Devon Rodriguez can’t wait to be a student again.
Only three credits away from graduating this spring, the 19-year-old said he was “devastated” when his former school — the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow — abruptly closed last week, in the middle of the academic school year.
After being out of school for a week, Mr. Rodriguez will attend Bowsher High School starting Monday.
“I just want to get my diploma,” he said.
Mr. Rodriguez and his father were the first people in attendance at Toledo Public Schools’ informational session held Thursday evening. It was the first of two meetings hosted by TPS for families of students displaced after the ECOT shutdown.
There’s been a public outcry from former students, parents, and teachers upset by ECOT’s closing, leaving thousands of students statewide without a school.
TPS had administrative staff, teachers, and counselors available to students and parents to help them enroll.
“We want to make this as easy as possible for them,” said Jim Gault, TPS’ executive transformational leader. “Every day lost is an opportunity lost for them to learn.”
There were representatives from every TPS high school to allow students to meet individually with staff members from the specific school they would attend.
Coming into tonight’s meeting, Mr. Rodriguez worried his age would prohibit him from enrolling at Bowsher.
“Don’t worry, we will get you all taken care of,” Bowsher Principal Teri Sherwood said as Mr. Rodriguez sat down. Ten minutes later, he was a Rebel.
Families trickled in as the evening went on. There are 288 former ECOT students living in the Toledo school district.
The Education Service Center of Lake Erie West voted last week to sever ties with ECOT, effectively putting an end to the statewide online charter school that employed about 1,000 teachers.
The Lake Erie West board’s decision to discontinue its ECOT sponsorship followed the Ohio Supreme Court’s rejection of an ECOT plea to fast-track an appeal of Ohio Department of Education efforts to collect an $80-million aid reimbursement it demanded because the charter school over-reported student attendance.
Hundreds of youths in northwest Ohio were left without a school, and school districts are preparing to absorb the new students.
Both Sylvania and Springfield have online schools to accommodate former ECOT students living in their respective districts. Sylvania has already registered former ECOT students into its online school, Superintendent of Schools Adam Fineske said.
Earlier this week, several Republican lawmakers lashed out at the Ohio Department of Education and Gov. John Kasich for contributing to the collapse of Ohio’s largest online school in the middle of the school year.
They argued the state should have been willing to negotiate more favorable repayment terms for the aid overpayment and should now play a more prominent role in helping displaced ECOT students find new schools.
TPS has a second informational meeting scheduled Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Waite High School for ECOT students and their parents.
Contact Javonte Anderson at janderson@theblade.com, 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @JavonteA.
First Published January 26, 2018, 12:15 a.m.
