Superintendent's Article - December 20, 2007

Congratulations to Coach Paul Farrah, his staff, and the Louisville High School Football Team for an outstanding football season. You made history in the longstanding tradition of Louisville football. Thank you for being the class organization that you are. A special note of thanks to the seniors for leading this team to the State Finals.

We need to also congratulate Mrs. Polly Doyle, the staff and the students of Louisville High School for receiving national recognition in U.S. News & World Report as a bronze award winner. The magazine recognized leading high schools in America for their efforts in educating all students in their school. The rankings were based upon research completed by School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research business run by Standard and Poor's. They are based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not only those bound for college, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes that show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators. They analyzed 18,790 high schools using 2005-2006 data, the school year when our financial reductions began. It is my hope that we can keep such a rating even though we have made several more reductions just last year.

I want to thank the Louisville Community for your years of support for our schools. As you probably know, I have decided to retire from the Superintendency effective July, 2008. We have many exciting things happening in our schools, but I felt that it was time after 36 years in education to move on to another phase in my life. I have made many special friendships with so many of you in the community, and for that I am very thankful. It is my hope that I have left the district in better shape than when I started. I wish each of you the very best in the future.

Remember as we live through another winter in Ohio that you need to listen to radio stations WHBC 1480 AM, Mix 94.1 FM, WDPN 1310 AM, or watch the morning news on channels 3, 5 or 8 in case Louisville Schools close. Please do not call the office or the bus garage as we need to keep those lines open for communications. Some ask how we decide to stay open or close. First of all, it is winter and we should expect snow. With that said, I get up early and drive the roads. The Transportation and Maintenance Directors also drive the roads throughout the district. By 5:30 or 6:00, we usually have a good idea if the buses can transport our students. I will make the closing if the roads are treacherous and it doesn't appear road conditions will change by the time our buses start to pull out. This is usually by 6:45 a.m. I normally will call off by 6:15, but no later than 6:30 a.m. If you, as a parent, are concerned about your high school son or daughter driving to school on a morning when road conditions are not ideal, I would suggest that they ride the school bus. Hope this helps explain some of our procedures that have been very effective over my last 14 years as superintendent.

On behalf of the Louisville Schools, its Board of Education, staff, administration and students, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Go Leopards!