NOTE: We’re back with a catch up edition covering clips from 12/23 – 12/31/20. Hope you missed me! Wednesday’s edition will catch us up with clips from 2021 so far. Fingers crossed for sanity!
- Lots of stuff “left hanging” at the end of 2020 if Ohio media outlets are to be believed. Case in point: Standardized testing for this school year. Fordham’s Chad Aldis is among the voices quoted here, noting that since we don’t yet know that testing will have to be cancelled due to pandemic considerations it would have been precipitate to have done so too early. Seems like the simple message should be, “Until they hear otherwise, schools should conduct their business as if testing will happen as usual.” What could be the harm in doing the job they are supposed to be doing anyway in the meanwhile? (Dayton Daily News, 12/29/20)
- Turning to the topic of money, Springfield Local Schools finally got moving on spending cuts—as the year ran out—in order to dig themselves out of fiscal caution status and state fiscal oversight arising therefrom. They are doing so by reducing the number of janitors on staff (or whatever), but the point I wanted to emphasize is one that we have noted many times here: It’s never about new money from the state’s perspective when fiscal oversight is in force. It’s about spending control. “We are basically on budget,” said the district treasurer. That was his way of explaining the reduction-in-force plan, but I’m not sure if that counts as over- or understatement on his part. (The Suburbanite, 12/30/20)
- Speaking of money and things “left hanging”… Lots of kvetching by folks about the non-passage of a school funding bill in lame duck. Including this guy, whose name, message, and 25-year-old photos should be mighty familiar to you by now. (Columbus Dispatch, 12/24/20) But here also are a couple of newbs to the discussion – both sporty people and both former (!) Ohio residents – one of whom likely doesn’t live or even pay taxes in the U.S. these days. Oddly enough, their opinion on our school funding system is exactly the same as that other dude. (Cleveland.com, 12/27/20)
- As 2020 ended, the reopening of schools post-holiday was another of those open questions. Specifically, when would it happen and in what form(s)? Opinions differed. (Cleveland.com, 12/23/20) Lots of folks seemed to favor a later-in-January opening regardless of form. However, a change in school quarantine rules announced by the governor on New Year’s Eve seemed to indicate a change of his mind on that topic from just the week previous. (10TV News, Columbus, 12/31/20)
- What the new year will look like in terms of school – in both the near term and the far – is also up in the air. But I do have some
catchy taglinesevidence that might guide our predictifying on this topic. First up, Richmond Heights Local Schools got a grant just as the year was ending which was going to be used to support next year’s “Hope Squad to Learning Pod” initiative. That lilting title is defined as “an adaptive response to the changes in traditional learning measures brought on by the pandemic” but the description sounds like kids sitting in classrooms doing online school while supervised by non-teaching staff. (Cleveland.com, 12/24/20) A little further south, Cloverleaf Local School District is planning to implement what is termed “in-person remote learning”. Just like the previous plan we looked at, I personally would call it “school without teachers”. (Medina Gazette, 12/31/20) Akron City Schools calls their plan “Remote Plus”, which we have discussed before. It is an effort to bring students in the most need (academic and otherwise) into school buildings for as much in-person academics and support as can be mustered. But it seemed that the mustering was an unsolved problem. To wit: The plan was originally supposed to begin back in November, but staff members were asked to volunteer to be in their buildings to provide the in-person support. “Some schools had enough staff volunteer,” Superintendent David James told the ABJ, “but the majority did not.” According to the supe, that means the program “can't be voluntary” if it is going to work as intended. And as time expired on 2020, the plan and the kids who need it had to be left hanging. (Akron Beacon Journal, 12/31/20)
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