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Ensuring student safety
Utica Shale Academy recently celebrated receipt of a generous donation from MPLX and Marathon Petroleum, aimed to purchase fire-resistant personal protective gear to keep students safe when participating in USA’s outdoor welding program. “We deeply believe that safety comes first, so supporting personal protective equipment needs of students learning valuable trades is an honor,” said the regional operations director for MPLX. Nice!
Liaison
Parma City Schools have recently created a Parent Mentor position specifically to liaise with district-resident families who attend charter and private schools. Superintendent Charles Smialek told Cleveland.com that the idea is to provide support specific to choice families who utilize certain district services, such as transportation and special education, to help solve any problems that arise. It is to be hoped that real help and advice will be made available because families often need such assistance.
Response
Last week, Jed A. Hartings, board president of Cincinnati Classical Academy, strongly responded to accusations against the school by the Network for Public Education. He lays out the process and the data used to apply for, and win, a $2 million Charter Schools Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education and refutes the accusations point by point. “Cincinnati Classical has achieved what anti-charter activists fear most — success,” he writes. Publicizing the false attacks, he says, has backfired, and served to highlight the school’s success, “kick-starting our open enrollment season. We are grateful that these anti-charter activists have finally succeeded – inadvertently – in advertising public classical education to ever-wider audiences.”
Right-sizing
Columbus City Schools has seen a steady decline in enrollment for more than a decade but has resisted closing buildings in response. The discussion has reared its head again recently, with charter schools being blamed for the decline and school closures being opposed by the local teachers union. Fordham’s Jessica Poiner lays out the fallacies in these arguments and explains why the elected school board can no longer wait to right-size their district.
The view from Kentucky
Kentucky House Bill 208, introduced earlier this week, would amend the state constitution to provide a path to fund charter schools. If the bill becomes law, voters in the Bluegrass State would then have a chance to approve the amendment or not. Supporters hope to have the measure on the ballot this November.
Remembrance
Fordham’s Checker Finn published a fond remembrance of charter pioneer Lina Brown this week. Brown, founder of the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center and the Building Excellent Schools leadership incubator, died on Christmas Day at the age of 81 after a life of service to students and their schools in the Bay State and beyond.
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