Charter innovations
The Columbus Dispatch this week published a terrific feature on the Walkabout program for seniors at The Graham School. In case you haven’t heard of it, Walkabout is a student-driven effort to connect classroom learning to the world outside the school—jobs, internships, civic engagement, volunteerism, and the like—to help prepare young people for the next step in their lives. Check it out! Meanwhile, Cleveland.com reported on efforts to build a culinary technical program at Frederick Douglass High School—everything from food safety to knife skills to gastronomy and beyond. And by partnering with Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute, the hope is that students will have a direct pathway into Cleveland’s restaurant industry upon completion of the program.
More unionizing
Also in Cleveland, teachers at Menlo Park Academy have voted to unionize. There are a few remaining hurdles, but the deal will likely be done soon.
More of the same
While pandemic pivots to remote learning at various school buildings in Columbus City Schools seem to be a thing of the past, bus driver shortages in the district continue, negatively impacting charter school families as reported by ABC 6 News.
The view from Kentucky
While legislation was passed in 2017 that allows charter schools to operate in Kentucky, none have yet overcome existing hurdles to actually open. The CEO of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions published an op-ed this week discussing a newly-introduced bill that might finally break the logjam if enacted.
Meanwhile, back in Ohio
An odd and protracted tussle between the Ohio Department of Education and the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) continued during a meeting this week. The rules in question relate to charter schools—and accountability of them in particular—but despite much effort to resolve the concerns, it seems that more work and more debate will be required.
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