DeWine closes DeSchools
All Ohio K-12 schools—district, charter, and private—were ordered closed this week by Governor DeWine. Closures start officially at the end of the school day on Monday, March 16, and run for three weeks. Although in actuality, many schools and districts are starting sooner than that, out of an abundance of caution.
IDEA charter school coming to Ohio?
Forbes this week profiled the IDEA charter school chain, detailing its many years of success and providing an in-depth interview with both co-founders Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama. In discussion of the chain’s future, expansion plans—including into Ohio—loomed large.
More on Cleveland charter-district “merger”
Last week, it was announced that Stonebrook Montessori charter school in Cleveland would be “merging” with the district school building next door. This week, we got to go beyond the press release thanks to the excellent reporting of Patrick O’Donnell in the Plain Dealer. Both schools, it seems, were on the brink of closure: the charter school for poor performance and the district school for low student enrollment. The “merger”, which will eventually see a single, district-run Montessori school, is said to be a lifeline for both schools.
Endangered species?
A bipartisan group of Ohio legislators held a press conference earlier this week in which they unveiled forthcoming legislation aimed at eliminating for-profit charter school operators in the state. The legislation, if passed, would affect 178 schools in Ohio whose operators would all “have to switch to a nonprofit or close”.
