School News

We invite our community to join us on Tuesday, April 25 at 7 p.m. as we celebrate the Lakota East and Lakota West Class of 2023 seniors who have made a commitment to enter a branch of service after graduation. In addition to the traditional in-person ceremony open to the public, the district will live stream the program on West Chester Township’s YouTube channel and host a week-long military family spirit week in all Lakota schools. 

Personalized learning, in its truest form, is best modeled at Lakota Central. Technically the district’s newest high school, it is officially recognized as a virtual school by the Ohio Department of Education. In reality, it merges the concepts and resources of three former Lakota programs - the Academy, the Virtual Learning Option (VLO) and the work study experience formerly known as ACCESS - all under one roof. 

Lakota Central High School is the only school representing Ohio at this year’s National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Washington D.C. One of the 58 smaller trees ceremoniously surrounding the National Tree will be adorned with unique ornaments showcasing the photography of Lakota Central student artists. The 100th annual ceremony will broadcast nationally on CBS on Dec. 11. 

“One of the most enjoyable parts of learning to read is getting to ‘shop’ for books to borrow from the classroom library,” said VLO second-grade teacher Charlotte Elia. 

Virtual learning teachers faced big challenges at the beginning of the school year.

Take a closer look inside Lakota Local Schools with a video series called “A Peek Behind the Curtain.” This time, you’ll get an inside look at the inaugural year of Lakota’s Virtual Learning Option (VLO) from the perspective of students, parents and teachers who experienced it firsthand. 

The Piening family likes to think they’ve been “making COVID lemonade” since August. In just five months, the family of five has managed to visit more than 20 cities in 11 different states - all while first-grader Cami, second-grader Daniel and fifth-grader Elle continued their “regular” studies (and then some) at Liberty ECS and VanGorden Elementary.

To culminate their recent Economics unit, Lakota VLO students banded together to learn some real-life lessons about needs and wants.

Hundreds of K-2 virtual learners are having some fall and winter fun, thanks to some Hopewell and Liberty junior high VLO students. Students in Moriah Walker’s Media Design & Communications class recently took on a project to create activity books full of coloring pages, word searches and math puzzles for younger VLO students at Hopewell and Wyandot early childhood schools.

“It was an optional Zoom session, but 90% of my children came to the party dressed in their costumes. What I thought might be a half hour turned into 50 minutes of fun and laughter – talking – sharing – just enjoying being together,” said Wyandot ECS first grade teacher Abigail Detcher.

While about a quarter of Lakota students might be learning virtually from their own homes, the goal is to keep them as connected to their home school as possible.