Gadfly Bites 9/23/26—The state of state oversight

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1. Barberton City School leaders got their wish granted yesterday: a declaration of fiscal emergency by the state…and everything that comes with it. They even skipped a couple of steps in their zeal for the state to take oversight of literally every penny of their budget. (Cleveland.com, 9/22/26)
   
   

2. Meanwhile, Youngstown City Schools leaders are calling for an end to state academic oversight (such as it is these days) on the back of their semi-decent report card…despite still having failed to meet a majority of the improvement benchmarks they set for themselves to achieve that goal. “We’re not saying that we’re done,” superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said, without irony. “But we should not have that veil over us anymore.” (WFMJ-TV, Youngstown, 9/22/26)

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