YS Schools district offices to move
- Published: November 11, 2022
At the regular meeting of the Board of Education on Thursday, Oct. 13, the board voted to move ahead with a plan to relocate the district offices from their current location across the street from Mills Lawn on Walnut Street to a leased office suite at 888 Dayton St. owned by MVECA.
Superintendent Terri Holden first announced the intention to move the offices at the board’s regular meeting in September, saying that the current building is “no longer meeting the needs” of the district. The suite at MVECA, she added, would be an improvement in terms of accessibility and space.
The new offices, the former location of Yellow Springs Primary Care, will include a 2,460-square-foot suite and a meeting space that will be shared with other tenants of the building, according to the lease agreement. The 44-month lease is set to begin Dec. 1, and will cost $3,280 per month.
The Walnut Street building, constructed in 1935 as the original home of the Yellow Springs Library and used for that purpose until the current library facilities were built in 1965, is owned by the Village of Yellow Springs. The district paid $1 per year for the use of the building.
In a follow-up email with the News, Village Manager Josué Salmerón said the Village does not currently have any “concrete plans” for the use of the building once the school district vacates it, but that he will “host meetings with stakeholders to explore partnerships that support economic development and business endeavors for YS” in the coming weeks.
“I see great value in having space in the downtown business corridor that can help us spur/promote economic development,” he wrote.
Eighth-grade trip reinstated
Middle and high school social studies teacher Kevin Lydy came before the board to ask that they approve the reinstatement this year of the annual eighth-grade spring trip to Washington, D.C., which he referred to as a “rite of passage” for middle school students.
The trip, last held in spring 2019 and on hiatus since then due to the pandemic, will also be extended to this year’s ninth-graders, who Lydy pointed out had missed both that experience last year and the annual seventh-grade “Into the Wild” bicycle trip, which returned this year.
The Washington, D.C., trip, Lydy said, would be led by Ohio-based company 20th Century Tours and would include visits to such places as Black Lives Matter Plaza and the Holocaust Museum and viewing a performance of “The High Ground,” a play about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, at the Arena Stage.
“This is an opportunity for students to see, to experience and to really engage with history and engage with the origins of our country,” he said.
The board unanimously approved the request.
From left: Rythme Greene, Young’s Dairy Student of the Month; Ryan Thomas, Mills Park Student of the Month; Cheyan Sundell-Turner, Trophy Sports Center Student-Athlete of the Month; and Amy Tritschler, Peifer Orchards Employee of the Month. (Submitted photos by YS Schools)
Students, faculty of the month
The board recognized the first recipients of the schools’ new student and faculty of the month awards; announced at last month’s board meeting, the awards are sponsored by area businesses.
The Young’s Jersey Dairy Student of the Month is Rythme Greene, a sixth-grader at Mills Lawn. Principal Megan Winston lauded Greene for her “hard work and leadership skills” in the classroom and as a member of the Safety Patrol, where Winston said she often receives compliments from parents on her “welcoming greetings.”
YS High School ninth-grader Ryan Thomas received the Mills Park Hotel Student of the Month award. Principal Jack Hatert said Thomas, a multi-instrumentalist and aspiring composer, often helps other music students on drum set and guitar and is a “high performer in all of his classes.”
Senior Cheyan Sundell-Turner was the recipient of the Trophy Sports Center Student-Athlete of the Month award. Hatert called her a “model student athlete,” pointing out her success in cross-country and track events and her 4.0 GPA, saying she’s been a “quiet leader” during her school career.
Winston presented the Peifer Orchard Employee of the Month award to Mills Lawn Intervention Specialist Amy Tritschler, a Yellow Springs resident who came to the district this year from Kettering schools. Winston praised Tritschler’s “unique ideas” and collaboration with other staff members to meet the needs of students.
“We are so happy to have [Tritschler] — some of the teachers have even thanked me for hiring her,” Winston said. “She just hit the ground running.”
The board will hold its next regular meeting on Thursday, Nov. 10. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. — one hour earlier than the typical meeting time. The location for the meeting has also changed; the board will meet in the media center at YS High School.
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