Gadfly Bites 5/10/23—Degraded spectacle

1. Lots to cover today. So let’s crack on! The State Board of Education had two good candidates in mind for Interim State Superintendent when they met to decide that question earlier this week… (Gongwer Ohio, 5/8/23) …and thus were able to make a good pick when the time came. Congratulations to Chris Woolard on his appointment. (Dayton Daily News, 5/9/23) It is nice to know that our state board of education can act decisively on some issues occasionally. Such as when voting to go crying to Uncle Dave about constitutional matters. Sometimes, y’all, it can hurt to ask. Just sayin’. (Columbus Dispatch, 5/9/23)
   
   

2. Meanwhile, up in Cleveland: new CEO just dropped! Congratulations to Dr. Warren Morgan. (Cleveland19 News, 5/9/23) Less-smooth sailing here in Columbus, where the NAACP and at least one local news outlet are displeased with various aspects of Columbus City Schools’ superintendent search process. Not least of which are some supposed “issues” discovered by reporters in the background of one of the out-of-town finalists. (ABC6 News, Columbus, 5/9/23) There’s a little of that energy in this profile of new CMSD CEO Morgan. Not because his background holds some “unknowns”, but because of The “known” Fact thAt he worked for a cerTain outFit you mAy have heard of once or Twice beFore todAy. An outfit whose very exisTence oFten rAnkles the rank and file…if you know what I mean. (The 74, 5/9/23)
   
   

3. More changes are afoot in Canton City Schools. While the main purpose of a change in bell schedules across the district next year is said to be allowing kids to get home earlier in the day (has anyone been asking for that?), it seems that another—perhaps more pressing—purpose is to “encourage more employees to participate in the district’s after-school programs.” Honestly, I’m not super bothered by this, as I have noted a number of times since March 2020 that after school programs have been doing yeoman’s work in actually educating kids in schools all around Ohio. Supposedly, the amount of instruction time in the official school day for Canton students will remain “essentially unchanged”, district officials say, but how is that possible? For at least the youngest group of students, we are told, it is due to the elimination of nap time. That’s right: I said no naptime for preschoolers in Canton anymore. (Canton Rep, 5/9/23) More “signing day” weirdness in Marion City Schools this week. This includes a speaker who explained how he spun his wheels for a number of years (and likely spent quite a bit of money) taking college classes and enlisting in the military before he found his dream job as a firefighter, repeated references to an education as a “gift” (as opposed to a requirement for a successful life), and a bunch of kindergartners also “signing” (just imagine!) “letters of intent” alongside their high school pals. Intent to do what? Give up naptime for the benefit of staff? What kind of degraded spectacle have we created here? (Marion Star, 5/10/23) Despite having preferred to “play in the dirt” and “build things” all her life, it seems that no adult in any of Erika Baker’s schools thought to suggest she might be interested in a pathway to the construction trades. In fact, she found her first career technical class by accident in her freshman year at Austintown High School, near Youngstown. Unable to fit in a more traditional course, she grabbed any old skilled trades section just to fill the time. And bam: her entire future came into focus immediately. While this is unequivocally good news for her, I fear that she and others have come to the wrong conclusion based on her story. She tells Spectrum News: “You don’t expect to find something that you absolutely love in high school, but I did.” Why the heck not?! Seriously? Is that really the attitude of adults and students in schools today? It is up to students to blunder into opportunities (educational “gifts”, if you will) and if they find something they actually like to do in high school, it is a vanishingly rare miracle worthy of statewide news? Disgusting. (Spectrum News 1, 5/8/23)
   
   

4. Another case in point? Lots of gloomy Covid slide rhetoric in this piece (which all but absolves schools of any complicity in the slide by the way), but there is a solution. And it is a simple one: “It starts with parents and guardians taking action…” and downloading an app for kids to learn over the summer. So easy, right? (10TV News, Columbus, 5/8/23)
   
   

5. There’s a whole lotta wow in this piece for me. First up, kudos to Toledo City Schools for this program which supports teenage moms and their babies so Mom can stay in school and earn her diploma. Who’d a thunk it? Second, how fantastic that this program opened just in time to allow Scott High School student Monay Briggs Banister to do just that. Third, though, is the fact that Ms. Briggs Banister is graduating an entire year early, having persevered through some bumps in her life, and is already heading to the University of Toledo to earn her future. Not to shortchange the amazing efforts of the student and her supporters, but seriously, I am moved to ask exactly how hard is it to graduate from high school these days? Surely kids without such bumps could get done in three as well? Maybe even two? If that were incentivized (you know: ending seat time requirements and the like) for more students along with ready postsecondary options for 16- and 17-year-olds, then perhaps additional resources would be available to help boost folks who need a bit more time or support. Just askin’. (Toledo Blade, 5/8/23) Also in Toledo this week, the voucher grouchers came calling, cap in hand. Their lawyers need more money for the legal battle at hand, it seems, and not enough districts are ponying up. Do you feel sorry for them? “I think we may have neglected to mention HOW MUCH vouchers actually suck. So, um. Like, a WHOLE lot…” (Toledo Blade, 5/9/23)
   
   

6. Let’s end the day’s clips with a tiny glimmer of good news. Steubenville High School is on the grow, building a fancy-looking new STEM building to provide new space for high-tech teaching and learning. I feel sure they’ll do it right. We’ll find out starting in early 2024. (WTOV-TV, Steubenville, 5/8/23)

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