2/26/09
Columbus Dispatch Blog
Jennifer Smith Richards
The principal and founder of a West Side charter school was forced to repay $406.32 that couldn’t be accounted for, according to an audit of fiscal 2007 released by the state auditor’s office today.
Heather O’bannon, the principal of Westside Academy, repaid that amount in December, the audit says. The audit does [...]

2/26/09 
Columbus Dispatch 
Jim Siegel and Catherine Candisky
Gov. Ted Strickland and state lawmakers already are looking at significant changes to his new school-funding formula, including a higher figure needed to pay for teacher salaries and ways to limit poorer districts’ short-term pain.
Some lawmakers worry that Strickland’s formula doesn’t allocate enough for teachers. Ohio has more than 100,000 [...]

2/25/09 
Columbus Dispatch Blog 
Simone Sebastian
President Barack Obama had a lot to say about education during his first address to a joint session of Congress.
The word “school” came up in his speech last night even more frequently than “crisis.”
One part of Obama’s address was especially familiar to the Columbus school board. They received a similar message from [...]

2/24/09
Plain Dealer
Thomas Ott
Cleveland schools announced an ambitious plan to turn around 10 troubled schools late last year, including Luis Munoz Marin school, where 94.4 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged and 46.4 percent have limited English proficiency.
CLEVELAND – Cleveland schools chief Eugene Sanders called out bad teachers and failing schools in a rousing speech [...]

2/24/09 
Plain Dealer 
Thomas Ott
Cleveland schools chief Eugene Sanders called out bad teachers and failing schools in a rousing speech early this month. Now it’s the teachers union’s turn to throw down.
Nearly four months after it was announced, the district’s plan to revive 10 of its worst elementary schools appears to be more talk than action, Cleveland [...]