- There are currently two school districts in Ohio which receive state oversight via Academic Distress Commissions. There soon may be two more. Review teams assembled by the Ohio Department of Education will be conducting in-depth site visits in both Dayton and Trotwood schools over the next few weeks due to their persistent positions at the bottom of the performance index rankings. Says ODE: The review will “compare district operations to established best practices,” with the goal being “to improve student achievement across the board”. There are of course a couple of ways to look at this: open arms (an opportunity to “help us to strengthen our shortcomings,” according to Dayton’s board president) or circled wagons (“I look forward to the recommendations, if they are situationally relevant and not based on a one-size-fits-all mentality,” according to Trotwood’s superintendent). Should be an interesting report coming up this spring. (Dayton Daily News)
- It seems that arms are perhaps opening a little wider in Geauga County, where the Berkshire/Ledgemont merger discussions have picked up again at the first board meeting of the year. In fact, it was a joint meeting of the two districts’ boards, almost exclusively to talk about what a merger of the two districts would look like in practice and the pros and cons as revealed in a recent financial report on the process as proposed. As we reporter earlier, the financials appear to be entirely positive, and the feared downsides are more along the line of the “circled wagons” variety. These are things that dedicated, professional adults in staff, administration, and boards can mitigate with a we’re-all-in-this-together-for-the-better attitude. The biggest caveat is the time pressure the districts are under: a merger must be finalized by June 30 in order for Ledgemont’s $1.9 million debt to the state to be forgiven, a key piece of the puzzle. But honestly, once this is completed, movement can begin toward the four-district combined high school plan that will bring even more students and families into the open arms of the future in Geauga County. (Willoughby News Herald)
