From Perry Middle to the Board of Education

The May 22, 1969 edition of the Worthington News reported that “Board Decides on Perry Middle as School Name.”  The paper explained that “The new middle school on Snouffer Road was named Monday night to honor a famous Ohioan.  It will be known as the Commodore Oliver H. Perry school or more commonly as Perry Middle School.  The name has historic interest for its surroundings since the new school is located in Perry Township which was founded in 1820.”

In the fall of 1969, 7th-grader Jennifer Hitt was one of the first students to attend the new school.  Last Monday, Jennifer and Perry Middle School converged yet again.

As part of Phase One of our Master Facilities Plan Perry Middle School will reopen to serve 6th – 8th grade students this August.  It’s going to be an amazing school that shares space with Phoenix, Worthington Academy and Rockbridge.  In order to make that happen, we’ve built 56,711 square feet of new classroom space.  That space was completed in December and our students from Phoenix, Worthington Academy and Rockbridge moved into that brand new space on Monday.  It’s a beautiful space full of natural light, high ceilings and spaces for students and staff to collaborate.  We’ll now move to renovate the 68,814 square feet in the former Perry building so that everything is complete this summer.  But, on Monday, Perry was back and students were learning in our new school!

Also on Monday, 52 years after entering the new Perry Middle as a seventh-grade student Jennifer Hitt, (now Jennifer Best) was elected President of the Worthington Board of Education for the 6th time.  Jennifer previously served as President of the school board in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2017 and 2019 and has served continuously on the board since 2002.

From Perry Middle School to the President of the school board.  I can’t help but think that the next generation of community leaders is learning in their new space today just like Jennifer learned in a new space back in 1969.  Our students will change the world!  How cool is that! 

• Trent Bowers, Superintendent

The Class of 2034!!!

In the spring of 2008, Doreen and I wandered into our local Worthington elementary school and registered our oldest child for kindergarten.  Back in 2008 Worthington Schools didn’t have a centralized registration system or center, everything was done on paper by hand and handled by the school secretary at each elementary.  (It was also the year the iPhone 1 came out and was only available on AT&T’s network….)

I don’t remember a lot about registering our daughter for kindergarten but I do remember they said that she would be in the class of 2021.  That 2021 number seemed impossibly far away at the time.  Last week the calendar changed and all of a sudden the numbers on the sleeve of our senior’s letter jacket match the number on the calendar.  At some point, every family goes through this, but it’s hard to believe that we have a senior and that time has moved as quickly as it has.

In Worthington Schools, we’re currently registering kindergarten students for the class of 2034!  (I know that number seems impossibly far away right now.  But, take it from an old guy…don’t blink.)  As we are looking towards next fall, we’re planning to be able to run our all-day kindergarten and half-day kindergarten options.  Because we’re still in the pandemic and it’s hard to know for sure what next fall holds right now, we’ve modified the registration in regards to all-day kindergarten.  But, our hope is that we’re right where we were with kindergarten in years previous to this one.  Yet, there are miles and miles to go before we know for certain.

With the pandemic, we’re struggling to get a solid grasp on our numbers in planning for next year.  This year we had a smaller than expected kindergarten class enroll.  That could mean that more families than normal chose to wait another year for their child to start kindergarten due to the uncertainty of schooling this year and we’ll have a very large kindergarten class next year.  Potentially it means that families chose more stable private options for this year and they plan to return to Worthington Schools next school year as first graders.  Either way, the more families that register for kindergarten or come in and register for first grade for next year the better our ability to plan the correct number of classrooms, teachers, etc…

It seems like just yesterday that we were registering the class of 2021 for kindergarten.  Now we’re planning for the Worthington Schools class of 2034!

-Trent Bowers, Superintendent

2021

Welcome to 2021!  This is a big year in Worthington Schools and one that we have been looking towards since 2016.  The pandemic has thrown some curveballs our way over the past nine months and while we’re learning to hit the curveball a little better, my guess is we won’t see too many fastballs right over the plate for a while.  However, 2021 is going to be a great year and I want to begin the year by reminding you what you should be expecting.

