- Maybe THIS will be the final word on this topic. The young man who finished third in the SkillsUSA Ohio masonry competition – but who ended up going to the national competition instead of the young woman who “won” the state contest due to a reported scoring error – placed second in said national masonry competition. Pretty impressive. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/26/16)
- It is a big week for high-profile new hires here in Ohio. First up, Paolo DeMaria starts today as State Superintendent for Public Instruction. I was going to bike to work today too, but the path was too wet. (Associated Press via Toledo Blade, 6/27/16) Krish Mohip starts Wednesday as the first CEO of Youngstown City Schools. Whatever biking he’s doing will be decidedly uphill. (Youngstown Vindicator, 6/26/16)
- What do I mean by “uphill”? The Ohio Department of Education has found three areas in which Youngstown City Schools “did not adequately or properly follow required procedures regarding its special-education students”. Things like clustering special education students in one or two buildings and denying them equal access to CTE courses. The interim supe seems to think it’s no biggie and in fact had already put forward a plan the he said would have addressed some of the issues. But that was ignored by the board and, it seems, the CEO will have to deal with it anyway. (Youngstown Vindicator, 6/27/16)
- I have to admit that I don’t fully understand this story, but it sounds intriguing so far and I’m paying attention. Apparently a consortium of public agencies – overseen by school district superintendents and intended to provide financial, computing, and other services for its member agencies – has experienced something of an unchecked growth spurt and now questions are being raised about assets, liabilities, fees, and services rendered. Tens of millions of public dollars are involved and it sounds like a mess, but you don’t have to take my word for it: “Every year, we find a couple of these we didn’t even know existed,” Ohio Auditor Dave Yost said. “I’m concerned we’ve got these shadow governments going outside public scrutiny.” Sounds like a job for StateAuditor! Man. (Marion Star, 6/26/16)
