Gadfly Bites 3/11/20 – The true curmudgeon likes and dislikes in equal measure

1. Sorry to miss out on a Monday edition, but now we’re back with lots to catch up on. First up, here is a more detailed look at the Montessori charter school “merger” with CMSD. And it is eye-opening for a lot of reasons. According to the piece, the Montessori charter school is in danger of closure (due to the state’s automatic closure law) because it had overall Fs on its two most recent report cards. The recent report card grades of the district school involved in the merger are, of course, not noted here because they are not important to the PD’s story, but I checked and the most recent overall grade there was a C. That school, however, was in danger of closure because it has been operating at less than half its student capacity for a good while now. The district decided against that so that the building wouldn’t become an empty eyesore on the East Side of the city or, worse, sold to a charter school. (Old habits die real hard in journalism, don’t they? Real hard.) So, two very different schools sitting right next to each other, both in danger of closure. What should be done? The heartless b*stard in me (just ask anyone around here) says that both should probably close and the students assisted to find better performing options nearby, starting ASAP. (I’ll bet they exist, even if this piece doesn’t indicate any information on such.) The second possible option would be to let one of them close and figure the other would benefit from the influx of at least some of those students who currently attend school right next door. And the obvious candidate for closure would be the lesser-performing charter, much as I appreciate Montessori education for younger children. (My experience is that it loses its effectiveness as kids grow older. YMMV.) But instead, the district—who sponsors the charter and thus has control of both schools—has decided to “merge” the two (again, a huge misnomer as to what’s happening here) and to make the clearly least-effective option, the Montessori model, as the default version for the entirety of the new school. This transition is scheduled to take a couple of years and both buildings will still be utilized during this time, and it seems no staff will be lost in the process. The Montessori folks say they even want more staffers going forward. So not only will no savings be realized, it may actually cost more to run both schools for the next several years, and both could easily lose students in that time. And in the end, everyone will be attending a zoned neighborhood school utilizing the lowest-performing model currently available in the area. What is the point of all this? Even after the long piece and all this analysis, I truly have no idea. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 3/8/20)
    
2. The interim “CEO” (I joke, of course) in Lorain City Schools continues to do the bidding of the ADC haters implement his brand-new, figured-it-out-all-by-myself master plan by dismantling the previous CEO’s administrative structure. 45 positions established by former CEO David Hardy will be eliminated and 25 positions—called “more traditional” administrative gigs—will be created. What counts as “traditional”? Sounds to me like it means union membership teacher/principal/administrator certification is the key defining feature. (The Morning Journal, 3/10/20)
   
   

3. Tiny Delphos City Schools in northwest Ohio was recently declared to be in “fiscal caution” by the state due to serious and immediate deficit spending. While the move may have a silver lining—in that it could help their income tax levy pass next week—it sounds like the state believes even that will not be enough to plug the hole. So cutting will be required. (Lima News, 3/10/20) There is no discussion as to why Delphos schools are deficit spending in that piece or in this related one. This is looking at a so-called “cut” the district has been able to make in its contract with the local career technical campus, which allows Delphos students to attend CTE classes there. I use the quote marks around that word because what really appears to be happening is a shifting of at least part of the cost of this partnership from the district to local taxpayers directly. The process is a little convoluted, and there is some kind of community vote involved, but it seems quite a bit less formal than a ballot initiative. In the end, it appears that whatever taxes currently go to the district will continue to do so; whatever new taxes are voted in next week will go to the district; and homeowners will be assessed an additional tax on top of all of that to go directly to the career technical campus to pay for what they were originally paying for out of their district property taxes. We’ll try to keep an eye on this little shell game if we can. (Delphos Herald, 3/6/20)
    
4. Speaking of which, it seems that 94-year-old Bridgeport business owner John Callarik will not have his property—an active site home to several thriving businesses in this tiny Ohio River town—taken by the school district through eminent domain after all. We’ve been following this story for a couple of months and this appears to be the end of the matter. Somehow, flood-proofing the high school football field has now become the means by which the previously-flooded-out land will be dealt with. There is no indication as to why this option was dismissed out of hand at the start of the process, but there’s a pretty clear indication as to why it has suddenly popped back up to the top—and eminent domain proceedings halted—based on the reaction of the community in support of Callarik. (Martin’s Ferry Times Leader, 3/10/20)
   
   

5. As if all of my dedicated Gadfly Bites subscribers (hello to you delightful dozen!) don’t spot my curmudgeonly biases regularly, it’s important for me to note when I am incapable of being objective about something. And one particular something that comes up on a regular basis around here is Metro Early College High School. I am hopelessly in love with it and its ilk and you should be too. Here is yet another reason: a profile of a Metro senior who will one day cure disease here, and in her family’s native India probably, and who will bring an entire cohort of young women (both here and in India) along with her. A great read. Two metatextual notes: a) Lewis Center, where Akhila lives, is one of the largest and best-rated school districts in Ohio; it is in another county from Metro and takes at least 45 minutes one way to drive there every morning; and Akhila has gone there for years. b) If you don’t love Metro too, especially after reading this, maybe we should reevaluate our friendship. Just sayin’. (Columbus Dispatch, 3/11/20) Some more good news, only tangentially related to the above (but more connected than you might think): Ohio’s college degree completion rates were among the fastest-rising in the country over the past four years; well above the national average. Thus says a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse. Additionally, completion rates were higher at four-year colleges than at community colleges and one commentator noted that “what you take [in college] now matters more than where you go.” Important and interesting. (Dayton Daily News, 3/11/20)
    
6. Speaking of college, here is coverage of a, shall we say, not-previously-planned college fair held earlier this week at Scott High School in Toledo. The college representatives students interviewed sound like they are planning to take full advantage of the generous offer of tuition, room, board, and expenses provided for them (and one parent) by retired weed entrepreneur Pete “Snoopete” Kadens. (But only I call him that.) All that I will say in commentary is that when the smoke clears, the intoxicating-but-not-addictive-at-all high of guaranteed money does make this college fair sound very different to the ones that me and my children have attended over the last year. (Toledo Blade, 3/10/20)

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