Gadfly Bites 4/29/24—It’s all-STEM all the time in my brain

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1. We’ll start with a tiny but exciting—and also promising—bit of news: Cornerstone Christian Academy in northeast Ohio reports that it has been awarded nearly $65,000 via the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s Nonpublic STEM Grant program. The funds will be used for additional equipment and new laptops to enhance the school’s already-pretty-awesome-sounding Computer Aided Design (CAD) certification program. This is the first I’ve heard of awards for this grant program, but the brief coverage here mentions a total of 27 private schools across the state who were awarded funds. Can’t wait to hear who else won and what awesome new tools are in store for their students. (Patch.com, 4/25/24)
   
   

2. Staying in the area of private schools and STEM education: Emmanuel Christian Academy in Springfield began its dual aviation and drone education program in 2018 with just 22 students. Its reputation—and its reach—have grown so much that it now serves 100 kids attending local (and not-so-local) districts, the Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center, and the Global Impact STEM Academy. According to the director of the program, student enrollment next year for the program, which provides a pathway to licensure for traditional aircraft and drone pilots, will top 200 next year. Incredible! (Springfield News-Sun, 4/26/24)
   
   

3. This piece, in which the Economic Development Director of the City of Kettering discusses myriad benefits of the impending expansion of Dayton Regional STEM School into formerly-city-owned land (as we celebrated raucously discussed dispassionately when it was decided last week), might feel like a pro-forma discussion of the finer points of any other development deal. But, being a Sensitive Sally when someone disses knowing how some folks oppose school choice generally and STEM schools particularly, I also read parts of this as retroactive justification—answering touchy “but what about the district?” questions that we were not privy to. Blah blah blah parks, blah blah blah tax revenue, blah blah blah business support. She hits all the right “big picture” notes, but I am glad that Madame Director also just states it outright in the end: “It provides an amenity … to Kettering residents who might want that option for their children.” Amen from this M.C.R.P. degree holder, ma’am. Amen. (Dayton Daily News, 4/28/24)
   
   

4. As I predicted very seriously, but with my patented snarky, jokey overtone last week (you know that’s why you subscribe; don’t lie), bus driver shortages were likely to start getting serious attention across the state because they were having a negative impact on sports games. And so it starts to come true as several district officials in the Youngstown area are saying with very non-jokey seriousness in this piece. Every district official interviewed points a different finger as to the culprit, but the common thread is “those kids”. That is, families opting for other schools than their zoned district building. It’s already so serious that the superintendent of the ESC of Eastern Ohio says (out loud and on the record): “What we’re advocating for is for private and charter schools to provide their own transportation and for public schools to transport their own students. Every school receiving public funds should be transporting their own students and that would help tremendously with public school busing.” I’ll just bet that you can predict what I say to that, don’t you my dedicated subscribers? Be very careful what you wish advocate for, ma’am… (Vindy.com, 4/29/24)
   
   

5. “Ever since we left last year, we were just in our heads, like, what can we do better next year? What can we improve?” says one student competitor. “Communication and teamwork is always going to be paramount on that because they’ve got a 10-foot square that they’re going to be working within,” says the intensely-focused teacher/coach. “I feel like as soon as we step into that square, we forget everything else around us,” says the other half of the dedicated student team. What sports game are they talking about so fervently? What have the student competitors and their coach from Normandy High School in Parma been prepping for so diligently for a year? Drone racing? Chess? Mock trial? Brick laying? Nope: It’s the National Pro Start Cooking Invitational. And I for one can’t wait to see these kids all fired up and slicing and dicing their opponents in Baltimore! Crush the garlic AND the competition, y’all! Make mincemeat out of them! Hope you earn that top prize, covered in edible gold leaf! (News 5, Cleveland, 4/26/24)

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