Ohio House Democrats elect Rep. Allison Russo as new leader
State Rep. Allison Russo, D-upper Arlington, was elected Wednesday by fellow Democratic lawmakers to be their leader in the Ohio House. It becomes official next Wednesday.
Her ascension to the House minority leader position comes after Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-akron, left it last month to explore her political future, including a possible congressional bid.
In her new role, Russo will lead and determine the priorities of the Democratic caucus in the Ohio House. She will play a role in collaborating with and keeping accountable legislative leaders of the Republican supermajority.
She is in her second term representing Upper Arlington, Hilliard, and portions of Columbus and southwestern Franklin County. She serves as the cochair of the Ohio Legislative Children’s Caucus and is policy chair for the Democratic Women’s Caucus.
Raised by a single mother, Russo is married to a combat veteran and is a public health policy consultant. She has advised on health care and veterans’ issues, topics she also has focused on during her time in the Legislature.
Russo lost to Republican Mike Carey
our students, and we will continue to make sure we are learning in person as much as possible.”
In its letter, the CEA agreed the best learning happens in person, but wrote “we strongly believe that the best way to ensure maximum in-person learning in the coming months is to combat the current surge with decisive action today.”
During its first week back from winter break, Columbus City Schools experienced a high of 24 schools closed in one day due to staff shortages, and it went completely remote at the end of the week due to absences of transportation workers.
Individual schools have been moved to remote learning because of staffing issues, Dixon said.
Columbus City has increased the number of schools moved to remote learning due to those staffing issues from three at the beginning of this week to a dozen by Thursday.
The CEA said a two-week pause on in-person learning would allow the district to “secure and distribute proper masks, deep clean our buildings and potentially make repairs to the HVAC systems that are not working.”
Dixon said at the briefing that the district “will continue to provide the PPE that school buildings need. If there are HVAC issues, we are addressing those issues.”
The union said in its letter that Columbus City Schools has between a 20% and 30% substitute fill-in rate for absent educators.
“Even when educators can cover enough classes, reported staffing shortages in transportation and food service are causing late buses and inadequate distribution of meals to students,” the letter states. “Many buildings are reporting HVAC issues and are operating with little or no heat in the cold weather.”
Cincinnati Public Schools board of education voted Monday to shift all students to virtual learning for two weeks starting Wednesday. The move to virtual learning was recommended by district administrators due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the region.
Across the country, teacher unions in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles have either called for or considered calling for a push to online learning. Chicago Public Schools canceled classes last week after the Chicago Teachers Union suspended a walkout, and schools reopened Wednesday. mhenry@dispatch.com @megankhenry