- Ohio Auditor Dave Yost (yes, him again) convened the first ever statewide Charter School Summit in Columbus last week. There were workshops and keynotes and heavy hitters; it was great to welcome folks the caliber of Geoffrey Canada and Steve Perry to our city. It was, as the auditor said in his opening remarks, a chance to celebrate great charter schools in Ohio. “Shining stars”, as he called them. Perhaps it is a bit too bad, then, that press coverage of the event was dominated by the auditor’s own opening remarks in which he called for performance-based funding for online charter schools in the state. Coverage of that particular bombshell included Gongwer (Gongwer Ohio, 8/11/16), the Dispatch (Columbus Dispatch, 8/12/16), and two different outlets of public media (IdeaStream Public Media, Cleveland, 8/11/16 and WOSU-FM, Columbus, 8/12/16). All of these pieces included positive reaction to the proposal from our own Chad Aldis. Even over the weekend, editors in Columbus were still thinking about the radical idea, adding their opinion to the mix on Saturday and citing a recent Ohio Gadfly Daily blog post on the topic while opining. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/14/16)
- Editors in Akron also opined on the topic of performance-based funding for online schools last weekend, but did not require Fordham’s words to bolster their positive opinion. (Akron Beacon Journal, 8/15/16) The only other coverage of the charter school summit comes from Gongwer; in which they took a look at the remarks given by Ohio’s state superintendent. (Gongwer Ohio, 8/11/16) And Gongwer was still talking about the state supe at the end of this week, quoting him on his low-key, results-oriented management style in this wide-ranging interview to mark the eight-week point of his new regime. (Gongwer Ohio, 8/18/16)
- Another elected official making education news this week was Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther. The Columbus City Schools graduate and former school board member and city council president announced that he and his wife were opting out of public education and sending their daughter to a high-profile and high-dollar private school for Kindergarten. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/17/16). The response was just as you’d expect, especially since the Ginthers declined to give a reason for their choice when asked. The political dimension, including the possible negative effect of the mayor’s decision upon the school district’s upcoming levy ask, was noted by Dispatch columnist Theodore Decker. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/18/16). The Dispatch editorial board was somewhat stronger in its opinion on the matter. So was I, but that’s another story. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/18/16)
- The start of the school year is looming. Let’s start our look at the state of affairs in Ohio’s districts in Youngstown. As we noted last week, Youngstown’s substantial transportation woes were not solved before the start of school for Youngstown Early College High School, but hopes are still high that intensive bus driver training going on this week will be completed in time for the first day of school – Monday – at other Y’town buildings. Also of interest in this brief piece: the difference in tone on the issue between CEO Krish Mohip and Perpetual-Interim Supe Stephen Stohla. (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/9/16) Youngstown’s East High School is quickly becoming the crucible by which the success of the Academic Distress Commission paradigm in Youngstown will be judged. CEO Mohip announced this week that he has bolstered the academic offerings at East this year to include STEM, dance, career connections, and more. Additionally, the school will be fully staffed on Day One, as opposed to substitute-palooza which existed all of last year. He says he wants East to be at least as good as Chaney High School in the district. I might say, “aim higher, dude”, but #BabySteps. This piece also includes one of my favorite lines in all of education journalism so far this year: “The meeting then devolved into a lengthy discussion about committee assignments and meeting minutes.” (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/10/16) Editors in Youngstown think everyone should aim high this school year and seem optimistic that it will be so. (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/17/16) Speaking of East High School, a group of local pastors who have been something of a “guardian angel force” at the school over the last few years are also gearing up for the new school year. A “March 4 Hope” will take place on Sunday with special guests including YSU’s Jim Tressel and LeBron James’ old high school basketball coach. They say that the district generally and East High School specifically needs broad community investment. (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/17/16) What do East High School parents have to say about the start of the school year? We have no idea, because no parents showed up at East for this week’s “meet the CEO” event. Mohip takes this in his stride, of course, putting responsibility upon himself for changing the old dynamic there. “What is it that we’re providing?” he asks. “Because obviously it’s not being valued.” (WKBN-TV, Youngstown, 8/17/16) And today he is acting upon that responsibility. To wit: he and as many staff and volunteers as he can muster are going door-to-door in the city for five hours this evening to remind folks that school starts Monday. He has high hopes for attendance on the first day of school. Board members, it appears, are going to be busy for at least part of that time meeting elsewhere to discuss the same pointless, unproductive procedural stuff that they always do. (Youngstown Vindicator, 8/19/16)
- Meanwhile, in Fordham’s hometown of Dayton, the board and new district supe have hired two new high-level administrators and shuffled the job duties of several others. Most interestingly, they have created two new positions called “Chief of Schools”. The role is about “providing support and supervision to each building, making sure districtwide initiatives are implemented properly everywhere.” The supe says that how this new arrangement will actually function is as yet unknown (the district’s organizational chart is currently “in revision”), although the board prez says it’s all about improving academics rapidly so as to avoid an Academic Distress Commission of their very own. (Dayton Daily News, 8/16/16) One thing that apparently hasn’t changed in Dayton – the annual ride through hell that is school bus transportation. Especially for charter school students. (WKEF-TV, Dayton, 8/16/16) Even having the supe ride the bus to “get a feel” for transportation issues hasn’t helped. She may still be riding around even as you read this. (Dayton Daily News, 8/19/16)
- In other first-day-of-school news, a new school for Clark County students with special needs will open soon. (Springfield News-Sun, 8/12/16) Apparently, folks in Canton are already looking to the 2017-18 school year, in which it is being proposed to alter the school calendar and implement a year-round schedule for the entire district. Editors at the Repository urge everyone to keep an open mind on the proposal. (Canton Repository, 8/18/16)
- Cleveland schools may not open on time at all, if a threatened teachers strike takes place. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/15/16)
- Money is on the minds of a couple of school districts. First up, a financial analysis of the merger of Timken and McKinley high schools in Canton shows that the district bottom line was improved in the year after the merger, but that the savings were only partly related to the consolidation. Meanwhile, folks are still bent out of shape by the name of the new building. (Canton Repository, 8/8/16) The news is less rosy in Parma, where the school district has slipped into state-mandated “fiscal caution” status. The budget needs to be trimmed by upwards of $7 million to get into the black. A merger of high schools is just one of a number of options being discussed. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/9/16)
- While your humble compiler was out on vacation, the ongoing kerfuffle between the state’s largest online charter school and the department of education continued…and expanded. I could try and explain it to you, but this piece sums it up pretty well. I give you the history of ECOT’s relationship with the state of Ohio from 2000 through last week. Yikes. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/14/16) And here’s the update as of late this week. Spoiler alert: no improvement. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/17/16)
- Here is a nice guest commentary from The D talking about the positive effect that innovative charter schools can have. The author is a senior journalism major at Ohio University and a member of Students for Education Reform. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/13/16)
- Finally, the formerly-hallowed Win Win Agreement between Columbus City Schools and most of its neighboring suburban districts is officially heading into the sunset. The CCS board is finalizing individual agreements with the remaining signatories which will phase out annual payments from the ‘burbs to Columbus to prevent annexation and will freeze district borders where they are. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/17/16)
