Fall is always an exciting time in our schools, and that has never been more true as we embark on our second century.
Our mission in the Upper Arlington Schools is to challenge and support every student every step of the way. The talented teachers in each of our buildings strive to personalize learning for all of our students through the use of technology and innovative teaching techniques. In addition, students across all grade levels will participate in various service learning opportunities, which not only help our community but also help students learn empathy and critical problem solving skills.
This school year will also bring exciting progress in the implementation of the first phase of our facilities master plan.
My thanks to the many community and staff members who have taken part in the design phase for these projects over the past several months. It has been wonderful to watch so many people share their ideas and feedback in order to create schools that will set the standard for education in Ohio.
This spring, you’ll see construction beginning at the high school, Barrington, Greensview, Tremont and Wickliffe sites. Greensview, Tremont and Wickliffe elementary schools are scheduled to be completed during the 2020-2021 school year, and Barrington, the new Windermere and the new high school will be opening in the fall of 2021.
And this fall, you’ll see our student athletes using a new turf practice field behind Tremont Elementary School. New baseball and softball diamonds will complete that site in the spring.
Another exciting project on the horizon is our strategic planning process. We will once again use the hybrid planning process that combines the best elements of private sector and public sector strategic planning.
One of our major areas of focus will be well-being. We’ll convene a team of students, staff, community members and experts to examine what next steps need to be taken in areas such as, but not limited to, mental health supports, safety, bullying prevention, substance abuse prevention, student stress reduction and physical health.
This builds upon the safety-related policy and procedural changes made by our Board of Education during the summer. The changes include:
- Increasing a focus on all areas of student well-being as part of the next strategic planning process;
- Expanding the functionality of student identification cards to include the ability to have students utilize the ID card system to enter and exit schools, assisting with attendance tracking;
- Implementing a visitor management system;
- Adding two school resource officers (SROs), in collaboration with the City of Upper Arlington, so that there will be full-time officers at the high school and both middle schools, as well as an SRO who divides time among all five elementary schools;
- Increasing training and exercises for safety and violence prevention;
- Adding or upgrading security cameras at all buildings; and
- Discontinuing the open lunch policy at the elementary and middle schools beginning with the 2018-2019 school year and phasing in the discontinuation of the open lunch policy at the high school over a four-year period, as outlined in the safety recommendation report.
To learn more about these safety-related changes, please visit www.uaschools.org/safety. If you have any questions or thoughts related to our schools, please reach out by emailing [email protected] or calling (614) 487-5030.