- In case you missed it, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Education earlier this week. The suit challenges the legality of new federal regulations that would serve to significantly restrict access to Charter School Grant (CSP) funds. (The Center Square, 8/8/22)
- In Fordham’s ancestral seat, the countdown is on to the very first first day at the Greater Dayton School. The brand new private school with an innovative structure and extensive supports for its low-income families will welcome its first students—in a temporary location—on Monday. Great news! (Dayton Daily News, 8/10/22)
- Meanwhile, the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Ann Jerkins-Harris Academy of Educational Excellence, a charter school in Toledo, is such a great that it is being celebrated by a TV news outlet… (13ABC News, Toledo, 8/9/22) …and lauded by the Blade too. Amazing! (Toledo Blade, 8/9/22)
- Canton City School’s McKinley High School has been redesigned for the new school year. Its approximately 2,000 students have been randomly designated to one of four “teams” to create four smaller entities within the building. The purpose? To create “a smaller school environment” to help students “build relationships with the adults – teachers, principals, counselors and student success coaches – who will be educating them throughout the rest of their high school career.” This follows on the heels of a different attempt at reorganization last year (the “remarkable” and “game changing” Design for Excellence), which itself was meant to address lingering concerns from the merger of two high schools into one back in 2015. While Design for Excellence was supposed to save the district $7 million over three years, apparently money is not a primary concern in the new effort. We are told that “each team will have its own principal and secretary, two counselors and two student success coaches who will stay with this same group of students for the rest of their high school career. Each team, which will have roughly 500 students, also will have the same set of teachers each year and will have a designated area within the school.” Lotsa luck, y’all. (Canton Repository, 8/8/22)
- Findlay City Schools is a small district with a fairly compact footprint, so perhaps the changes they have made to their union bus drivers’ contract in an effort to improve transportation for students and families are not readily transferrable to larger or more spread out districts. However, I feel like some of the inflexibility baked into that contract in the past as described here—which this effort is attempting to undo with some innovative hiring, scheduling, and technology use—is probably quite common in districts large and small across the Buckeye State. (Findlay Courier, 8/9/22)
Did you know you can have every edition of Gadfly Bites sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
Policy Priority:
Topics:
