- The public-private partnership aiming to double the number of high-quality seats available to low-income students in Cincinnati has named its first CEO. He is Patrick Herrel, formerly a recruiter for Teach For America and currently a VP for MindTrust. It also has a formal name: Accelerate Great Schools. Good luck to everyone involved in this exciting venture! (Cincinnati Enquirer, 5/19/15)
- Speaking of groups with new names, an organization in Youngstown now called ACTION (Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods) has been trying to get the whole school board in a room to answer some questions it has about the district’s future. However, since not every member will attend, the previously-announced public meeting will likely not take place. No word on whether anyone from ACTION wanted to talk to the Academic Distress Commission members under whose oversight the district currently operates. With the district supe in his last week of employment, one might rightly be concerned about impending chaos in Y’town. Surely the folks at the Vindicator arrived at that conclusion some time ago. (Youngstown Vindicator, 5/19/15)
- “I have never had to deal with the daily infighting on the small things that you have to face with Dayton Public Schools.” So says the union rep for Dayton’s bus drivers, whose new contract was agreed to under the shadow of 10-day strike notice just last month. What’s the issue now? Some verbal assurances given during those contract negotiations that the drivers feel have been unfulfilled. Oy vey. (Dayton Daily News, 5/19/15)