- Late last week, Governor DeWine announced two appointees to fill open seats on the state board of education. One of them is Steve Dackin, former superintendent of Reynoldsburg City Schools, current high level administrator at Columbus State Community College, and a member of Fordham’s board of trustees. Sounds like a great get to me, although I could be the teensiest bit biased. No, not because of that. Because my niece and nephew thrived in Reynoldsburg City Schools. (AP, via WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, 6/30/19)
- Fordham is referenced heavily in this piece looking at a proposed change to school report cards contained in the Senate version of Ohio’s next biennial state budget. With numbers and graphs that seemed pretty convincing. If you ask me, those folks quoted in support of the change should also get some graphs. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/28/19)
- Speaking of Ohio’s next biennial budget, this piece from Friday says that there were at the time a number of potential sticking points—including a graduation requirements proposal in whose development Fordham had a hand—that could contrive to make final agreement on the bill very difficult for the House and Senate to reach by the deadline. (Gongwer Ohio, 6/28/19)
- In case you missed it, the good folks at Gongwer were right: final agreement on Ohio’s next biennial budget did end up being impossible to reach by the deadline. And so a 17-day extension of the current budget was agreed to over the weekend. Kind of a bummer, but conference committee will probably resume right after the holiday and everything will eventually work out. (Gongwer Ohio, 6/30/19) Speaking of weekend bummers, it was announced late on Friday that the Youngstown Vindicator will cease publication at the end of August after 150 years of existence. (Youngstown Vindicator, 6/28/19)
- I will have to retract my previous ribbing of the elected board of Dayton City Schools regarding their ability to spend the giant pile of surplus cash on which they are sitting. Any school board that can make it rain to the tune of $4 million on a Saturday in June deserves mad props. But seriously: Can those board members have any lower opinion of high school kids? (Dayton Daily News, 6/29/19) The folks at Preschool Promise are bush league spenders compared to the local school board, but they are trying. They will soon be laying out a larger chunk of their considerable budget to expand the program a little and to get more money to pre-K teachers for pay, bonuses, and training a lot. Plus they did their spending during the regular work week. Aim higher, gang. Aim higher. (Dayton Daily News, 6/29/19)
- Finally today, the new superintendent in Canton City Schools is going to be spending the summer revamping the district’s discipline policy, because, he says that recent discipline problems “whether real or perceived” need to be addressed. The president of the local teacher’s union is all for this new effort. “The teachers in our district relish the opportunity to recommend interventions and alternative settings within the district,” he says. I’m sure he is not exaggerating at all. (Canton Repository, 7/1/19)
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