|
The staff and students
of Ottawa Hills Schools were thrilled to receive the strong support of the
village residents for the passage of our 5.5-mill operating levy on November
6. We are very grateful to the community for continuing to make
this commitment to our district. We honor your high expectations for
student success and will continue to move forward with improvements
identified in our five-year strategic plan.
We do also acknowledge that we have the
responsibility to be good stewards of the district’s finances and will
continue to identify ways to contain costs in the future.
Our top priority is student achievement. We
want to maximize learning opportunities for each child. We will continue to
direct our resources to this purpose.
We also wish to thank all of the wonderful
parents and community members who worked so hard on the Citizens for Ottawa
Hills Schools levy campaign committee. They spent many hours registering
voters, helping residents obtain absentee ballots, putting up yard signs,
making phone calls, attending meetings, arranging presentations, writing and
designing brochures, serving as poll workers, and doing any task that they
believed would be helpful to getting accurate information to the voters.
School funding in the state of Ohio is an
ongoing problem. In spite of recent Supreme Court rulings, the state
continues to rely primarily on property taxes to support local schools.
Perhaps future initiatives to change the way schools are funded will be
successful. Meanwhile this is the system we have, and whether we agree with
it or not, we are forced to live with it. That is why we must keep coming
back to you.
Ottawa Hills possesses all of the elements
necessary for an effective school district: children who come to school
ready to learn; involved parents who believe education is a top priority;
dedicated, highly qualified teachers; and a supportive community. Once
again, the community has demonstrated its strong commitment to its schools.
We are very proud to be associated with a great community that values
education in this manner.
Thank you.
Cathleen Heidelberg
Superintendent |