School during COVID-19

Worthington Schools has operated half of the 20-21 school year in remote learning and half via hybrid learning.  Remote learning will continue again on Monday, January 4th and we will move back to hybrid learning on January 11th and endeavor to keep our students in face-to-face learning for the remainder of the school year.  Likely, the winter months will continue to be very difficult with COVID in our community but we anticipate as spring hits COVID will decrease and the vaccine will be available.  We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to hold important spring traditions for our seniors and those students transitioning to new schools.  Our teachers have done an amazing job working with students, adapting to the ever-changing demands and dealing with our current reality.  I’m proud of our educators.  We look forward to brighter days in the future when all students will be in school as we are designed to serve students in this way.

6th-8th Grade Middle Schools

In 2021, we will open a brand new Perry Middle School and will have renovated and added to Worthingway, Kilbourne and McCord Middle Schools.  Our 6th graders will move to the middle school into amazing new educational spaces unlike anything Worthington Schools has seen in the past 30 years.   Construction is on schedule and proceeding at all four sites. Beginning in August of 2021, Worthington will be K-5 at the elementary, 6-8 at the middle school and 9-12 at the high school.  

Additionally, there will be new feeder patterns for middle school and high school.  For middle school, you’ll see (KMS: Colonial and Evening St, McCord: Granby, Liberty, Worthington Hills, Perry: Bluffsview, Brookside, Slate Hill, and  Worthingway: Worthington Estates, Worthington Park, Wilson Hill.)  Additionally, students from Slate Hill Elementary will begin to attend Worthington Kilbourne High School as ninth graders, and over the next four years, we will balance our high school enrollment between Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne.

Perry Middle School

Jodi Robertson has been hired as the Principal at Perry Middle School.  She will begin in Worthington this summer.  Jodi is currently the assistant principal at the Marysville Early College High School.  She was a long-time middle school teacher.  She resides with her family in Worthington and her children attend Worthington Schools.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Toya Spencer is our Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She joined the district in July with 18 years of corporate experience. For the majority of her career, she has been guiding organizations in becoming more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. Having worked at the corporate headquarters for Abercrombie & Fitch, Huntington National Bank and Danaher Corporation, Toya’s experience working in such vastly different industries provides the dexterity required to understand and serve a school district with needs across many aspects of diversity.  Toya has three focus areas in 2021 in building relationships, gathering data on how we can improve and communication with stakeholders.  

Master Facilities Plan Phase 2

In 2016, Worthington Schools brought together a large team of community members and stakeholders to create a three-phase Master Facilities Plan for the future of Worthington Schools.  Phase One of that plan went before the voters in 2018 and passed resoundingly resulting in the middle school construction, 6-8 middle schools and feeder pattern changes.  We’re now actively planning for Phase Two which we expect to go before voters in 2022.  A new team is being created and will begin meeting early in 2021 to engage the community and update the plan for Phases Two and Three.  We’re excited to shape the future of Worthington.

Thoughts Moving Forward

The pandemic has been very hard for everyone. Over and over again in 2020, the pandemic has forced us to make polarizing decisions that, no matter what we chose, elicited significant negative feedback. This has led to fractures in our community and for many of us to take sides on issues one way or another.  As I’ve read about past pandemics in history it appears that this is part of what happens.  But, as we move into the new year my hope is that we can commit to working together, acting with civility, and striving to love one another.  We can think differently about the best path forward without being enemies.  We can debate what is best for school, the right way to keep our kids safe, and even what books should be read, while understanding that those that may think differently than we do also have important perspectives and rarely is there any one right answer to a complicated issue. 

What I have always appreciated about Worthington is that education is a priority.  Our kids are a priority.  With education being a priority it also elicits passion.  For those of us in public schools that passion to improve the lives of all children is a real positive.  In 2021 my hope is that we can come back together as a community.  Because #ItsWorthIt.

-Trent Bowers, Superintendent

Brighter Days Ahead

A few weeks ago I watched the Columbus Crew play and win their second Major League Soccer Championship.  I can’t say I’m a “big” soccer fan.  Over the years I’ve been to a handful of Crew games but that Saturday night was likely the first full Crew game I’ve watched this year.  This was for the championship, and I’m from Columbus, and thus, our family was going to support the Crew.  As I’m sure you’re aware they beat Seattle 3-0 to win the MLS championship!

