- Remember the charter school sponsor evaluations in Ohio from last year? The ones that ended up being rescinded due to questions over online school sponsors? Well, the Ohio Department of Education is still required to evaluate sponsors and the new framework has been in place since around May. The academic portion of those evaluations turned out to be not so great at first blush and now there are questions about the compliance portion. There is a list of 329 state laws and rules that sponsors have to confirm compliance on for every one of their schools. (Number 209: does the school have a flag that is no more than 5’ x 5’ in size?) Some sponsors are complaining already about how hard it is, how ridiculous some of the rules are, and how much freakin’ work it is to document all of this. Worst of all is that sponsors worry they may get dinged for not documenting compliance (due to the complexity) when their schools are actually complying. Fordham’s not complaining, mind you. Our intrepid sponsorship team is soldiering on and our own Chad Aldis is quoted in this piece as well: “I think it's important we probably don't get too excited at this point, but we wait and see.” Keep Calm and Document Compliance indeed. (Gongwer Ohio, 6/30/16)
- We noted on Monday that it’s Noob Week in Ohio education circles. Yesterday, those two noobs – State Supe Paolo DeMaria and Youngstown CEO Krish Mohip – met up. DeMaria expressed full confidence in Mohip and offered any and all needed help from the state. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/1/16) Also on CEO Mohip’s docket yesterday was a two-hour meeting with the Youngstown Branch of the NAACP. How’d it go? Well, the NAACP president said, “We have great hope for Mr. Mohip. “He is saying what we have been saying for the last couple of years.” Whew. That is a far cry from what he and his organization had to say about the previous supe and current interim supe. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/1/16)
- The Toledo Public Schools’ board of education gave a unanimous vote of confidence to both the district treasurer and to Superintendent Romules Durant this week. We don’t know specifically what Dr. Durant has done to gain this vote of confidence and the glowing (but non-specific) praise that followed. But he had a couple of key items that he says he highlighted in his interview with the board before the vote. To wit: “…[T]he advantages to reorganizing elementary and middle schools into a K-8 model, growing the number of students who take college courses, and his excitement about trying to improve graduation rates.” Hey Mike: can I please be rated on my level of excitement about trying to do my job? I promise to be really super excited about trying. (Toledo Blade, 6/29/16) Despite this public vote of confidence, the TPS board did have a couple of things they would like their charges to focus on going forward. For the supe, it was third grade reading scores, parent engagement, and communications (specifically, he’s got to start giving public State of the District speeches). The treasurer, however, has to cut $4 million in discretionary spending from next year’s budget. Like, right now. The reason for this is elided a bit here. A 10% increase in salaries and benefits (resulting from that contract reopener which occurred immediately after the last levy victory) will be offset by cuts in (among other things) out-of-district employee travel, professional development, business division expenses, and athletics. The district is still projected to have a $24 million deficit even with these cuts. Not sure how that hole will be plugged and no indication of whether the treasurer is excited to try and plug it. (Toledo Blade, 7/1/16)
- The Map Your Future program in Chillicothe – a joint effort of community groups, businesses, and the faith community to help local students find their path to college and career – has been deemed a success and it is now expanding to other schools in Ross County. All thanks to increased funding from the Ohio Department of Education’s Community Connectors initiative (Chillicothe Gazette, 6/29/16) Projects like Map Your Future are important because the path through high school and into college or a career is not always easy for many kids. And combatting dropouts is a high priority for every school. Another case in point: Lorain City Schools, whose dropout recovery program is unfortunately in a bit of flux at the moment. This is due to impending completion of the Colossus of Lorain (aka their schmancy new high school building). We mentioned to you some time ago that a longstanding college prep program for first-generation (and largely Latino) college goers was being allowed to fade out in the district because the Colossus includes space which will be used for local community colleges to set up shop and grab as many future college-goers as they can right inside the keycard-coded doors. The dropout recovery program known as New Beginnings is now facing a similar conundrum. It cannot be housed in the Colossus and alternative space is not readily available. The board and administration are working hard to solve this problem, but the supe says New Beginnings may not even be in operation next year: “We’re either going to do it right or we’re not going to do it at all.” My boss says I’m being too cynical in my interpretation of this. It’s not that the potential dropouts aren’t wanted in the Colossus; it’s that they need alternative space because they haven’t been successful in the regular high school setting previously. He’s probably right. (Northern Ohio Morning Journal, 7/1/16)
