Gadfly Bites 1/7/26—Clearer, but still pretty complicated

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1. With school closures and consolidations now set, Cleveland Metropolitan School District students and families have a clearer view of their available options for next school year. Which is a good thing because the district’s school choice portal is now open. Along with all the usual rules and caveats, there are a lot of new wrinkles induced by the closures and Signal Cleveland does its best to explain them in this piece. The district also has navigators available to help and two school fairs coming up before the portal closes on February 27. (Signal Cleveland, 1/2/25)
   
   

2. One of the biggest complications around choosing a school in Cleveland is transportation. Here’s how Signal explained it in the piece above: “If students are forced to move schools [due to closure], they will receive transportation for the next two school years as long as they currently ride the bus to school and choose to attend their assigned welcoming school. Otherwise the standard transportation rules apply.” Clear as tapioca, right? Lest you think that these now-familiar transportation struggles are only an issue in big-city choice-rich areas of the state, here’s a recent survey of nearly 200 district leaders across Ohio, the majority of which report minimal charter and private school choice students. Their concerns—mainly chronic driver shortages—will sound familiar, even with a small-town twang. (Dayton Daily News, 1/6/25) Perhaps a more direct example: Dozens of students in Amherst Exempted Village Schools were delayed getting home yesterday afternoon when a dearth of drivers (a mere 3 people out for “medical reasons” caused all this) required doubling up of routes, and thus kids had to wait in their buildings until a bus became available. The need to transport students to offsite afterschool sports practices in the winter was also cited as a stressor on available staff. It is noted that Amherst will eliminate high school busing (entirely optional in Ohio) and “out-of-season athletic trips” (also optional, no matter what you sporty people say) starting next year due to budget—and other—constraints. (The Chronicle-Telegram, 1/7/26)

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