Welcome to the 2023-24 school year. We have had a very busy and successful start. It was a pleasure seeing our district families at our open houses, orientations, meet and greets, “party at the playground,” and sporting events, just to name a few. It is definitely a team effort to have an outstanding opening. We thank our district families for doing your part in helping your students be ready for school!
What has made the start of the school year even sweeter, are the results of the District Report Card, as released by the Ohio Department of Education. Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools received an overall rating of 5 stars and earned 5 stars in each of the component areas (Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation and Early Literacy).
In fact, we are just one of eight school districts in the entire state to earn 5 stars in the overall rating and each of the five overall components out of the more than 600 public schools rated … and Bellbrook was the only district in the greater Dayton area to do so.
Even though we have had very strong results – just as we have in the past – we are always looking for areas to improve. Writing was one of those focus areas this past year. I am extremely happy to tell you that out of 32 possible scoring areas in the writing sections, we increased our scores in 20 of those areas. This is a testament to hard work and a focus on a specific area of improvement to help our students improve their writing. We know that writing for a test is not the only type of writing. But we must prepare our students to be successful in a variety of areas and writing in response to a prompt is one of those.
We also know there is more to our schools than test scores. Please check out our Quality Profile, which highlights the accomplishments (such as the BHS Drone team winning a second consecutive National Championship) of our students and staff and all of the ways our schools give back to our community and beyond (such as 10,677 hours of community service by the National Honor Society).
Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight a particular item on the Quality Profile: the district's cost per pupil. According to the Fiscal Year 2022 State of Ohio District Profile Report, our cost per pupil was $12,480. We are about $2,200 below the state average and about $1,090 less than similar districts. We work hard to be fiscally responsible while at the same time providing a top-notch educational experience for our students.