The state of education in Sylvania Schools
In Sylvania, we believe that education drives the success of our local economy and quality of community. As Sylvania Schools leads the way with positive and impactful learning experiences for our close to 7900 students every day, we continue to strive to meet our mission: preparing students to be lifelong learners and engaged citizens.
As the superintendent, I was honored to team up with Lourdes University President, Dr. Mary Ann Gawelek, to present the State of Education in Sylvania to close to 200 local leaders and business owners from the area at the February Chamber of Commerce Luncheon. My portion of the presentation highlighted not only the state of our school district but also presented key information on what helps define a high-quality K-12 educational system and proved the fact that education and the success of it is a shared responsibility with the community.
Sylvania Schools remains the second largest school district in Northwest Ohio and the second largest employer in Sylvania with over 850 employees on staff. That staff and the students they lead have accomplished much, from earning the State of Ohio’s Momentum Award for achieving all A grades in the area of student growth on the State Report Card for the third year in a row to boasting a 95 percent graduation rate with our graduating seniors on average earning over $16 million in college scholarships. We also continue to earn the Auditor of State Fiscal Accountability Award year after year. The pride in these accomplishments is even stronger because of the challenges we face in reaching them: state funding cuts, unfunded mandates, staffing shortages and an increase of school choice initiatives, just to name a few. We work hard to face those challenges every day. Giving up or giving in is never an option.
High-quality K-12 educational systems demonstrate many strengths that we are proud to exhibit in Sylvania Schools. Those include a clear and shared focus, high standards and expectations for all students, effective school leadership, high levels of communication and collaboration, multiple measures to inform improvement, focused professional development, a supportive learning environment and lastly, high levels of family and community involvement.
It’s that community involvement piece that we boast about, but always want to continue to build upon. How can you as a community member help us? We encourage you to join with us to form school to community partnerships to facilitate access to community-based programs and to ensure that families have resources to be involved in their child’s education. We also ask, when applicable, for you to help us establish school-to-business partnerships. These partnerships can provide student mentoring experiences, internships, and experiential learning opportunities. Lastly, nothing helps our kids develop into good citizens like service learning. Any opportunities out there to continue to build these service led experiences for our kids are welcomed.
The State of our Schools is strong right now, but we always strive to improve. Sylvania is known for our schools and quality of life and as a school district we thank you for helping and supporting us so we can continue to be one of the top fundamental drivers of success for our area! #SylvaniaWorks