Cheers to State Auditor Dave Yost, for going there. Charter law reform is a cause célèbre in Ohio. An influential report, a determined governor, and two bills being heard in House committees all feature excellent reform provisions, mostly in the “sponsor-centric” realm. But last week, Yost laid out some reform provisions that only an auditor would think of—things like accounting practice changes, attendance reporting changes, and defining the public/private divide inherent in many charter schools’ operations. These are all welcome additions to the ongoing debate from an arm of state government directly concerned with auditing charter schools.
Jeers to Mansfield City Schools, for nitpicking Yost and his team as they attempt to help the district avert fiscal disaster. Mansfield has been in fiscal emergency for over a year, and their finances are under the aegis of a state oversight committee. Yost’s team identified $4.7 million in annual savings opportunities. Instead of getting to work on implementing as many of those changes as possible, district administrators last week decided to pick holes in the methodology and timing of the report. Kind of like the teenager who swears “I’m going” just as Dad finally loses his cool. And the fiscal abyss is still out there.
Jeers to Shadyside Local Schools, for doing exactly the same thing as Mansfield. Although after eleven years in fiscal caution status, Shadyside is less a case of a petulant teen than of a failure to launch.
Cheers to Pickerington Schools Superintendent Valerie Browning-Thompson for using report card data to drive important changes in her district to directly benefit students. In her first “State of the District” report last week, she praised what is working and outlined plans to address areas of poor showing on the state report card. Those include a D in gifted programming and missed indicators in math and science at certain grade levels.
Cheers to the editorial staff of the Columbus Dispatch, for warning that opting out of state testing is likely an overreaction. Editors decry the slippery slope that could result from curtailing testing rashly – ending accountability systems, the Common Core, or both. But they also decry the anxiety level being generated by adults around a fixable issue that is washing over their children as well. “No 9-year-old has reason to fear a PARCC test,” they say, “unless an adult has instilled that fear.”
Cheers to the Panini Lady of Canfield Schools. The Guru of the Grill Press serves popular and tasty sandwiches to her students with a side order of adult caring and concern—both for healthy eating and their overall well-being.
