- It’s been cold and snowy in central Ohio for the last few days, causing traffic slowdowns and other headaches. But what were some local charter school leaders doing in the pre-dawn hours yesterday morning? Not checking to see whether they should cancel school, but instead tearing across town in the snow to get to Columbus City Schools’ facilities office to be first in line to put bids on closed school buildings. While charters getting first crack at buying surplus buildings is a step up from previous years when they were routinely shut out of bidding, I don’t think that the Death Race-style crack-of-dawn jockeying was truly the intent of the state law passed last year that put charters first in line. On a personal note, I’m glad to see my old elementary school appears to be getting a new tenant: one of the highest-rated charters in the city. Congrats. (Columbus Dispatch)
- In the midst of the aforementioned weather misery, this week has been showtime for the state’s new PARCC tests. How’s it going? The PD’s Patrick O’Donnell gives us the Northeast Ohio perspective in this piece. Approximately 100,000 students had at least started testing as of yesterday and the glitches reported to O’Donnell seem pretty low key to me. Remember Mentor Supe Matt Miller’s gloomy predictions in front of the Senate Education Committee last week? Now he says, “It's not widespread and it's not blocks of kids… It's more isolated incidents.” Today’s record deep freeze will likely be a much bigger impediment to completion across most of the state. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- From the Be Careful What You Wish For Department: we told you previously about some “school-centric” charter reforms championed by Innovation Ohio and the Ohio Education Association. Yesterday, OEA’s president testified on these proposals in front of the House Education Committee. The committee chair – Rep. Bill Hayes – was particularly interested in the proposal to hasten the closure of failed charter schools…in exactly the way you’d expect. Echoing Governor Kasich from some weeks earlier, Hayes said, “I'm also interested in...what are we doing about (district schools). Are we doing the same thing there?” Oops. He even took it a step further by saying he thinks the state should, “…make sure if a student has a terrible teacher, we have a fast and equitable way to get bad teachers out of the system if we need to… No student should have a bad school or teacher." (Gongwer Ohio)
- Six of the seven buildings comprising the Lima school district are on the EdChoice Scholarship list of persistent underperformers this year (a 100% increase in the number of eligible schools), meaning their students are likely eligible for vouchers to attend private schools in the area. It is gratifying to see the Lima News covering this situation so fully – including a list of the eligible buildings, a full list of area private schools accepting voucher students, and a fairly accurate description of the application process. The piece is not without a whiff of disdain for the situation, but it is thankfully sans irony, unlike the Dayton Daily News version of same from a couple of weeks ago. (Lima News)
- We end with a long and twisty case of malfeasance which may have a happy ending thanks to the vigorous efforts of Ohio’s Attorney General. Three people in charge of a school sports booster trust in Mansfield were indicted back in 2013 and convicted in 2014 on a raft of financial fraud/theft/evidence tampering charges. Total restitution against the trio was north of $6 million on behalf of Mansfield Schools and a number of charities who all lost out on promised funds and were likely tainted by false association with the criminals. Now, it seems unlikely that any of these folks will ever legitimately get their hands on that kind of money. But this week, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that student athletes in Mansfield will get their scholarship fund after all. A new trust was created using proceeds from the forced sale of a building whose ownership was connected to the criminals. Oh, and if any restitution does come from any of the three folks, that will be added to the new scholarship trust fund. I won’t say “never”, but don’t hold your breath. (Norwalk Reflector)
