- The state board of education this week added two of its members to the new review panel for rating charter school sponsors. (Columbus Dispatch blog, 8/24/15)
- Speaking of charter school sponsor reviews, editors in Akron opined this week in frustration about a yet-to-be-filled public records request for emails from the department. (Akron Beacon Journal, 8/24/15). Editors in Columbus opined similarly today. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/26/15). Governor Kasich’s presidential aspirations are part of both discussions.
- That currently-stalled bill which would overhaul charter school law in Ohio may not be stalled for very much longer. So says the President of the Ohio Senate. (Gongwer Ohio, 8/25/15)
- Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon gave his annual state-of-the-district report earlier this week. He reported that the Cleveland Turnaround Plan is working and cited such things as better school facilities, a strong teaching staff, more parent engagement, stabilizing enrollment, and more good preschool slots as evidence of improvement. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 8/24/15)
- On the other coast of Ohio, Cincinnati City Schools has cancelled the famous/infamous “magnet school campouts” this year. For those of you who don’t know, this was an annual ritual in which families could get their children enrolled in two of the highest-performing schools in the district on a first-come-first-served basis. That meant camping out on school grounds for two weeks or more in past years. Citing equity and safety issues, the school board voted unanimously to do away with first-served enrollment and replace it with a lottery. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/24/15) Odd thing is, the board voted to eliminate “first-come-first-served” enrollment back in July. Most parents are only learning about it now and pushed back at this week’s school board meeting, generating the news stories. The most strenuous objections seem to be based on process and some notion that the campouts were a “tradition”. Sounds like “Survivor” to me. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/25/15)
- As noted earlier this week, school is starting around Ohio. This is especially noteworthy for new schools beginning their very first year. Such as iSTEM Geauga Early College High School in Concord Township. They welcomed their first class of 9th graders on August 12. The school’s creation was kick-started with a winning Straight-A Fund grant and the article takes pains to note that the standalone school’s students – drawn from districts throughout the region –are eligible to play sports in their district of residence. (Willoughby News-Herald, 8/25/15). Today is the first day of school for Columbus Gifted Academy, not a school in itself but a consolidation of the district’s elementary and middle school gifted services in one lovely building on the near south side. This story reads rosily and it would be churlish of me not to offer the program and its students – some of whom I know personally – hearty best wishes for a great year. But there are some unanswered questions in this piece (What services remain in the school buildings from which gifted students were shifted to CGA? What’s available for CGA middle schoolers as they rise into high school?), some elision over the process by which this program was created and centralized (proposed for a start last year and then postponed), and a concerning sense of “zero-sum” mentality among at least some of the program’s participants. (Columbus Dispatch, 8/26/15)
