Superintendent’s Office

THE COVID EFFECT

After being required by the state to operate the final three months of the 2019-20 school year in a fully remote instructional model, district officials worked with local medical authorities to establish health and safety protocols over the summer to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and allow Westerville City Schools to quickly return to in-person learning the following academic year.

From March through May of 2020, state health orders required the Westerville City School District to finish the 2019-20 school year using remote instruction as local, state, national, and international leaders determined how to manage the challenges of a global pandemic. District leaders worked diligently over the summer to put educational plans and health measures into place to meet these challenges head-on, but with enough flexibility to restore in-person learning as soon as possible.

The district in 2020-21 offered the Westerville Virtual Academy (WVA) to families who wished to keep their children in a fully remote instructional setting. They also put into place a blended learning instructional model, which alternated students’ weekly schedules between remote learning and in-person instruction. Once winter had passed, the district transitioned from a blended learning model to students receiving in-person instruction at school every day, while those in the WVA had committed to remaining in a remote instructional program for the rest of the year.

Westerville was among the first districts in the area to restore in-person instructional opportunities for its students. With the WVA no longer an option, the health and wellness strategies established by district officials ultimately allowed our schools to welcome students back to full-time, in-person learning at the start of the 2021-22 school year. The district’s main goal at the outset of that academic year was to keep children attending school in person so they could be taught by our outstanding teachers and given an exceptional school experience by our dedicated support staff. This goal was achieved and Westerville City Schools has been operating in a traditional instructional environment ever since.

Additional Highlights

- The district’s COVID reporting web page was identified by a local television station as the best in central Ohio for its transparency and availability of data following their unannounced review and audit of school districts’ COVID resources.
- The district modified and expanded its communications efforts throughout the pandemic to include strategies such as providing families with weekly “back to school” updates over the summer; replacing static online news releases with “living” documents that could be updated with rapidly-changing local, state and national information; and transitioning traditional in-person back-to-school events to virtual formats. As a result of these and other efforts during the pandemic, 89% of families said they were satisfied with school efforts to communicate their child's progress and performance, 91% reported satisfaction with the communication they received from the district and/or its departments, and 87% were satisfied with the customer service they received during these challenging times.

LEGISLATION & LOBBYING

Working in cooperation with community members, district officials launched an aggressive legislative lobbying effort to protect locally-approved financial resources from being redistributed to non-public schools.

During the 2019-20 school year, the Superintendent and Treasurer/CFO hosted a community information session on the negative impact of a proposed expansion to Ohio’s Educational Choice (EdChoice) Scholarship program. EdChoice deducts local tax money from public schools and diverts it to pay for the private education of children who live within a public schools' attendance areas, but choose to attend a participating private school. This program is yet another way the state continues to shift the burden of funding education to local taxpayers.

In 2018, out of slightly more than 600 public school systems in Ohio, only 30 had at least one school eligible for EdChoice vouchers. In 2020, as a result of legislators’ actions, more than 400 districts had schools designated for EdChoice. The numbers continue to grow and take local tax money from public schools as approximately 55,000 Ohio students are now in the EdChoice program.

District officials increased their lobbying of legislators when a newly-introduced proposal essentially froze the revenue provided to public school districts while also approving EdChoice voucher expansion and the siphoning of taxpayer-approved funding for public schools. Legislators were being asked to approve the measure following last-minute amendments to expand vouchers with no testimony, no prior notice, and little explanation.

Board of Education members also held a special emergency meeting to approve a resolution opposing voucher expansion; recommending changes to the EdChoice program so it makes more sense for students, families, and taxpayers without decimating public school districts; and calling for immediate financial relief for districts disproportionately impacted by vouchers. The district continues its fight to protect local taxpayer resources and has since joined “Vouchers Hurt Ohio,” which is a coalition of nearly 125 public school districts that have come together to sue the state over its unconstitutional and harmful private school voucher program.

During the spring of 2023, former superintendent Dr. John Kellogg, Treasurer/CFO Nicole Marshall, and Director of Career and College Pathways Matt Misener, hosted visits from state and local lawmakers to highlight the district’s career pathway programs and how state dollars support them. The visits gave elected officials an opportunity to see how the district is building a talent pipeline to in-demand careers with its pathway programs, as well as how important school funding in the future is to maintain this level of service.

Legislators who toured the district include Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Andrew Brenner, Ohio Rep. Mary Lightbody, Ohio Sen. William DeMora, Columbus City Councilmember Nicholas Bankston and Columbus City Council District 1 Candidate Christopher Wyche. During the visits these lawmakers toured classrooms in the district’s three high schools, talked to students and connected with teachers to learn about the district’s health, engineering and business programs.

Westerville City Schools Treasurer/CFO Nicole Marshall on May 10, 2023, presented testimony before the Ohio Senate Education Committee on House Bill 33, the state’s budget bill for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The bill, which was ultimately approved, proposed expanding eligibility for the state’s EdChoice scholarship program and continue implementation of the Fair School Funding Plan — both of which were the focus of Marshall’s testimony.

EdChoice is a state-sponsored initiative that provides money to private schools for a student to attend the private school instead of the public school system serving their community. Eligibility for a voucher can be either income-based or based upon state report card results for the child’s public school. Under the House-passed version of H.B. 33, the proposed expansion of the voucher program would increase income eligibility from 250% to 450% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

Marshall’s testimony highlighted how school districts are stewards of taxpayer dollars and are subject to multiple measures of accountability and transparency, including annual audits, annual financial forecasting and reporting, open meetings and public records laws, Education Management Information System reporting, the Uniform School Accounting System, ethics rules and financial disclosure.

District officials continue to host lawmakers, as well as provide testimony regarding proposed legislation and in support of public education. These efforts are critical to district efforts to protect and preserve public resources dedicated to Westerville City Schools.

SAFE ARRIVAL

The district launched its centralized “Safe Arrival” absence reporting system to comply with a new state law that requires schools to notify families about unreported student absences within two hours of the start of the school day. This resource proved valuable during the 2023-24 school year when an automated call to one family alerted them that their child was not in school. They immediately notified school and law enforcement authorities, who were able to assess the situation, investigate, and quickly locate the child at a friend's home.

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