- We begin today talking about school districts and “their” money. But honestly, when aren’t we talking about that? Editors in Columbus opined in favor of more state money for school districts. Especially for Columbus City Schools. (Columbus Dispatch, 5/23/17) It must be 5-year forecast season across Ohio, based on the contents of local papers. Akron City School’s forecast, presented this week, appears relatively stable. Student flight from the district to charter schools has stopped for the time being and open enrollment into the district is currently higher than anticipated. Due, says the treasurer/CFO to “competitive programs and the fact that more staff members have children in the district.” That last bit is fascinating. (Akron Beacon Journal, 5/23/17) Toledo’s forecast looks stable too…as long those three renewal levies all pass. That is the second reference in less than a week to those levies and the importance of their passage to, well, everything. Those editorial endorsements are just writing themselves, don’t you think? (Toledo Blade, 5/24/17) Things are not so rosy for academically-distressed Lorain City Schools’ forecast. The treasurer seems optimistic about maintaining their student counts, stemming a long-standing tide of families opting for charter schools or vouchers, or open enrolling into a neighboring district. As the supe of the academically-distressed district optimistically says, “There’s no downside to us to bring back more students.” Yep. None at all. For you. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 5/23/17)
- Speaking of the Lorain supe, he is apparently spending some time these days engaged in suing his former employer – Parma City Schools – over a year-old letter that he believes mischaracterized his work there and defamed him in the process. Sounds time consuming to me, but perhaps he’ll have more time on his hands in the near future to pursue it. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 5/22/17)
- One more stop in Lorain before we move on. Here is a story that you might have seen part of in the social media sphere recently: a 12-year-old Lorain student stepped in to stop a fight between two of her classmates, an effort caught on video that went…well, you know. That student was this week given the “Do the Right Thing Award” for that action. According to the adults interviewed for the story, this is particularly remarkable because the young girl had apparently had a longstanding reputation – known by every one of those adults – for filming, photographing, and publicizing numerous student fights in her school over the years. She was assigned to research and write an essay about her behavior and every adult interviewed says that it was this reflection and work that led the youngster to choose to step out from behind the camera and act out the sentiment behind the title of that popular Spike Lee film. Kudos to young Dyamond Henderson, for sure. But your humble clips compiler humbly suggests that among these adults at least, the cart and the horse are actually in different universes currently. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 5/23/17)
- Sticking with the theme of surreality for a moment, the hipsters of the Columbus Underground blog this week brought us a story that asks the question, are school lunches any more cool if they are served from a food truck decorated like a strawberry? An answer is proposed here, but who cares? The more important questions to me: Why is anyone asking about this, let alone spending time and money to find out the answer? (Columbus Underground, 5/23/17) And we conclude our detour in surreality-land with a description of this effort by a teacher in tiny Unioto school district in south central Ohio to help keep her students “human” over the summer. I’m not sure what she fears kids will become when out of her sight for a couple of months, but the usual admonition of “read!” (and even the provision of free books) is apparently not enough. Her effort includes rules, signature sheets, denial of screen time, and requirements like chores, brushing your teeth, making your bed, and occasionally showering. If it’s that bad, perhaps year-round school is called for out in the sticks. (Chillicothe Gazette, 5/22/17)
- We’ll conclude today with a three-fer of state budget stories. First up, efforts are still underway to keep charter school performance from weighing too heavily (read: not at all) on the evaluation reports of their sponsors. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/22/17) Next, it was the College Credit Plus program under the microscope. Specifically, a plea from some higher ed institutions to institute a floor on per-credit-hour costs and a concurrent plea from school districts to lower costs as much as possible on testing, textbooks, and – you guessed it – per credit hour prices. (Gongwer Ohio, 5/23/17) Finally, the state budget could be used as a vehicle to allow paper and pencil tests back into the great state of Ohio, after a year of mostly computer-based testing being the law of the land. (Columbus Dispatch, 5/24/17) Surreality or education policy discussion? Who can tell?