What is so amazing about the win is that it was only a few short years ago that we thought the Crew would be permanently moving to Austin, Texas.  The owner was set on moving the team.  The MLS seemed to support the move and incredulously then awarded Cincinnati an expansion team instead of Columbus.  Suddenly, this city which was in the MLS from the beginning, built the first soccer-specific stadium in the U.S., and the city that played host to the U.S. National Team’s greatest victories over Mexico “Dos a Cero” was going to be without a team.  For Crew fans, these were dark days and all hope seemed lost.

And yet #savetheCrew became a thing (with leadership from Worthington’s Mike Duffey).  The tide slowly turned.  New owners (from Ohio) came forward.  A deal for a new downtown stadium was struck, and….the Crew not only remain in Columbus but they are now champions!  This is an outcome that seemed impossible during those dark days not too long ago.

As I look at our current COVID fog of 2020, it feels like we’ve been stuck in this bad Groundhog Day cycle.  It’s hard to see a positive future right now.  And yet, there will be brighter days ahead!  Resist the “new normal.” There’s nothing normal about having to de-socialize teaching and learning. This is “current reality” only.  We know that our current reality is going to continue for a while.  The next few months will likely be very difficult.  In March the weather will begin to get better.  Covid numbers will go down because we’ll be back outside more.  We hear that it’s possible 100 million doses of the vaccine will be administered nationwide by April.  The fog will stay longer than we want it to.  Things will return towards normal at a rate slower than we want them to.  But…there will come a day when we in Worthington will open four new 6th- 8th grade middle schools, all kids will be back in school, fans will be watching sports, music concerts, etc and we’ll look back at our current reality and forget how bleak things felt for a while.  Worthington Schools will survive our current challenges and like the Crew, we will thrive once again.

As we conclude a very difficult 2020, I believe there are brighter days ahead for all of us in 2021!

-Trent Bowers, Superintendent

The Plan for January

As we near the end of the December school calendar we wanted to update you on the plan for January.

In November Worthington Schools committed to being in remote learning until the end of this week December 18th.  Last night at our Board of Education meeting we determined that we would stay remote the first week back in January and then transition to hybrid learning on January 11, 2021.  

Here is a summary of where we are:

• Columbus Public Health (CPH) has maintained that in-person schooling is safe for students.
• Staff quarantines continue to disrupt operations in surrounding school districts.  As of this writing, we have 25 staff members quarantined.  Since we transitioned to Hybrid in September, we have allowed teachers to Zoom into the class if they have tested positive (and healthy to teach) and/or quarantined based on COVID-19.  We have adjusted classified support staff or had teachers during their planning periods assist in the monitoring of the students while the teacher is at home Zooming.  Though not perfect, we have found that it allows the flow of instruction to remain, teachers are able to maintain connections with the students, and it has helped us with the sub shortage, which is awesome!  We are not charging our teachers sick time because they are in fact working, just from home. 
  
  Currently, Sutter Park and all of our elementary schools have one Permanent Guest Teacher assigned to the building to help with the sub shortage, middle schools have 2, and high schools have 4.  Also, we have 12 “floater” Permanent Guest Teachers that we use when a building needs additional support.  We work every day to find more folks who are willing to join the Worthington Schools as a PGT.  We picked up 3 this week!
• CPH has followed CDC guidance and reduced quarantine from 14 days to 10.  This will help a little.
• COVID-19 Analytics and Targeted Surveillance Systems for Schools (CATS) data show that COVID-19 in our community continues to increase.  Current data indicates around 820 cases per 100,000 people. We were around 150 per 100,000 on 10/26.
• CPH believes COVID-19 will likely continue at this rate until after MLK day where a decrease seems possible.
• The Ohio Education Association has recommended districts stay remote until January 11th.
• Anecdotal feedback from many teachers and principals is that they want students in school.  
• We know that remote learning is isolating and that student mental health is a major concern in remote learning.
• Providing students food while in remote learning is much more difficult.
• Most surrounding school districts will be working to bring students into school in at least a hybrid mode.  

Here are the options we considered for January:

• JANUARY 4 K-12 HYBRID
• JANUARY 4 K-6 HYBRID / 7-12 REMOTE
• JANUARY 11 K-12 HYBRID
• JANUARY 11 K-8 HYBRID / 9-12 REMOTE until 1/15
• JANUARY 19 K-12 HYBRID

Based on everything we know today, I recommended to the Board that we return to hybrid learning on January 11th K-12. We know we need kids in school.  It’s best for kids.  The extra time from the 4th – 11th will allow us to hopefully intercept any students and staff who exhibit symptoms during and after winter break to help circumvent COVID-19 positive spread and corresponding quarantining.   

