Federal Work College designation
Antioch College officials announced in the spring that the college had been designated a Federal Work College by the U.S. Department of Education. Antioch joined a cohort of 10 other work colleges nationwide.
The Federal Work College system is an evolution of the traditional work-study program. While the latter typically benefits students from lower-income backgrounds, the work college model mandates that every student living on campus must work, regardless of their financial background.
Milestones
The college held its 2024 reunion in June, welcoming more than 100 alumni to the campus. The celebration included campus tours, panels, community meals and dances.
Later in June, the college held its commencement, with 17 students crossing the stage in the Foundry Theater. All students designed their own interdisciplinary majors based on the variety of courses available. Three candidates graduated with Bachelor of Science degrees and 14 with Bachelor of Arts degrees.
Antioch School teacher Ann Guthrie, left, spent 36 years observing and nurturing young students in the “social laboratory” of the Nursery program. Last year marked her last in the classroom, as she passes the torch to Athena Potter, who was hired in 2021 to assist, and later succeed, Guthrie as the Nursery program’s lead teacher. (Submitted photo)
Guthrie retires
In August, longtime Nursery teacher Ann Guthrie embarked on her final year at the school where she has taught for 36 years. Athena Potter, who has assisted Guthrie in the classroom for several years, succeeded her as lead Nursery teacher this year, and Guthrie is working part-time alongside Potter until the end of the 2024–25 school year.
Donors help school buy adjacent land
In October, after months of uncertainty, The Antioch School finalized a deal with Antioch College to purchase 5.3 acres of land that, for decades, the private school has been informally allowed to use and maintain for its outdoor education programs.
Antioch College listed the land, which is adjacent to The Antioch School, for sale earlier this year. The college accepted an offer from a different buyer for $600,000; accepting the offer instigated a “right of first refusal” clause included in The Antioch School’s deed, which the school co-authored with the college in 1985, when the purchase of the school building was finalized six years after it gained independence from the college.
The clause opened a 30-day window for The Antioch School to match the $600,000 offer for the land; the school was able to raise the funds in short order following a letter to the editor from Ruth Hoff printed in the YS News, after which several community members and Antioch School alumni donated funds to the school to support the purchase.
Built in 1946, the Sontag-Fels building previously housed laboratories and administrative and faculty offices, then later, a business incubator, cafe, school dances and a student-run radical literature library. Presently, this building is under contract with Windsor. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Sale funds expanded outdoor area
In May, early education center Open Air Village, which offers nature-based preschool for ages 3–5 and additional programming for infants and kids through age 10, held a multifamily yard sale. Proceeds from the sale went toward adding to the school’s outdoor classroom area, which complements its indoor facility, located in the Sontag-Fels building on the Antioch College campus.
State of the schools
The YS School District held its third annual “State of the Schools” in October, presented by Superintendent Terri Holden.
District enrollment is up from last year, breaking a several-year trend of declining student numbers; there are currently 634 students being educated in the district, with 436 being residents and 198 open-enrolled. This year’s rise in enrollment is attributed to more open-enrolled students; last year’s count was 437 resident students and 180 open-enrolled students.
As in the past two years, the “State of the Schools” included an overview of the district’s 2023–24 Ohio Schools Report Card, which was released by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce in September. This year, the district received an overall 4.5-star rating — a little lower than last year’s five-star rating.
New initiatives
In January, McKinney Middle and YS High schools began requiring students to store their phones in Yondr pouches during the school day. The pouches are magnetically locked at the beginning of each school day, and are unlocked at the end of the day, with the intent of decreasing distractions that might be caused by the devices during class.
Nine months after implementing the pouches, Principal Jack Hatert told the News that using the Yondr pouches had been “really smooth” for the district, and in his estimation, worth the $7,700 investment paid by the district.
In December, Hatert reported that the campus of the middle and high schools had begun using Securly Pass, a digital system that helps keep track of students when they request hall passes. After the new hall pass system was unveiled in November, some community members and students expressed concern that students were only allotted five hall passes each week to go to the restroom or visit the schools’ nurses, counselors and student advocate. The district increased the number of weekly hall passes to 10.
Hatert noted that the motivation behind the new digital hall pass system was to track and analyze data surrounding where students go when they leave class and how long they spend in out-of-class locations while class is in session.
