- In case you missed it last week, the General Assembly passed the new two-year state budget and Governor Kasich signed it into law…making a record number of line item vetoes along the way. Jeremy Kelley took a look at 11 of those education-related vetoes and got some big names to help him make sense of the original intent of the language and the effect of the vetoes. Our own Chad Aldis is quoted on an item regarding charter sponsor evaluation rules. The legislature is due back in town tomorrow to possibly override some of those vetoes. Which ones and how likely they are to be overridden are still open questions. (Middletown Journal-News, 7/3/17)
- Youngstown City Schools has a new interim superintendent, we discovered yesterday. He is a current district principal, well-regarded it seems, and will stay in the role at least until a permanent supe is found. In case you’re wondering: the previous interim was non-renewed, and the role of the supe in a CEO-style Academic Distress Commission district will apparently be as a communication liaison between the CEO and the elected board. Can’t imagine why they can’t find a permanent occupant. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/3/17) The district has a new athletics director too (well, a new “chief of physical development and athletics” to be precise). He is a Cardinal Mooney grad and retired college football coach, most recently in Pennsylvania. As all three of my dedicated Gadfly Bites subscribers know, I’m not that keen on sports stuff, but this interview is pretty interesting. Dude talks a bit about early college programs, how the athletics department can support the upcoming return to neighborhood schools, and what role athletics will play in the plans of the new principal at East High School. Fascinating. (Youngstown Vindicator, 7/4/17)
- Next up, we have an interview with Richard Stoff, President and CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable, in which he discusses (among other things) BRIGHT New Leaders for Ohio Schools, the program to recruit and train business leaders to become school leaders across the state. Good stuff. (LEADERS magazine, July 2017 issue)
- Finally today, we give you the twisty tale of the American Virtual Academy of Ohio, an online-school-that-never-was. Mansfield City Schools’ effort to “recapture some of the students and revenue” the district lost to online charter schools (you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?) didn’t get very far as questions began to arise pretty quickly about the nature of the entity with which they entered into a contract to provide the services. The whole expedition seems to be over now, except for this exposé. A cautionary tale, I imagine, in several regards. (Mansfield News Journal, 7/1/17)
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