I expect that January and February will be difficult months both with COVID-19 and the weather.  (Snow days, should they be necessary, will work like any other year.  They will not be remote learning days.)  Once we hit March the weather should get better, being able to be outside should reduce COVID-19 spread and the vaccine will begin to become more readily available.   There are brighter days ahead for all of us! 

Please enjoy your winter break and we look forward to having everyone back in school in January.  

Happy Holidays!

• Trent Bowers, Superintendent

Wrapping up 2020

Tonight we have our final board of education meeting for 2020. What a year it has been.  We’re all looking forward to 2021!

I’d like to take just a few minutes in this space and publicly thank our board of education: Nikki Hudson, Jennifer Best, Amy Lloyd, Sam Shim and Charlie Wilson for their steadfast devotion to our school district and our community.  Over and over again in 2020 this board has been forced to make polarizing decisions that no matter what they do will elicit significant negative feedback from one side or another.  Unfortunately, tonight they’ll have to do so again as we discuss the best schooling mode for January.

One of the great challenges of being a Board of Education member is that no decision they are presented has an easy, tidy answer. The black-and-white questions never make it to the board — somebody else on our team would have already answered those questions. And few decisions in life are as complex as the ones you face in attempting to navigate the public will of a large, dynamic, ever-evolving school district in the midst of a global pandemic, social unrest, and political polarization.  

As superintendent of schools I work for the locally elected board of education.  The community elects the board and it’s my job to implement the will of the majority of the board.  We spend a great deal of time publicly and privately discussing the best paths forward.  From time to time we disagree passionately on the best path.  Sometimes those disagreements spill over into the public sphere.  I think that’s o.k. We shouldn’t always agree as we each process the world through our own experiences, our own values, and our own priorities.

What I am certain of, and most thankful for, is that while we don’t always agree on the best path forward (that’s the nature of our times) I have no question that each member of our board of education cares deeply about our students, staff, school district, and our community as a whole.  Each board member is attempting to create the best possible Worthington both for today and into our future.  They desire for us to have the highest quality of education, the safest schools, the best staff serving our community.  I have no questions about the motive in their hearts and for that I’m thankful.

Tonight we finish 2020.  There are certainly brighter days ahead in 2021 but before this year ends please take a moment and thank our board for their devotion to our schools in a very difficult year.  You may agree with the decisions they’ve made, or you may vehemently disagree, but either way we should appreciate those who are willing to devote a significant portion of their time and energy to what is an unenviable task right now.

• Trent Bowers, Superintendent

eSport Champions!!!

A journey that began last winter has reached a great milestone this week.  On December 7th, the Worthington Kilbourne eSports program won its first State Championship, defeating Akron STEM 2-1 in the Esports Ohio (ESO) League of Legends State Finals.  Many may be asking what is esSports?  According to ESO, “Esports is short for electronic sports.  Electronic sports are competitive electronic games of strategy that can be played individually or as a team.  The versatility of game-play and game genre make esports one of the most versatile competitions in the world and also one of the most popular.”  Students can now play esports at the collegiate level as well, and they can earn scholarships to do so.   All this has been made possible here in Ohio by an organization called Esports Ohio.

Esports Ohio (https://www.esportsohio.org/home) is a free-to-join educational nonprofit esports organization and league created by teachers for students. Their vision is to create a world where electronic sports are embraced as a positive educational and developmental change agent for all students. Esports is an ever growing and ever changing group of electronic game competitions. Esports Ohio has a singular mission to empower students by providing educational institutions with the knowledge, direction, support and resources to implement, maintain, educate and compete in electronic sports.  Within this organization they are striving to give our students the best possible accommodations for educational value, competition, involvement, and college recruitment.  ESO currently has over 130 schools participating, and over 200 schools total looking to become involved in the near future. 

