- Our own Jessica Poiner, in a blog posted Monday, “blasted” Ohio’s efforts to lower graduation requirements and reduce the state’s high school diploma to an Oprah-like certificate of participation. (“Everybody gets a diplomaaaaaaaa!”). Fortuitous timing of said Ohio Gadfly Daily post, too, since the Ohio Senate decided to include just such a lowering of graduation requirements in the state budget bill it is currently debating. Patrick O’Donnell noted that fortuitous timing and said so in this piece. In other, not-sure-it’s-unrelated news, the Senate is proposing to reduce Medicaid eligibility too. Can we really have it both ways, Senators? Just askin’. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/20/17)
- The first of those open-to-the-whole-public-really-everyone-no-seriously-everyone focus groups gathering input on the type of person Lorain schools needs as its CEO drew mostly district employees this week. Sad? Sure. Predictable? Maybe. But what’s interesting is that none of those quoted in this brief recap of the discussion seem sure that putative CEO frontrunner Moe Szyslak is their ideal candidate. Certainly not as sure as the other district supes quoted earlier in the week. But I could be wrong about that analysis. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 6/19/17) A second focus group held the following day not only saw a few more non-district-employees participating but also included references to the sitting supe as a shining example of just the type of CEO Lorain needs. “Pick me, Homer! Pick me!” (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 6/20/17) Staying in Lorain for a moment, here is an update on third grade reading test scores for the 2016-17 school year, showing some – but not really enough – improvement. In contrast to similar improvements reported in Youngstown earlier this week, these results are being accepted for what they are: good news, but an indicator that a lot more work needs to be done. No school board members are on record as disputing them nor is the supe or CEO or tavern owner (who can tell which is which in Lorain these days, seriously?) taking credit for them. Realistic. And refreshing. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 6/20/17).
- Meanwhile, the ongoing kerfuffle between the state’s largest online school and the state department of education over an attendance audit and other contractually-related issues took another lurch yesterday. The school announced it will begin laying off hundreds of employees starting as soon as a few weeks from now in order to free up money to begin the repayment of some $60 million in not-quite-conclusively-proven-I-don’t-think-but-I’m-willing-to-be-proven-wrong-about-that “overpayments”. (Columbus Dispatch, 6/20/17)
- Back in the real world, two of the three Louisville Local Schools teachers who are still suspended following allegations of improperly deleting school files prior to the November (!) teachers strike this week dropped their appeals and resigned. Recall that ten teachers were initially suspended for the action. Seven reached agreements that allowed them to keep their jobs. One appeal remains active and after that maybe-but-probably-not, the actual healing might begin in Louisville. (Canton Repository, 6/20/17)
- We told you a while back about tony-but-tiny Ottawa Hills Schools in suburban Toledo, which is looking for a handful of tuition paying students to join their august-but-shrinking numbers. Here is an update from dogged journalist Sarah Elms of the Blade, in which two important bits of information are revealed. First, the district has managed to recruit two students of the five students they were aiming for. Second, even if they get all five at $13,428 a pop, it will not fully pay for the contract of the recruiters they hired to find the kids. I guess they’re planning to be in the black for Year Two. No word on the chess prowess of the new recruits though. (Toledo Blade, 6/21/17)
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