The shared successes ranged from the oldest of subjects (agriculture) to the newest (drone training). The challenges included the decades-old impact of poverty on learning, as well as the need to make a difference for students regardless of the challenges schools face.
Here’s a peek behind the door (and the security vestibule … it is 2025 after all) at some of the highs and lows from Clark County’s public schools.
Successes in the classroom
Superintendent Brian Kuhn said Clark-Shawnee schools adopted a new curriculum related to the science of reading this year at the elementary school.
“The excitement that kids have for learning to read, it’s amazing,” he said.
Kuhn said the kids come into the classroom asking what they’re going to talk about in reading because the nonfiction part “is drawing them in.”
“I see it both as a dad, because I’ve got school-aged kids in the district, and I see it as a superintendent because this particular curriculum ties in reading concepts with nonfiction concepts ... For me, as superintendent and as a dad, it’s a huge success because we’ve taken a step to engaging students in learning.”
Superintendent Bob Hill said one of the “most exciting things” that’s happened over the past year at Springfield City Schools is with the unmanned aerial devices program, because they got the air space above the School of Innovation (SOI) on Selma Road designated as an FAA-approved air space.
With the new air space, three SOI students have completed their commercial drone license, and local fire, police and sheriff’s departments are using it to train in drone operations.
“That is something that I think is very unique about the city schools,” he said. “It’s a great place to be and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve done, especially with the circumstances that our students face in their daily lives.”
At the Southeastern school district, Superintendent David Shea piggybacked off Hill, saying they started a drone class for FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America), and have had a few kids take it, particularly in the agricultural field.
He spoke about Southeastern being a “big ag school,” related to the county fair and livestock.
“I have people coming up to me and telling me about how wonderful it is and how great we are,” Shea said. “So what we’re really proud of is our ag program in FFA and it’s going really well.”
An area for Superintendent Darrin Knapke to spotlight about Greenon Schools was receiving the Momentum Award from the Ohio Department of Education. Schools qualify if they improve their performance index score by at least three points and have a value added score (year-over-year progress) of a least four on the state report cards.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
“I feel like to receive that honor and why we received it, we changed some of our concepts and professional development, we heard feedback from the staff ... and came up with a concept of train-the-trainer with professional development,” he said. "
Knapke said they’ve done this for the last three years and it’s part of the strategic plan, but to get to the point to receive the award, he “feels like it’s one of our biggest successes.”
The Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center has over 20 programs where students spend half the day in their trade program and the other half in traditional academics.
“One of the things that we’re really striving for is cross-collaboration between those programs,” said communications coordinator Alicia Rittenhouse.
For example, the culinary arts students teamed up with engineering and architectural design students to design a house and bring it to life as a gingerbread house. The students designed the home, created the drawings, all the specifications, made life-sized models, then baked the gingerbread and different elements for the house.
“That brought the two programs together to learn from each other, also just kind of strengthen teamwork and communication, especially from two different labs,” Rittenhouse said.
Global Impact STEM Academy Superintendent Josh Jennings talked about his school’s specific industry focus of agriculture related to bioresearch, biotechnology, energy, the environment and food science.
“What we hope we can do is if we are not preparing them for a career necessarily in that field, we’re preparing them for any career they choose to go into through that field,” he said.
Jennings said they also provide early college opportunities and graduate about 100 students a year, with a third of them graduating with their associate degree from Clark State College already in hand.
Challenges to overcome
Southeastern’s Shea raised an interesting challenge — losing the district’s oldest students. He said the high school is grades 7-12, but it feels more like 7-10 some times, because not many upperclassmen are in school.
“Last year between our juniors and seniors, we only had like 15 to 18 kids walking the hallway full-time,” he said. “That means they’ve either gone to CTC, they’ve gone to STEM, they’re taking College Credit Plus, they’re being home schooled. Choice is great for a student, but it’s not always great for the public school.”
Shea said that situation can create a void in leadership among the upper grades of the school. Having a mix of students who are only in the school part-time also reduces funding for the school.
Hill said Springfield is the 28th largest school district in the state of Ohio, serving between 7,500 and 8,000 students, with 70% of those students qualifying for Medicaid, “meaning we only have 30% of the kids living above the poverty line.”
“(The challenges are) really poverty and changes in society that affect urban centers,” Hill said, explaining they serve between 300 to 400 homeless students each year. “Our students have experienced traumas that impede their learning and it just continues to get more difficult.”
Hill echoed Shea on school choice, saying he believes in choice, but not when it’s selective. Hill said the state is spending money on private-school voucher programs where the private schools' performance is not measured, and most of the money goes to families who had been in private schools for years.
“We cannot continue to generate urban centers and relegate them to our most impoverished students who have the biggest challenges and take any semblance of diversity out of those urban centers, which is unfortunately the direction I think that our legislature is moving,” he said.
Funding and speech services are a big issue, Greenon’s Knapke said, especially with the COVID years having a big impact on students. He said the number of students needing speech services has continue to increase for the last four years.
“Those students that are now in preschool that were affected through COVID and not having that interaction and communication with others, I think had a vital effect on them,” he said. “On top of ... the amount of these elementary students that constantly have a tablet in front of their face and not communication and talking with others, I think has a negative affect on their speech as well.”
Clark-Shawnee’s Kuhn said schools can still make a difference regardless of legislation and funding challenges.
“What do we do to make a difference in the life of kids with the resources and limitations that we have? There will always be funding problems, there will always be weird legislative pieces, so what do we do anyway to make a difference?” he said.
Kuhn said schools not only teach academic classes, they are also a social service agency to help connect families and students to other supports they need.
“What we can do to make a difference in those kids' lives despite all those obstacles, that’s what we do every day. We can talk about challenges until we’re blue in the face, but we make difference,” he said.
GISA’s Jennings said a big challenge for the STEM school is that not everyone knows exactly what they do. New legislative requirements will come out that don’t fit STEM schools.
“So a lot of times we’re like, are we supposed to do this?” he said.
“The STEM schools were created long enough ago that all the legislators who thought it was important to have (us) turned over and they’re not there anymore ... so it’s our job to make sure that they do (know),” Jennings added, explaining they hired an advocacy group that helps coordinate and organize the STEM schools.
At the Career Tech Center, their current challenge is space, because the buildings are old and difficult to accommodate classes, Rittenhouse said. However, the voters recently approved funding for a new facility that’s underway.
Another issue is students in certain quasi-professional organizations don’t have the attire or dress shoes required for certain events. The school provides a “Closet of Caring” to help students in need. They also work with community partners to provide a student food and hygiene pantry.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
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