LEWIS CENTER — Olentangy Local School District is only getting bigger, bringing another round of changes to which neighborhoods attend which schools.
Olentangy’s 18th elementary school, Deer Haven Elementary, will welcome students next school year. And the fifth high school, which has yet to be named, will welcome students in the 2028-29 school year.
Both schools are joining the district to help combat overcrowding in the existing schools and help manage the continued growth of the student population.
But how do school officials determine who goes to these new schools? The answer is redistricting, and the school district has done it countless times.
In his 15 years with the district, Deputy Superintendent Jack Fette estimates Olentangy has gone through 14 or 15 rounds of redistricting.
The redistricting process
Fette explained the down-to-a-science process at the school board meeting Thursday evening.
“Each building should be optimally utilized. So that’s one of the parameters that the committee will be working through,” Fette said.
A superintendent’s committee composed of 15 volunteers who represent all four high schools, five of the six middle schools and nine of the 17 elementary schools, will analyze school boundaries and make a recommendation to Superintendent Todd Meyer.
They begin meeting in September, Fette said.
‘We ask our committee to test theories and question assumptions that work together,” Fette said. “They say what if, for example, we take this neighborhood, and we put it to that middle school, what’s it going to do to that feeder pattern.”
Feeder patterns represent how a student progresses through the district, meaning which elementary school, middle school and high school they attend based on where they live.
The district also works with a consultant who analyzes data such as live birth rates and development trends to help inform redistricting.
Community members, Olentangy parents and students can voice their opinions on redistricting via four community forums, which will take place on:
- Oct. 26, 6:30 p.m. at Liberty High School
- Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. at Berlin High School.
- Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m. at Olentangy High School.
- Nov. 4, 6:30 p.m. at Orange High School.
“The way these forums work is we show example maps, ideal maps and we engage in the public for feedback. We will accept survey feedback. And then the decision will get announced in December,” Fette said.
Meyer will make the final decision after hearing the committee’s recommendations and the community input before announcing at the Dec. 10 school board meeting.
Redistricting causes anxiety for parents and students
Fette said he often hears parents and others ask why there are some neighborhoods that seem obviously closer to one school but go to a different one.
“We’ll often have new committee members who want to draw a nice circle around each school and everyone will go to their closest to school,” Fette said.
“You guys have seen the closest school map, it doesn’t work that way because our schools aren’t distributed in proportion with our students.”
Board Member Lizett Schreiber encouraged people with anxiety regarding redistricting to attend the forums.
“Those meetings are meaningful participation and feedback for the committees, so if you can’t make one, there’s three more that you could attend,” she said.
All board members recognized that redistricting is never an easy process for students and families.
Board President Brandon Lester pointed out some parents question why the district does not expand existing buildings. Doing so would not allow for as many students to participate in sports, theatre, band and other extracurricular activities.
“We understand that this causes friend issues, it causes team issues, it causes change issues. Those are serious things,” Lester said.
“We don’t mean to dismiss them by saying that it will be a good school either way. We do not have alternatives in the way that we’re growing.”
In other business:
- School officials will announce the name, mascot and colors of the fifth high school this fall. The district also plans to hire the high school’s principal in the spring.
- The board approved purchasing 14 72-passenger school buses at a price of over $2.2 million. Chief Operations Officer Jeffrey Gordon said those buses will be constructed in December and will come to the district likely two months after.
