- One unforeseen consequence of broadening free lunch for schools is, apparently, that there is not enough of certain foods to go around. “Everybody at the same time is asking the food producers for the exact same narrow range of items,” says ODE’s Assistant Director of the Office of Child Nutrition. “It's kind of like a bottleneck problem where everybody is trying to get a specific small thing through a very strained supply channel.” By which I am certain he means chicken nuggets. (WYSO-FM, Yellow Springs, 9/15/21) However, it seems that science should be moving on to the nugget problem soon enough, seeing as how they’ve at last cracked dessert. There is finally enough lab-grown ice cream for everyone! (Dairy Herd Management, 9/15/21)
- In a piece we clipped on Monday talking to Ohio’s outgoing state supe, Paolo DeMaria was a bit cryptic about his next gig following retirement, saying, “Sometime in the next 3-4 months, you’ll learn, hey, Paolo’s doing this thing. And not only is he going to have joy doing it, he’s also going to work hard at it, because he’s going to love what he’s doing.” I’m calling it now: based on this piece, I’m certain he’ll be doing a cooking show. But you can’t call it “The Art of the Italian Cheeseball”, dude. That’s mine. (Cleveland.com, 9/15/21)
- Turning serious now: My niece is a first-year teacher in Worthington City Schools this year and thus this national opinion piece from one of her colleagues, asking for district parents to be “more patient” regarding a host of hot-button issues and “if possible, to stop putting educators in the middle” of their efforts to make other people think, believe, and act as they do got my attention. So here’s the clip, which I probably wouldn’t have otherwise included. It seems a reasonable ask to me, regardless of the requester or of the reasons he puts forward, but then I don’t spend any time trying to make anyone else think, believe, or act as I do. So maybe I don’t really know anything about it. (Washington Post, 9/14/21)
- And since we’re talking about pandemic-related stuff now, here’s an announcement of the new “Learning Under Quarantine” program. It’s a partnership between Arizona State University and Cleveland’s Breakthrough Schools to make sure that students who must quarantine at home due to possible Covid exposure can continue learning without interruption. Nice! (E-School News, 9/16/21)
- OK. I will try to rise above it all for the moment. Worthington City Schools is one of the districts participating in this very cool-sounding aviation program run by Ohio State University. Taxi to Takeoff is a college-level program offered by the Ohio State University designed to introduce students to “the inner workings of careers in aviation”. It was opened to high school students via College Credit Plus for the first time this year. Nice! And although only students from bougie suburban districts are taking part in this inaugural offering (boo), the OSU rep makes sure to note it is open to any high schooler in the state utilizing CCP, which would include charter, STEM, and most private school students (yay). Nope, don’t think I rose above successfully. Must be an aileron issue. (Columbus Dispatch, 9/15/21)
- Finally this week: One thing that has certainly improved for former charter school Escuela SMART since being “absorbed” by Toledo City Schools is its media profile. Wonder why? (Definitivamente un problema con los alierons.) Anywho, here’s a nice look at the Spanish-language immersion school kicking off its Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations earlier this week. (WTOL-TV, Toledo, 9/16/21)
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