Gadfly Bites 8/14/23—Can he fix it?

1. As we have previously established, Dayton City Schools’ new interim superintendent is in full Bob the Builder mode, moving at warp speed to tackle literally anything he deems in need of fixing in his district, starting at least the day before he got the job. Among the many such things noted in this piece is student transportation, especially for those district-resident students who have chosen charter and private schools and still have the audacity to want a ride to school absent any other available option. Interim Supe says he has already had some discussions about that issue with private school leaders and “they were tough.” Whatever could that mean? Sure doesn’t sound like a fix to me. (Dayton Daily News, 8/14/23) Perhaps those private school leaders got a sense of Interim Supe’s true colors during those meetings. I mean, he did tell the DDN that “We’re going to be actively recruiting [charter and private school students] back…as we try to achieve excellence in this school district.” With that as his stated goal, I can only imagine what he told his rival school leaders to their faces. To that point: I wonder whether he’s proposing families wait until that excellence has been achieved or to just come on in now and trust him that awesomeness will happen at some point before their kids graduate. Either way, I imagine every one of those families will be tempted to jump ship when they hear about this important effort: A huge expansion of the district’s so-called “transportation hub”, upon which Bob the Builder and his colleagues broke ground last week. No, silly, that fancy building is not for students, nor indeed for the streamlining of the district’s perpetually messed up bus services. Those awesome—Covid relief-funded—ping pong tables, treadmills, and bistro tables are for bus drivers only and only for when they’re on break and not working. (Dayton Daily News, 8/14/23)
   
   

2. Meanwhile, apropos of nothing really, kudos to all of the Toledo-area students who were chosen to participate in the 46th annual NAACP ACT-SO competition in Boston in late July. The talented teens include one suburban district student, two Toledo School for the Arts (charter school) students, one local Catholic school student, and one intradistrict school choice Toledo Early College student who earned a bronze medal in the national competition. (Toledo Blade, 8/13/23)
   
   

3. Governor DeWine last week announced a new teacher apprenticeship program for Ohio, aiming to make it easier for “potential future teachers” (think classroom aids, library workers, and even bus drivers) to get access to one of the extant teacher licensure pathways in the state. Lt. Gov. Husted pointed out a tiny irony that while “teachers all across Ohio are currently instructing students at the more than 120 pre-apprenticeship programs…until now, teaching has been a non-apprenticable occupation.” No more! (10TV news, Columbus, 8/13/23)

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