- You don’t propose $300 million in education budget cuts without expecting a swift and coordinated response, I suppose. Expect to hear variations of all the following—often using the same exact words—from districts over the coming days. Cuts to things that parents value…like field trips. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 5/7/20) Some districts will actually have to give a portion of their money, already received this year, back to the state. (Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune, 5/7/20) Districts will express “surprise” at the size of the cuts (c.f. “blindsided”, “taken aback”, and/or “gobsmacked”…but that last one will only apply if the district leader was once an English or classics major) and will threaten to take funds away from other areas to backfill the new cuts. To wit: Lakewood City Schools eyeing student wellness funds. (Cleveland.com, 5/6/20) Many supes will remain “terrified” by the budget cuts, and there will be apocalyptic suggestions that many school districts will merge and some will simply “disappear”. Although, to be fair, it’s not district supes offering that gloomy and decidedly incendiary take. (Cleveland.com, 5/8/20)
- Meanwhile, Ohio Connections Academy is having an online student art show like it’s nothing. NOTE: That’s first annual art show. Like, it’ll happen again next year. If you’re around. Just sayin’. (Patch,com, 5/8/20)
- Meanwhile meanwhile, Licking Heights Local Schools has received nearly $1 million in a grant from Facebook to help buy a Chromebook for every student. You know what I just thought of? Chromebooks would be great way for kids to participate in an online student art show. I jest, of course. Any type of school-provided laptop would do the trick. (10TV, Columbus, 5/7/20)
- This piece is supposed to be about how parents are faring with school buildings closed. The parent perspective on remote learning seems pretty clear to me in this, but because the outlet couldn’t find a parent who was a teacher (I imagine), they made sure to get the input of the local teacher union president. His perspective is less clear to me. In fact, it seems somewhat at odds with mom’s input. But I am, as folks are constantly telling me, probably missing something. I bet a dialogue between those two folks would probably help me understand. (NBC4i, Columbus, 5/7/20) The parent experience is dotted throughout this long piece from Youngtown—including a parent with a student attending a local charter school—but the district teacher (and CEO) perspective eventually swamps all of their voices. Two things jump out at me: When did we jump from “kids are ‘digital natives’” to “computers are so hard”? And didn’t the state implement an Academic Distress Commission in Youngstown to iron out these glaring inequities (c.f. the discussion of Rayen Early College students’ resources vs. East High School students’ resources) presented to us here as “on the way to being solved for the future”? Bonus question: Weren’t we supposed to avoid likening the pandemic-induced school closures to “snow days”?. (Youngstown Business Journal Daily, 5/7/20)
- Finally this week: As locked-down student morale boosters go, this one is pretty good. And it adheres to proper virus-mitigation protocols. (WKYC-TV, Cleveland, 5/3/20) This one is good too, if extremely small scale. And perhaps a bit less mindful of the protocols than it should be. (Elyria Chronicle, 5/8/20)
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