forward with plans to build a new school without a levy, using funds that they have saved up with decades of, frankly, unexpected budgetary frugality. I’m sure there are some state-level fiscal moves that are also motivating Buckeye Local to tap their $40 million (!?) slush pile right now, but this story indicates that it’s primarily time for a new building because the permeating smell in the old one has gotten so overwhelming it can no longer be ignored. Personally, I agree. Something stinks up there all right. Taxpayers have been smelling it for years; and now everyone else can experience it as well. (Ideastream Public Media, 1/20/26)
As I have been saying consistently, my personal concerns with efforts to ban student cellphone use in schools lies not with the kids, but with the adults. I keep looking for evidence to the contrary and keep finding the same thing: Despite what the single Cincinnati City Schools parent quoted in this “mission accomplished” coverage asserts, I feel like there’s some wobbling here from the only other commentator—the local teachers union VP. Do you? Or am I just looking too hard? (Spectrum News, 1/21/26)
Speaking of teachers unions (when aren’t we doing that, really?), elected board members in Toledo City Schools are starting a listening tour regarding proposals to—among other things—consolidate, reconfigure, and close schools in the district’s (heinously overdue) response to ongoing, years-long student enrollment declines. They say they are looking for a wide variety of perspectives, including particularly that of “union leadership”. As if an elected school board would ever be unsure of their unions’ perspectives on anything. (Toledo Blade, 1/20/26)
Staying on topic, Ravenna City Schools in northeast Ohio has experienced a nearly 50-percent reduction in student enrollment since the 1990s. In this coverage, we learn that they have also been redistributing kids and closing school buildings—one at a time—since the early 2000s in response to this fact. Once West Main School shuts down at the end of the current school year, Ravenna will have closed more buildings than it currently occupies…which seems just right. West Main will hit the auction block immediately after closure, says superintendent Ben Ribelin, just as most (but not all) of the district’s closed buildings have done. “We’re trying to reduce our assets,” Ribelin explains. “Education people are not landlords.” Amen, sir. Amen. (Akron Beacon Journal, 1/20/26)
Sadly, no new charter or private school operators seem to have come into Ravenna via the district’s prudent, logical, and state-law-compliant property sales, but maybe if the population of school-age children is that low (and still falling) up there, perhaps it’s not the availability of buildings that is at issue. No such problem in Cincinnati, where a brand new college-preparatory private high school—Gray Road Christian Academy—will open its doors this fall. Why yes, they will be accepting students using EdChoice Scholarships. It says so right in this initial coverage and we didn’t even have to ask. (Local 12 News, Cincinnati, 1/17/26)