Gadfly Bites 4/8/20 – Local determination

1. In case you missed it earlier this week, the Ohio Department of Education released guidance for schools and districts on how to issue coronadiplomas to determine who can graduate in this disrupted school year. “The state is relying on the professionalism, fairness and reasonable judgment of principals and educators in making determinations relative to the completion of curriculum for purposes of awarding diplomas,” says the guidance doc. (Gongwer Ohio, 4/6/20) Less than 24 hours later, Columbus City Schools released their plan for making their own local determinations. Not much detail here, but it does indicate that requirements currently in place will likely fall like dominos in an earthquake. (ABC6, Columbus, 4/7/20)
    
2. Meanwhile, the elected school board in Columbus voted yesterday to accept a donation of WiFi hotspots from a local nonprofit and to pay themselves for unlimited data plans for the families to whom those hotspots will be given. “We don’t want to forget that our students are still facing other challenges,” said Supe Dixon. “But we are an institution of learning, and we are going to make sure that learning does not stop.” Except, of course, for the previously-scheduled spring break, which starts Monday. (Columbus Dispatch, 4/8/20) If you ask me (and no one does, now more than ever), what we’re kind of seeing here is a tale of two sequesters. The first three weeks of school building closure were seen as not exactly a lark, but definitely as an ephemeral an inconsequential hiccup that could be borne without too much trouble…for the adults. The second set of closures? Things are getting real…ish. I think that explains the previous Columbus piece and indeed this description of closure-time activity in Akron City Schools, complete with that 100% default attendance business even when it’s obviously not true (and must be rectified by a lot of activity, which is the main point of this piece). All that does not, in my mind, explain “spring break” still happening. Hope everyone gets to spend lots of time with their families! (Akron Beacon-Journal, 4/7/20) Speaking of same, Boardman City Schools has hired a new parent mentor. While the effort to fill that position was underway long before sequester, here’s hoping she’ll hit the ground running now that her work is more important than ever. (Mahoning Matters, 4/6/20)
    
3. As we see above—and have talked about previously—certain school district business doesn’t take a break for sequester. Marlington Local Schools, for example, can still headhunt virtually. By which I mean that the board is hunting for the heads of the supe and the treasurer and not even social distancing will stop them. Ironically, the beef is all about money (of course), all assumptions about which are now completely unknowable. (Canton Repository, 4/6/20) Not to mention mad spending for new school buses. (Canton Repository, 4/7/20) More buses being paid for here too, although Brunswick City Schools is entering into a lease for theirs due to what is described as “an extremely low interest rate.” Why am I suddenly being reminded of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition here? (Cleveland.com, 4/7/20)
    
4. Back to districts navigating the closure of their buildings. Akron City Schools, above, noted that they were way ahead of the curve in online learning, and thus are doing fairly well in making it universal in short order. If that’s accurate, then it sounds like Dayton City Schools is quite behind the curve. The district’s previously-stated commitment to reteaching the last six weeks of this year’s material at the start of next school year is reiterated again here. Prudent, I reckon. (Dayton Daily News, 4/6/20) Here is a detailed look, from the family/student perspective, of learning under sequester at various schools and districts in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. This includes a Queen City charter school and a regional career tech center. Sounds like a lot of families are on their own out there. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/7/20) Lorain City Schools, always somehow finding a way to stand out from the crowd, has actually branded its distance learning efforts during sequester: Big Brain Lorain. Younger students got packets of work starting this week. After the end of spring break, of course. High schoolers have online coursework now also. Let us end, though, where we began: discussing graduation for the Corona Class. District “CEO” (satire!) Greg Ring told the MJ that for this year’s seniors, the goal is to finish coursework needed for graduation and to prepare students for their next steps in life. “For some, it may make the difference between graduating and not graduating,” he said. That is especially true, he added, if students struggled in the first three quarters of the school year and need to perform well to finish out the year. So if one quarter of effort is enough to “prepare students for their next steps in life”, maybe the lowered bar and “local determination” guidance ODE put out isn’t all that different from what was happening before. (Morning Journal, 4/7/20)

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