- As we have noted in these Bites since the passage of the state budget bill, the cold light of day is a strong antidote to formerly red hot rhetoric. It also seems to induce some caveat emptor vibes as well. How else to characterize this discussion of education funding, school choice, and other new provisions which took place in front of the elected school board of Cleveland Heights-University Heights City Schools earlier this week? Not only do all the district folks quoted here seem confused about what was enacted (spare a thought for the poor journalist who had to try and make sense of it), they now seem fairly confused about what they thought they had been advocating for despite being present and testifying in great numbers at every budget hearing in Columbus for the last three months. (Cleveland.com, 7/12/21) Same “what just happened?” vibes in tiny Fredericktown Local Schools, per this coverage of the most recent meeting of its elected school board. I can only conclude from all this that the “fair” part of the “Fair School Funding Plan” refers to the fair amount of confusion it has generated, despite being supported unwaveringly by all these elected school board members and administrators. Oh, and y’all are probably taking a bath on your copier contract too. Just sayin’. (Knox Pages, 7/13/21) And just in case you thought that those who led the unwavering support for the Fair(ly complicated) School Funding Plan—as in, those folks who should have really understood what it all meant—would be mollified by the passage of that plan…nah. (Statehouse News Bureau, 7/13/21)
- Here is a reminder, in case anyone needed it, that students across Ohio took state tests this spring and that those test score data will be coming out soon. Spectrum News 1 gives us the briefest of first looks here. (Spectrum News 1, 7/12/21)
- Speaking of things which are “on deck”, the state board of education this week named John Richard as Interim State Superintendent of Public Instruction, effective in September when current supe Paolo DeMaria packs up his bike, straps on his pool floaties, and heads off to retirement. (Gongwer Ohio, 7/13/21) In case you had forgotten, Mr. Richard is currently the chair of the Academic Distress Commission nominally in charge of Youngstown City Schools. Speaking of which, the elected school board in Youngstown appears to be following its typical bureaucratic path as it plans to debate how to get ready to discuss how to prepare to generate the pieces of the turnaround framework which they will eventually create which might at some point return control of the district to them. In related news, Friday marks the sixth anniversary of the signing of HB 70, the law which created the CEO-style Academic Distress Commission paradigm which, as you can tell from the foregoing, is still the law of the land for at least another year. (Vindy.com, 7/13/21)
- Finally today, the Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services is offering a school clothing voucher to area families as a way to support their constituents using pandemic-relief funds. There are no clear prohibitions on e-school students’ eligibility apparent here, unlike their counterparts in Stark County (as we noted last week), so it is to be hoped that they are not planning to shut out needy families who have chosen to attend school remotely. (WTOV-TV, Steubenville, 7/13/21)
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