- In case you missed it this week, Ohio’s own pale, skinny version of the Loch Ness Monster resurfaced on the shores of the Scioto River, to take a context-free and factually-deficient lunge against charter schools, jaws a-slavering. Luckily, our own Chad Aldis was on hand to offer a rebuttal to Dennis’ menaces. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/24/17) The Dispatch covered the monster press conference, but did not include Chad’s comments. Must be a deadline thing. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/24/17) Marc Kovac of the Ohio Capitol Blog cited the Monster and included Chad’s best quote since the “paper victory” thing last week. Chad called Dennis’ planned anti-charter townhall tour “naked political grandstanding”. Boom! (Ohio Capitol Blog, via The Twinsburg Bulletin, 4/24/17) After resurfacing in Columbus following his long political slumber, the Lake Erie Monster dove back into the water and disappeared…only to reemerge in Washington Township. (Perhaps via the Great Miami and Holes Creek – who knows the ways of this mysterious creature?) A slightly less factually challenged version of the same lunge against charter schools was mounted in the Dayton area, followed by the same response from Chad, and then he was gone again into the depths. (Dayton Daily News, 4/24/17) In the end, the creature returned to his ancestral waters on the north shore with a two-fer in Parma and Elyria (sorry, faithful reader, I don’t have time to do the waterway research this time), and Chad’s quote about “naked grandstanding” (ew) followed along. Patrick O’Donnell, monster-slayer extraordinaire, was on hand to cover the story. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/26/17) Disclaimer: No charter schools were harmed in the making of this clip. None at all. Seriously - not even a flesh wound.
- Meanwhile, the Ohio House proposed a raftload of amendments to the state budget bill they are currently debating. Of interest to various parties, education-wise: The governor’s call for teacher externship requirements for license renewal is slated for removal. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/25/17) More money is slated to head to schools across the state. Although there are still some districts facing cuts. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/26/17). Perhaps most interesting is what’s NOT in those proposed amendments as yet: changes to the state’s graduation requirements. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/25/17)
- The ongoing kerfuffle between Ohio’s largest online school and various entities of state government is affecting the state’s efforts to recover money from other, smaller online schools (yes, there is) for similar issues. Depending upon the outcome of the various legal and administrative wranglings, those smaller schools may or may not need to pay up. Call it Schrödinger’s FTEs. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4/24/17)
- Potential Development, a charter school for students with autism is on the grow in Youngstown. They’re busting at the seams and have bought a new building in a prominent location in which to expand to serve more students. Kudos! (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/25/17)
- We’ll stay in Youngstown for a blizzard of stories about the city schools published in the Vindy this week. First up, some district students are unhappy about CEO Krish Mohip’s plan to return to neighborhood schools. And they walked out of class earlier this week to protest. Everybody interviewed seemed pretty proud of themselves for their fighting spirit, but I have some questions about the reason for the unhappiness as it is stated here. (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/24/17) Some members of the school board are unhappy as well – what else is new? Part of it is about the abrupt departure of the new-ish district COO and part of it is about costs related to moving Youngstown Early College High School, proposed in the neighborhood schools plan. (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/26/17) On a related note, CEO Mohip reported this week that his team (including the departing COO and the award-winning CIO) has found nearly $125,000 in annual savings for the district in just three months of looking. While there is no mention of how they might trim the district’s legal budget (I know! I know!), the savings do include over $100,000 paid annually for years for duplicative phone service they did not need or use at all. Wonder if anyone will ask AT&T for some or all of it back? NOTE: Tucked into this story is the revelation that building principals will have wide say in their own budgets starting next year. Hope there’s more on that later. (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/26/17) Back in the real world, 15 parents of Rayen Early College Middle School students (and their kids) got a math refresher in the form of an evening pizza party. Pepperoni and pi; anchovies and integers; mozzarella and multiplication. Sounds like fun to me! (Youngstown Vindicator, 4/24/17)
- Meanwhile, in the only other CEO-style ADC district in the state, the State of the Lorain City Schools is…largely positive, as reported (in English and Spanish, for the first time) by the guy who I suppose wants to be CEO. Or maybe just to keep the job he’s currently got. Just sayin’. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 4/25/17)
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