Young artists
Young visitors to the pediatrics department of Five Rivers Health Centers in Dayton can see artwork created by their peers, including students from Dayton Leadership Academies and Louise Troy Elementary School. Artist Amy Deal, supported by grants from Culture Works and The National Endowment for the Arts, worked with the students for many weeks to plan, paint, and complete the multi-media installation. You can watch the scholars at work here.
New leaders
IDEA Public Schools recently announced the hiring of two new leaders of the charter school network. Cody Grindle, a 14-year veteran of IDEA, was named president; and Ernesto Cantu, whose tenure with the network goes back almost 20 years, was named chief schools officer. IDEA runs more than 143 schools in four states, including two campuses in Cincinnati.
Ohio budget update
Earlier this week, legislators in the Ohio Senate introduced its state budget plan. Highlights include a significant revamp of education governance in the state; maintaining the proposed funding increase for charters in the Quality Community Schools program; and several innovative proposals to make school transportation more responsive to families utilizing charter, private, STEM, and even district schools. More details can be found here. The Fordham’s Institute’s Aaron Churchill provided testimony to the Senate Education Committee yesterday highlighting the major issues. He also made the case for adding a $1,000 per pupil equity supplement for all brick-and-mortar charter schools to the final budget bill, as well as in a recent Columbus Dispatch editorial.
The view from Oklahoma
By a vote of 3-2, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted this week to approve an application for the nation’s first religiously-affiliated charter school. This was the second appearance by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa before the board to gain approval for the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic Charter School after a losing vote back in April.
News from West Virginia
While legal wrangling around the fraught process of launching charter schools continues in the state’s Supreme Court, West Virginia’s charters are making up for lost time—growing and multiplying quickly. To wit: West Virginia Academy, the first brick-and-mortar charter to open in the Mountain State last year, will be adding a second school and a sports facility thanks to a generous donation. The new school should be ready to go by this fall; the sports facility some time in 2024.
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