- This is a story about the first day of the new school year this week at Columbus’ only year-round school. But the real news is buried deep inside the piece: According to the district and the school’s nurse, Covid is now “not different than anything else that we monitor” in terms of communicable disease. “That’s part of what we do on a regular basis.” It only took us three years to get here, but that sounds like back to business as usual to me. And you heard it here first. (Columbus Dispatch, 7/27/22)
- Speaking of the new year, Olentangy Local Schools here in central Ohio is growing its faculty exponentially. Apparently, this gigundo district only had one “math go-to” previously. Now they have 21. Despite a supposed nationwide teacher shortage, the district has hoovered up nearly two dozen additional educators to support their elementary and middle school teachers, using federal Covid-relief dollars to fund the positions for at least two years. (ThisWeek News, 7/27/22)
- Dayton City Schools was this week presented with an Auditor of State Award with Distinction for its 2020-21 audit. This means a clean audit, no ethics issues, no other financial concerns, and no issues with public records. Kudos. (Dayton Daily News, 7/27/22) However, if the concerns raised by two of Dayton’s elected school board members here are correct, sounds like it might be the last one of those awards for a while. (Dayton Daily News, 7/28/22)
- Speaking of concerns, there were a whole bunch of them flying around this high-profile school funding summit held in early June (but for some reason only being reported about now). Supes, treasurers, current and former state reps, elected school board members—the lot. Not a single satisfied customer among the whole gathering. Go figure. (Newark Advocate, 7/28/22)
- But honestly, it’s not like I don’t have my own complaints. As you all know, I regularly take exception to questionable Covid-relief spending and folks who deny or minimize pandemic learning loss. Both of these are present in this piece, but I will resist crabbing about them too much because the outcome sounds pretty good. Licking Heights Local Schools have spent a good chunk of their ESSER funding to hire some additional educators to boost student achievement. These good folks have discovered this “great new way” of doing business. Check it out: assess students, use the data to identify those who are behind, reteach them with numerous personalized supports targeting specific gaps, give them additional out-of-school-time learning opportunities and tutoring, retest them, repeat the process until the kids are caught up. Inspired, right? I would have invented that for half of whatever these folks are being paid. Just sayin’. (Newark Advocate, 7/28/22) Finally this week, as we have seen throughout the pandemic and the ongoing recovery period, it regularly seems to be smaller, local nonprofit organizations generating the best ideas and doing the real work for the true benefit of our young people. Take a look at this quick profile of the Union Miles Development Corporation—which appears to be one smart, superpowered mom serving an entire Cleveland neighborhood—working to build up the life and learning skills of high schoolers through the Youth Opportunities Unlimited program. The world of work, the importance of financial knowledge, the availability of life and options outside the CLE. All vital pieces of the “growing up” puzzle perhaps not easily mastered in other ways. I love it! (News 5, Cleveland, 7/27/22)
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