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- Columbus City Schools’ new Facilities Taskforce had its first meeting yesterday. It was characterized as an evening for introductions and expectations, as well as “level setting”. In this brief coverage, we learn that members were told the district has too many buildings and not enough students—which I’m sure everyone already knew since it’s been true for years—and that the district is spending more money on building maintenance than on academics. Which could have been new information to some folks. All of these tidbits (and more—check out the first bullet point on that slide!) paint a picture of a big bureaucracy with a ton of income and two tons of expenses. Can they be controlled? We shall see. (ABC-6 News, Columbus, 2/13/24).
- But honestly, it seems that many Ohio school districts could be characterized the same way. Here’s a look at how Youngstown City Schools spent $78 million in federal Covid-relief funds between 2021 and 2024. Kudos to the local TV news for putting all this together, but I think we know now that their suggestions of questionable spending amounts and recipients probably don’t add up to anything actionable. It is simply the way school district spending shakes out (more on maintenance/healthcare/materials than academics), especially in large urban areas. But it is probably good that we’re getting a better view of it today than ever before, thanks to the post-ESSER fiscal cliff…which could have been avoided if districts didn’t spend their one-time largesse the exact same way they spend their regular ton of dough. (WFMJ-TV, Youngstown, 2/13/24) Same vibe in Cleveland Metropolitan School District, where the fiscal cliff was addressed by new-ish CEO Warren Morgan earlier this week. “We got almost 500 million in COVID-19 relief dollars from the federal government,” he said, “that allowed us to do really extraordinary things during a really extraordinary period of time.” (I assume he’s talking about non-academic “extraordinary things” because all I am remembering on the schooling front is closed doors, no virtual school, zero instruction, and ungraded paper homework packets via snail mail for a long time.) But he also said that pandemic relief dollars simply masked financial problems that were already there. Quelle surprise. The district is facing a $168 million deficit and the first thing on the docket is cuts…the majority of which will hit summer and after-school programming in the immediate future. Morgan said a levy is probably on the cards as well. But he also said that in the future the district may have to “rethink its entire operating model in order to remain financially sound.” Can’t imagine why that option isn’t higher on the agenda. Can you? (Cleveland.com, 2/14/24)
- Also complaining about their budget: The State Board of Education. There’s a lot of words here discussing the budget situation for the revamped board, all of which I think boils down to “you’ll be fine”. But YMMV. (Cleveland.com, 2/13/24) You know, one thing that could have helped lower the board’s budget was moving to cheaper office space (with free staff parking) in the suburbs. But they successfully fought against that for Very Important Reasons. So instead, the board and its staffers will move to another downtown building near DEW HQ. Too bad for visitors, too, I reckon. They could also have benefitted from cheap surface parking. (Cleveland.com, 2/12/24)
- Staying put at DEW HQ will be inaugural director Steve Dackin and his staff. Director Dackin is interviewed by Patrick O’Donnell in this piece. (The 74, 2/12/24)
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