Sydney Roberts, left, and Gini Meekin donned the classic black dress of Morticia Addams at a rehearsal of the YS High and McKinney Middle schools’ spring musical, “The Addams Family.” Both actors will portrayed Morticia on stage, as all main roles in the production were been double-cast. (Photo by Lauren “Chuck” Shows)
Milestones
In April, YS High and McKinney Middle schools performed their annual spring musical, “The Addams Family,” at the John Legend Theater in Springfield.
In May, Superintendent Terri Holden announced that the district had received a “Best Communities for Music Education” award from the nonprofit NAMM Foundation.
On May 23, the Class of 2024 held its commencement ceremony, which was preceded by the annual graduate car parade through the village.
In July, the district announced a role transition for two members of staff: Jeff Eyrich, who had previously served as both the district’s athletic director and its director of operations for the last four years, moved fully into the latter role. Shawna Welch, who had taught a career class at the high school, followed by STEM classes for the middle school, took up the mantle of athletic director as her full-time charge.
In September, the high school announced that students Kyle Raymer and Charles Whitlock had earned the Advanced Placement, or AP, Capstone Diploma, and that student Tiger Collins had earned the AP Seminar and Research Certificate. To receive the AP Capstone Diploma, students must earn scores of 3 or higher — with 5 the highest — in AP Seminar, AP Research and on four additional AP exams of their choice. To receive the certificate, students must earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research.
McKinney Middle and YS High schools will presented “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon” Thursday–Sunday, Dec. 12–15. Pictured modeling the generally zany spirit of the upcoming show are, from left: Shae Peirson, Maggie Bullock, Booker Lee, Leela Cooksey and Lucy Shows-Fife. (Photo by Lauren “Chuck” Shows)
In December, McKinney and YS High schools presented the winter play, “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon,” at the Clifton Opera House.
Facilities improvement project
The ongoing facilities project — which will renovate Mills Lawn Elementary School as a pre-K–fourth grade campus and will include renovation, demolition and new construction to turn the East Enon Road campus into a fifth–12th grade facility — received a number of updates in 2024.
In January and March, the district approved Ruetschle Architects and Conger Construction Group as the ongoing facilities improvement project’s contracted architect and construction manager at-large, respectively.
A number of trees were felled on the campus of McKinney and YS High schools ahead of planned construction for the district’s facilities upgrade project. Following concern from local citizens about the removal of memorial trees on the campus, YS Schools penned a press release detailing the district’s plans to replace the trees in cooperation with the YS Tree Committee. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
In October, modular buildings were delivered to both campuses in anticipation of a planned 2025 groundbreaking for the improvement project. At the same time, many trees previously on the middle and high school campus were removed, prompting local concern — particularly over the loss of memorial trees on the grounds. Those trees were planted by the YS Tree Committee over the last several decades in memory of former students and staff members who have died. School leadership assured the community that the trees will be replaced in the future.
In December, Superintendent Holden announced that students will move into the modular buildings Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. A groundbreaking date is still to be decided and announced.
Censure attempt stalls
In January, the school board swore in two new members: Amy Cordova Bailey and Rebecca Potter, who were elected in November 2023 and joined board members Dorothée Bouquet, Judith Hempfling and Amy Magnus. Hempfling was elected president of the board, and Potter vice president.
In February, Bailey and Bouquet called for the censure of Magnus. The censure request was spurred by a text message Magnus sent to a member of district staff after the staff member made impassioned comments at a school board meeting. The text message read: “Your anger is palpable. It is also misdirected.”
Following the censure request, the YS Educational Association, or YSEA — the union that represents district educators — filed a formal complaint regarding a “breach in Board of Education policy” in connection with the message. The complaint cited school board policy in alleging that Magnus had inappropriately communicated with the staff member, and that the communication constituted harassment.
In light of the formal complaint and a recommendation from the district’s legal counsel, the board hired an independent contractor to investigate whether or not Magnus’ text message to a district educator was in violation of board policy. The investigation concluded that Magnus did violate the policies related to how board members communicate with staff members, but that the message Magnus sent did not constitute harassment.
Despite the results of the investigation, Magnus was not censured; Bailey and Bouquet voted in favor of the censure, while Potter and board President Judith Hempfling voted against it. Magnus abstained from the vote.
Substitute levy fails, passes
In March, a nine-mill substitute levy, which would have combined and continued indefinitely two previously passed emergency operations levies set to expire in 2025 for an annual revenue of $1,975,000, failed at the ballot.
The school board placed the levy on the ballot again in November, with a notable change, this time giving the levy a 10-year term. Voters approved the new version of the levy, enabling the district to continue to collect needed operations revenue.