- Somehow, I don't think Bay Village City Schools is going to be submitting much of a remediation plan to Governor DeWine by the April 1 deadline. I mean, it is super-bougie Bay Village so it is perhaps something of a different world up there, but officials at one elementary school say they have already started intensive tutoring and are planning to be done catching every kid up by 4/1. A fascinatingly specific date…for a number of reasons. (Cleveland.com, 3/23/21)
- I’m not sure which is the more interesting/unbelievable aspect of this story: That teachers—grown adults with advanced degrees—cannot think of anything for kids to do during outdoor recess that doesn’t fall afoul of social distancing restrictions. That it took an outside, faith-based organization (again) to come up with the low-tech/no duh/1950s-style solution that is celebrated here. Or that the district’s response to this great idea is to spend three quarters of a million dollars in federal Covid funding to copy this idea and get “playground bags” for all the youngsters. (Columbus Dispatch, 3/22/21)
- Lots of pieces of this story seem like an April Fool’s joke, but I think we kind of knew this one was coming. And it won’t stop here. The elected board members of Toledo City Schools voted this week to approve a contract with a private vendor to provide a portion of student busing services next school year. Among the more unbelievable/troublesome parts of this: There was no dollar amount attached to the vote (although members were assured it would end up less than the contract with the local transit agency). The transit agency just recently discovered that it was both losing money and falling afoul of federal regulations by operating the student routes it had been running for many years. The sole “no” vote was due to the fact that the vendor was non-union. And all board members believe the vendor is “headquartered” in Toledo? Personally, I doubt it. But then I did a Google search. Not that there’s anything wrong with Michigan, you understand. (Toledo Blade, 3/24/21)
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