Olentangy Local Schools Superintendent, Wade Lucas, Ed.D. testified before the Ohio Senate Education Committee regarding Senate Bill (SB) 173 on Tuesday, October 20. SB 173 relates to provisions of House Bill (HB) 1 specifically dealing with Core Teachers and All-day Kindergarten.
[Read more…]
Olentangy's Top News
Archives for October 2009
House Bill (HB) 1 requires all Ohio school districts to offer all-day kindergarten beginning with the 2010-11 school year. Many parents and residents have questions related to this issue. Included below are a few frequently asked questions and answers specific to all-day kindergarten. Please note that this situation is still unfolding. Olentangy Local Schools will update this site as we receive more information.
What is the situation?
House Bill (HB) 1 requires all Ohio school districts to offer all-day kindergarten beginning with the 2010-11 school year. The bill also prohibits schools from charging tuition for all-day kindergarten past Fiscal Year 2011 (2010-11 school year).
What about a waiver?
HB 1 does provide a waiver option. However the details of this waiver are not clear. Olentangy believes the waiver will, at a minimum, be available for districts that do not have available space to house all students. Other considerations may include already high performing school districts such as Olentangy Local Schools.
Olentangy administrators are currently reviewing this information and engaging in conversation with members of the Ohio Department of Education in case a waiver is needed. We are anticipating that if Olentangy applies for this waiver and it is approved, then the waiver will only be available for the 2010-11 school year.
Will Olentangy be offering all-day kindergarten for the 2010-11 school year?
The district does not have enough information to answer this question at this time. Currently, administrators are reviewing facility needs and budget requirements to offer all-day kindergarten. In October and November, the Development Committee will report to the Board of Education regarding updated enrollment projections, the 10-year master building plan and the facilities impact of all-day kindergarten.
Once these reports are completed, the district will also adjust the Five-Year Financial Forecast to reflect any changes and provide a better picture of both the operational and facility costs associated with this program. Once the district knows the space requirements necessary to operate this service, then administrators can decide if a waiver is needed. When a decision is made regarding all-day kindergarten, the appropriate information will be communicated to parents and the community.
What about attendance zones?
If all-day kindergarten is implemented, it may necessitate the district to adjust existing attendance boundaries for some or all elementary schools. A timetable and process associated with this project will not begin until a decision is made related to if and when all-day kindergarten is offered at Olentangy Local Schools.
Olentangy Local Schools Board of Education recently recognized 24 high school seniors who achieved high-level academic accomplishments through the National Merit and College Board programs. In 2008, these students were among the nearly 1.5 million high school students from across the country that took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Of those entrants, approximately 50,000 high scorers qualify as either 2010 National Merit Commended Students or Semifinalists. Semifinalists represent the highest scores on the test and will continue in the program.
[Read more…]
Olentangy Local Schools is proud to announce that 242 members of the classes of 2009 and 2010 have earned 2009 AP Scholar Awards in recognition of exceptional achievement on Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Approximately 18 percent of the nearly 1.7 million students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to earn an AP Scholar Award.
[Read more…]
The Olentangy Local School District has completed the sale of a $48.9 million bond issue and is the first Ohio School district to utilize provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to issue Build America Bonds (BABs). By issuing the BABs, the district will pay a 4.03% interest rate compared to a 4.84% traditional tax-exempt rate available. Over the life of the bonds, which have a maturity of twenty-eight years, the district is positioned to save approximately $3.5 million in today’s dollars.
[Read more…]
Olentangy Superintendent Wade Lucas, Ed.D. provides a video tour of the latest completed major construction projects throughout the district in a recent Blog entry.
In his Message to the Community, Lucas gives community members an inside look at the district’s 13th elementary school, the second bus compound and improvements to both Olentangy High School (OHS) and the Olentangy Shanahan Middle School (OSMS) library.
Community members may e-mail comments related to the Blog postings directly to the superintendent. Responses to the general questions will be posted online so residents may read further insights into Lucas’ community messages. Check out all the postings on the Superintendent’s Blog online at http://olentangyschools.net/blog/superintendent/.
Meet and learn from Sylvia Rimm, Ph.D., during a forum hosted by the Olentangy Parent Programs Team (PPT) on Thursday, October 15 from 7 until 8:30 p.m. at Olentangy Orange High School (OOHS), 2840 E. Orange Road in Lewis Center.
[Read more…]