- Members of the elected board of Lorain City Schools got some hard numbers this week on budget and student enrollment. Both seem pretty good, so why do they all sound so miserable in this piece? (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 8/22/18) And why are those board members still obsessed with pointless personnel issues that have already been settled? The world may never know. (Elyria Chronicle, 8/23/18)
- Feel free to call me a successful sports prognosticator if you wish: As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, the Ohio Supreme Court has become involved in the legal action surrounding “competitive balance”. You will recall that the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) created the competitive balance formula to, among other things, address the growing number of students eligible to play varsity sports while not actually attending their team’s school (i.e. – homeschoolers, STEM and charter school students, etc.). The initial court case we discussed previously – brought by a number of Catholic high schools unhappy with the new division breakdowns – ended with a blanket moratorium on competitive balance pending a full hearing by the lower court. OHSAA, fearing that the entire structure of varsity football (and possibly that of soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, and softball too) will crumble into disarray if the case drags on, has filed a Complaint for Writ of Prohibition in the Ohio Supreme Court. We will, reluctantly, keep an eye on this. (WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, 8/23/18)
- Finally this week, leaders in Madison Local Schools may have thought they settled the issue of STEM implementation via compromise, but at least one parent is not letting the issue rest. He has been conducting anonymous online polls (always helpful) and has called an invite-only “community” meeting (ditto) to discuss the results of those polls, among other things. Board and administration members are among members of the “community” who are not invited. (Mansfield News Journal, 8/21/18)
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