In November 2019, Martha Wessel and Worthington Kilbourne student Flynn Sok came forward with information about Esports Ohio.  They were interested in starting a program at WKHS.  After doing initial surveys of student interest, it was determined that there was a great deal of interest in eSports at WKHS.  Students from all demographics were interested in playing, which is one of the great aspects of esports.  With the support of Kilbourne Principal Aric Thomas and district leaders, Kilbourne was able to acquire the equipment needed to start their program.  Six teams were prepared to compete in the spring of 2020, but COVID interrupted those plans.  In the fall of 2020, three teams from the original six began competition.  Teams for the games League of Legends, Overwatch, and Rocket League began play at the varsity level, and a team for the game Valorant was added as well.  After seven weeks of conference play competing against teams from all over Ohio, all four teams made the fall playoffs and two of them, League of Legends and Overwatch won their way to the state finals.  The Overwatch team was the #1 seeded team in the state.  As of this writing, the Overwatch team has yet to play their finals match.  All in all, a pretty successful start for the program.  We are looking forward to competing in the spring, with the goal of running both JV and varsity rosters for all of our teams.

• Gavin Meeks, WKHS eSports Coach

District Update

Dear Worthington School families,

This morning Columbus Public Health and Franklin County Public Health issued a COVID-19 Health Advisory for the City of Columbus and Franklin County. The City of Columbus and Franklin County are experiencing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, from a seven-day average of 143 on October 1st to 742 on November 15th. The number of hospitalizations in our region represents the highest number of patients at any time during the pandemic, which left unchecked poses a risk to our healthcare system; and the local positivity rate has increased from 3.7 percent during the week of September 20th to 12.5 percent as of last week. The Stay-At-Home advisory allows all higher education institutions and local school districts to maintain their current learning modalities which for Worthington is a Hybrid mode.

We believe it has been good for our students to have in-classroom instruction for the benefits of learning and student mental health. We’ve been hanging in there in hybrid learning. That said (and this probably isn’t a surprise to you), we are having more and more difficulty keeping our buildings and departments staffed and running each day.

It’s not just due to the number of COVID cases, although we are seeing more of those. It’s also due to the number of staff members who are on quarantine because someone they know has tested positive – it might be a spouse, a child or a friend. We also have a number of people who are out because they – or a member of their household – are feeling ill and are awaiting test results. All this comes at a time when substitutes in all areas of work are much, much harder to come by.

With all of that in mind and in hopes of providing consistent instruction and in response to the increasing COVID cases in the county and state, Worthington Schools will return to remote learning on Monday, November 23rd and continue remotely until Friday, December 18th. December 18th is the last day of classes before the winter break. We will take this action not because the virus is spreading between students but because of its accelerated spread in the general population, which ultimately could affect teachers and staff, keeping them at home and creating a classroom shortage. As we get closer to winter break and have better information available on current conditions, we will determine a path for after the break.

Our Board of Education will be asked to adopt this plan at the board meeting on November 23rd. We will return to our remote learning schedules utilized in September. Remember there are no blue/green days in remote learning and students will be engaged in instruction each day. Schools will send reminders to families over the next few days about class schedules during remote learning.

This year continues to be an adventure. As we look to next week please have a happy Thanksgiving and please find some time to rest and take care of yourself and those you love. We appreciate your continued patience as we strive to make the best decisions we can with the information we have during this pandemic.

Trent Bowers, Superintendent

A light has gone out with his passing

Worthington Schools lost a great friend and an incredibly respected educator when Dr. Gerald Prince passed away this week.  Dr. Prince began in Worthington as the Director of Elementary and Secondary Education in 1981.  He retired as the Director of Human Resources in 2002 and remained a Worthington resident.

My personal association with Dr. Prince goes way back to 1990.  In 1990 Gerald was the Interim Superintendent of Worthington Schools.  I was a senior at Worthington High School playing football.  This was the year before Worthington Kilbourne opened and thus the final year of only having one Worthington High School football team. The split was a very big deal back then and everything was heightened and everything seemed like it was the final opportunity.

Our football team was very good. Led by senior running back Dewight Pickens the team went 9-1 and had only a close loss at Grove City on the record.  Back in 1990 only 4 teams in each region made the playoffs.  After we beat Groveport to complete the season we celebrated.  We were play-off bound!

Turns out, we weren’t.  Apparently we had played with an ineligible player and would have to forfeit those games.  Our team was shocked.  Parents protested the decision. Our parents drove us to the OHSAA office in our football jerseys to protest.  When OHSAA ruled against us and Piqua received our playoff spot Jeff Hooper had T-shirts made that said “Worthington Football – Screwed!”  The coaches passed the shirts out and we all wore them to school.  (I would lose my mind if a coach did that today in Worthington and if we demonstrated that type of behavior.  But as a 17 year old player it all seemed ok…) This was a bad scene all around.  

