Superintendent Message

September 1, 2023

 

Good morning!

Hard to believe that we are already in September! We have a lot of things happening throughout the school district.

Here are a few to mention in this week’s update:

 

• We will be announcing at our September school board meeting that we will be proposing a renewal for the 1% income tax on earned income only. This will not be a request for new money. This will be the continuation of the current income tax to keep the district moving forward. March 19 is the date to vote on the income tax renewal.

 

• We will be meeting with parent groups, community leaders, senior citizens, students, business owners, and anyone who is interested in learning more how the income tax supports Northwest Schools and how the budget would be affected with or without the renewal. We look forward to discussing the renewal for the income tax on earned income only with all of you.

 

• As many of you know, we have been taking steps to build an addition to Northwest High that will impact curriculum plans and our arts programming. The addition will also benefit our athletic programs as well. Our next meeting with our Addition Committee will be toward the end of September with a date not yet determined as we inch closer to beginning our renovations.

 

• We had our first full week of school this week. It has been excellent to see all of our students back in action. We have tweaked our drop-offs and pick-ups at the Primary and at Stinson. We are still adjusting to make this situation smoother for all parents driving their children to and from school.

 

• We thank you for your patience and we will continue to work on this until the situation has been resolved.

 

• We have been working to develop a Financial Advisory Committee for our school district. This is a group of community leaders, business owners, and parents who will be meeting quarterly to discuss the school district’s finances. We will detail the financial direction of Northwest and where we are heading. We also plan to meet quarterly to take suggestions as well.

 

• This is an aspect of our Strategic Plans where we will do our best to be transparent with our finances. We are very proud of our academic success and equally proud of how careful we are with the community’s finances for Northwest Schools.

 

• Speaking of academic success, we will have great news to announce to the community in September. Northwest Middle School has achieved excellence that not many schools reach throughout the United States. We will have more on this within the next few weeks!

 

• As many of you may know, we are in the process of implementing Parent Square as an improved form of communication between teachers, coaches, advisors, directors and our families. This will offer more benefit for all users at less cost to the school district. Like all new things, this is a change. Sometimes change is difficult so we are thankful for your patience. As a side note, this is also part of our Strategic Plans for improved communication.

 

• If you are experiencing difficulties with the new way, contact your child’s school whenever you have the opportunity.

 

• We hope your family had a smooth start to the school year! As always, if you have questions, call me anytime at 330-573-9024.

 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Shawn Braman

Friday, August 25, 2023

 

Good afternoon!

We have had a very busy week this week! I will honestly tell you that we are thrilled to have all of our students back in school. I have enjoyed seeing all of the smiles and excitement in all four buildings!

I am sure you are all aware that we have a number of new teachers throughout the district. We are very happy to have the new educators with us. If you have the chance, stop by and say hello. We think our new group will be excellent for our students.

A special thank you goes out to Mr. Hirschman, principal of our Primary School. He created a new route for parents to drop off students at Stinson and the Primary. So far, our mornings have been much calmer! We hope it has been better for you as well.

We will have a lot of information to share with you throughout the school year through this email. Keep your eyes open and if you ever have any questions, let me know. From my standpoint, we will be meeting throughout each semester for various reasons. Be on the lookout for the following:

• Key Communicators Meeting: This will be targeted groups we will meet to discuss the renewing of our 1% Income Tax on earned income only. More on this very soon!
• Finance Advisory Committee: Our Treasurer and I will meet periodically to discuss school finances with various community leaders.
• State of the Schools in February: This will be a recording celebrating all of the great things happening in the district. We will post this on our website in late February.
• Questions and Answers: Working with our Levy Committee to speak to anyone and everyone on the need for our renewal of the income tax.

Once again, we are thrilled to have everyone back to school! We look forward to an excellent school year. If you ever have any questions on anything happening at our school district, call me anytime at 330-573-9024.

Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Shawn Braman

July 31, 2023

Hello to the Northwest Community!

I cannot believe it! School is right around the corner and we are excited to have everyone back for the 2023-2024 school year!

We have had a really busy summer getting ready for everyone to return. Beyond the cleaning and minor repairs we conduct each summer, we have also been focusing on many projects. They are as follows:

Weight room

• Thank you to coach Jones and coach Trewin for getting our weights ready for our kids! And thank you Mr. Hathaway for all you did to complete this project.

Track

• Thank you to the Easterling Family for your financial support to help our running program. The entire stadium looks amazing just because of the track!

Carpet in the Primary

• The Primary continues to improve to make the building shine for our students

Concessions/ Restrooms

• This project will be near the baseball and softball fields.

High School Addition

We are just beginning this major project and we are excited for the improvements to benefit our students.

• Feasibility Study
  • This will be conducted with our High School Addition Committee and Harris Day Architects in mid-August
• Goals for Completion
  • We will be discussing goals for completion and other major steps to get our addition accomplished
• The addition will include the following:
  • Weight room and wrestling room
  • Greenhouse
  • Puff Storage

As many of you may know, we developed Strategic Plans for Northwest Schools and we are approaching our second year of our plans. To give you an update, the following are the items we have accomplished in our goals thus far:

Strategic Plans (2022-2023, 2023-2024, 2024-2025)

• Communication with teachers to families from each building and grade level/ Consistent messaging from teacher to teacher
• Website audit done and improvements made/ All components of the website updated/ Online hiring process enabled many more applicants than ever before with each opening
• Improve relationship with local and regional businesses and leaders/ Community relationship to sponsor student success: Our best example Wall of Fame for graduates and leaders who have done well and maintained great role models for our students
• Provide and maintain excellent facilities that are functional, safe, and welcoming. We are still working on this but we are moving forward
• Review all aspects of physical security throughout the district: Thank you Jeff Ludwig and Scott Burnett. They will present on our safety improvements in the August school board meeting. We have made major improvements for student safety – and we will continue to meet regularly throughout the school year
• Provide academic resources and programming for a wide range of learners and aspire to achieve consistent delivery of curriculum. Our tests scores last year bore this out as we ranked first in the county and 13^th in the state of Ohio with state report cards. At first glance of our state testing, we have improved in almost every category from last year’s outstanding results
• We continue to expand and grow options for CCP and AP courses for our students
• Added a position of college and career readiness focused counselor at the high school

We still have many goals we are chasing to benefit our students and their learning opportunities! Our plans are in operation until the 2024-2025 school year. We will have the goals we have met posted on our web site very soon.

You can also find a list of all of our Strategic Plans on our school website. Please take a minute and review them as they will guide our decision making over the next two school years.

Again – we are excited to see everyone! Before you return enjoy every moment that we have left of the summer! Play outside in the sun! Read books! Hang out with your friends and family! Enjoy every moment!

If you have any questions on the upcoming school year, call me anytime at 330-573-9024!

Sincerely-

Shawn Braman