OLENTANGY SCHOOLS
COMMUNIT Y
CONNECTION
SUMMER 2019
STRATEGIC PLAN GUIDES DISTRICT DECISIONS Like running a business, the Olentangy Local School District has to make sound decisions to remain fiscally responsible while striving to achieve its mission to facilitate maximum learning for every student. To help guide those decisions, the District Leadership Team relies on the Olentangy Schools Strategic Plan. Divided into four categories, the plan ensures stakeholder alignment, which allows for thoughtful, yet swift decisions to be made. Created in 2016, the strategic plan has served the district well during a time of continuous growth combined with state funding challenges. “As the sixth largest and fastest growing school district in the state (by student population), it’s imperative that all arrows point in the same direction,” said Mark Raiff, Superintendent, Olentangy Local School District. “The strategic plan helps us prepare for the future and focus accordingly—be it how to accommodate an influx of students, adapt to changing technology, seek additional funding, and much more.”
The Olentangy Schools Strategic Plan focuses on the following strategic imperatives and goals:
FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT Mark T. Raiff
GROWTH DRIVES DISTRICT NEEDS
Students & Stakeholders To achieve maximum learning, the district must alleviate barriers to learning, promote a culture of inclusive excellence and expand community engagement and relationships. Resource Stewardship Efficiency in education starts with resource stewardship. Olentangy Schools strives to maximize investments and revenue, model fiscal responsibility and transparency, and manage assets wisely. Internal Processes The district employs more than 2,600 staff members and educates more than 22,000 students. Implementing a digital conversion and expanding talent management allows the district to work more efficiently and collaboratively. Learning & Organizational Development Ensuring a mastery of learning and fostering
The Olentangy Schools Strategic Plan, shown here, serves as a guide for all district decisions, and helps to communicate the district’s goals. leadership development is essential to being recognized as a high-performing district. It’s also important that the district has an established brand identity that represents its earned reputation. During the 2018-19 school year, the district made great progress achieving goals outlined in the plan. Some highlights include having all three qualifying high schools ranked among the Top 25 best
high schools in Ohio according to U.S. News and World Report and launching a new brand identity for the district. Leadership will continue to make progress on the plan during the 2019-20 school year. “We are a high-achieving district because we follow our strategic plan. With the support of our community, we will continue to be a recognized leader in education. Our success is your success,” said Raiff.
During the 2018-19 school year, our district hit a new milestone. Based on student population, the Olentangy Local School District is now the sixth largest district in the state, and we continue to grow. We are very pleased that families continue to move to our region due to the strength of our schools, but rapid growth also brings with it inherent funding challenges. Recently, our district has been featured in the debate over Ohio’s public school funding formula. According to the funding formula, Olentangy Schools should be getting more than $55 million from the state, but due to funding caps, the district receives a little more than $12 million. While we continue to urge for a new state funding model that promotes greater equity and support for districts experiencing student population growth, as a district considered to be wealthy, local taxes will continue to be our primary source of income. See GROWTH, Page 4
WHAT’S INSIDE
BACK TO SCHOOL INFO Page 2
CLASS OF 2019 Page 3
YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH Page 4