What I didn’t know at the time was that Interim Superintendent Gerald Prince had learned about the ineligible player and had to decide whether to self report it to OHSAA.  Probably he could have looked the other way and no one would have been the wiser.  Maybe looking the other way would even have helped him become the permanent Superintendent and certainly it would have kept my parents and others from protesting.  But, that’s not who Gerald was.  Gerald was someone who didn’t do the right thing some of the time, he did the right thing all of the time, regardless of the personal cost.  I hated that decision at the time.  Now I couldn’t respect anyone more for doing what he had to do.

In 1997 I was a young teacher in Worthington.  Gerald was the Director of Human Resources at the time and he came to my classroom at Evening Street to inform me that my job was going to be reduced.  I remember our conversation like it was yesterday because even in delivering this devastating news he did it in a compassionate way that somehow helped me believe it would be O.K.

In my time as Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent Gerald has been incredibly supportive. He’d often send me articles to read or just check in on me to say hello.  Gerald was a man who embodied “How you do anything means everything.”  His “how” was always the best.  Kind, thoughtful, steady.  

Former Linworth Teacher-Director Wayne Harvey said about Gerald “He was a great negotiator and teacher from whom I learned much. He was one of the three great influences in my professional life. A light has gone out with his passing.”  Former Assistant to the Superintendent John Butterfield said “Gerald Prince was a special person and had a positive impact on the lives of many Worthington staff members and students. He was a developer of people and helped administrators, teachers and other staff grow professionally and personally. During the 70s and 80s, he hired most of the certified staff and then trained others in staff selection and development. He was smart, caring and very talented. He was a great listener and consensus builder.”  Former Bluffsview Principal Karen Groff said “I think of Gerald as someone that greatly influenced my work and my life. His passing leaves an empty place in our world.”

Worthington lost a legend this week.  I’ll always be grateful for his personal influence in my journey and much more importantly for the long-term positive difference Gerald made in the lives of countless others.

-Trent Bowers, Superintendent

Messages on “The Rock” and School Fences

In our school district, it’s important to provide opportunities for students to gather to celebrate achievements and accomplishments that define the school and various groups.  At our high schools, the school bell outside our athletic facilities have become symbols for sports teams, not just football, to gather after a victory to “ring the bell”!  The student groups post pictures on social media to capture the moment of unity, perseverance, and hard work!

At our high schools, we have other symbols that can also provide the same sense of unity in bringing a school community together: the school rock and fences.

In the past, the school rock was painted with their school colors and motivations statements as a team was able to play against another school.  Paper cups were placed in the spaces across fences to cheer on a team or even recognize a classmate of an accomplishment, well wishes before a competition, raising awareness for cancer, or even wishing someone a happy birthday!

Yet, in the recent months, statements began to be posted in these spaces that became divisive politically or toward individuals in a negative way.  As a result, a decision was made to paint over the school rocks each day to avoid any school disruption.  

Knowing the importance that these symbols provide in lifting the spirit of our schools, we would like to begin allowing groups to use the rocks and fences to promote positivity once again.  

The school rock, painted sheets at WKHS, or cups in the fences at TWHS are available to be used by individual students, sponsored student groups, or the community/families. To provide clarity on appropriate messages, statements can include but are not limited to event announcements, words of support and congratulations, and school/team spirit. All statements must be in good taste and convey a positive message. 

The Spirit Rock may only be painted.  No individual, group, or organization is permitted to paint the sidewalk, lampposts, grass or buildings.  This is vandalism and will be treated as such. 

Keep in mind that messages posted reflect your school.  No offensive language or pictures will be tolerated. Postings must be in accordance with the ideals set forth in the school’s Student Handbook. Students found in violation of these policies will be subject to discipline in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.  

These symbols are meant to unify the school and bring our school and community together.  These places are not a place to promote political messages, controversial social causes, or radical expression. If a painting is deemed offensive to another group or person, it will immediately be removed.

It is our hope to allow these places to be used to promote positive school spirit, cheer on various groups and individuals, and be a beacon of encouragement when students enter and leave our schools.  We believe that in providing these opportunities, students can create a place of pride for all of our students and community. 

• Dr. Neil Gupta, Director of Secondary Education