- It took a little while, but editors in Toledo have weighed in on the topic of charter school law reform. They are all for it, not surprisingly, but skeptical of political will. Fordham and Stanford are namechecked. (Toledo Blade)
- Speaking of editorials, the Repository strongly encourages legislators to forget about Common Core repeal in next General Assembly. Can't argue with that. (Canton Repository)
- Speaking of Common Core, here’s a nice piece from suburban Cleveland news outlet West Life. The piece is new, although the event it covers happened last month. Char Shryock, director of curriculum and instruction for high-flying Bay Village Schools (and a tireless supporter of Common Core across the state), gave a presentation on Ohio’s New Learning Standards in which she laid out (probably for the 200th time) the benefits of the standards, which include Common Core standards in math and English language arts. She also discussed the new tests which go along with the new standards – very much an issue that will be relevant in the new year. She spelled out that PARCC, the testing consortium to which Ohio belongs, had input from teachers, including many from Ohio. “PARRC is not a nameless, faceless testing company,” Shryock said. “I am PARCC.” Nice. (West Life, Cleveland)
- We finish today with updates on two stories we’ve been following closely for most of 2014. First is the perilous financial situation in tiny Ledgemont Schools in Geauga County. Last week, it was reported that the district may not have enough funds to cover its payroll as early as mid-January. Now it seems that the heavens and earth have indeed been moved to avoid that specific default. It’s great that many entities are in the trenches supporting the district in this way, but surely this one reprieve is not the end of the Ledgemont’s financial woes if its leaders continue to try and operate the same as always. Change seems to be required, despite their demonstrated reluctance. (Willoughby News Herald)
- Finally, it looks like even more wheel-spinning in the Monroe school district in regard to their long-mothballed old high school, but at least this time it will look like something is being done. Instead of selling the old building to a local church – the highest and only bidder during a number of sales attempts over the years – the board has sought funding for a facilities study of all district property, which will take at least six months. The information provided by the study will likely be interesting and useful, but what do district leaders expect will happen at the end of that time? The old eyesore will be a little worse, the cost for remediation will be that bit higher, and not one of the entrenched interests in blocking the sale (which now includes a group from outside Ohio with zero actual interest in Monroe) will have changed their minds one iota. Stay tuned in 2015. (Middletown Journal-News)
