Photo courtesy of Yellow Springs Schools
YS Schools reach facilities milestone
- Published: November 3, 2026
During the school board’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 14, Superintendent Megan Winston announced that the school district has reached one of the final milestones in its facilities project.
“I am happy to announce that all students, starting on Oct. 21, will be in the building that they were intended to be in at the beginning,” Winston said.
As the News has reported this year, construction delays at the district’s East Enon Road campus set back the beginning of the 2026–27 school year by seven instructional days. Students in fifth through eighth grades began the school year on the Mills Lawn campus as construction on YS Middle and High School was still underway.
After visiting the campus to take part in a homecoming pep rally on Thursday, Oct. 15, and a few days off from school, middle school students were welcomed to their wing on the East Enon Road campus Wednesday, Oct. 21.
YS Middle and High School’s new theater, scene shop and performing arts/choral music classroom are still under construction and are expected to be completed this winter.
Winston thanked teachers, administrators, custodians and other staff for their work and flexibility during the transition. She noted that transportation times could change by about five minutes as students began attending the two buildings, and directed families with questions to the district’s transportation email or board office.
Open houses and ribbon-cutting ceremonies for both campuses are planned for Friday, Nov. 6, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in the YS Middle and High School gym. After a presentation and tours at the middle and high school, activities will move to Mills Lawn at about 4:30 p.m., with another presentation, tours and a dessert reception.
Ohio report card
Winston also highlighted the district’s overall rating of 4.5 stars on Ohio’s 2025–26 school report card. The district earned five stars in progress and graduation, four stars in achievement and gap closing, and three stars in early literacy and college, career, workforce and military readiness.
Mills Lawn received an overall rating of 4.5 stars, while YS Middle and High School received four stars. The report card lists a four-year graduation rate of 97% and a chronic absenteeism rate of 23.6%.
Special education report
Later in the meeting, Special Education Supervisor Joe Bachman reported that 110 students currently receive special education services through the district, a number he described as high relative to the state.
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s annual special education report denotes that an average of 17% of students enrolled in public schools receive special education services in the state based on 2024-25 school-year data. Though Bachman’s presentation didn’t include current enrollment numbers, based on the most recent state report card’s enrollment data, Yellow Springs Schools currently provides special education services to around 19% of enrolled students.
Of the 110 students who currently receive special education services in Yellow Springs, 31 attend through open enrollment, representing 28.2% of the district’s special education enrollment. According to the presentation, students receiving special education services in the district have exceeded state-set performance goals in standardized testing: 62.3% were proficient in mathematics, compared with a 57% goal, and 63.6% were proficient in English language arts, compared with a 61% goal.
Bachman credited intervention specialists throughout the district for those results and pointed to “multi-tiered systems of support” at both campuses that identify student strengths and learning needs and determine appropriate interventions.
“It gives our kids that individualized attention that they need to succeed,” Bachman said, and added that the district’s support system also provides interventions for students who do not have individualized education programs, or IEPs.
Noting the number of students on IEPs who attend district schools through open enrollment, Bachman acknowledged that families seek out Yellow Springs as a “destination district” for the region.
‘Take the Dough, We Gotta Know’
During the earlier public comment portion of the meeting, local parent Dorothee Bouquet noted that private schools receiving EdChoice voucher funding can decline admission to students with disabilities and are not required by law to provide services or accommodations to students with disabilities. Noting the percentage of open-enrolled students who make up the 110 district students receiving special education services, she asked if that could be influencing some families from outside the district to enroll in Yellow Springs schools.
Though the special education presentation didn’t establish a connection between vouchers and the district’s special education enrollment, the meeting turned to further discussion of vouchers and state funding during school board Vice President Kristi Nowack Myers’ legislative report. In particular, she spoke about Senate Bill 443, which was introduced to the Senate Education Committee in June this year.
Colloquially known as the “Take the Dough, We Gotta Know” Act, if passed, SB 443 would add reporting and accountability requirements for nonpublic schools receiving state funding through EdChoice vouchers, including financial information, student demographics, testing and report cards — metrics not currently required for state oversight in order to receive public funding.
A fact sheet included with the agenda, citing the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s Nonpublic Data Report Portal, reported that fewer than 10 residents within YS Exempted Village School District used EdChoice Expansion vouchers in 2024–25. It listed the district’s state share of base funding at $2,751 per student and the maximum voucher award at $8,408 per student.
“So the state is giving more money to send our students away … and they’re fully funding those [private] schools — they’re not funding us,” Myers said.
Myers also referred to the 1997 case DeRolph v. State of Ohio, in which the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state’s reliance on local property taxes created a disparity between school districts that goes against the state constitution’s obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient system of common schools.”
“It’s been over 30 years since our school funding system was found unconstitutional,” she said. “We still haven’t fixed it.”
As the News reported last year, the same group that brought the 1997 case against the State was also the mover behind a case filed against the State of Ohio in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of funding private charter schools through public tax dollars through EdChoice Expansion. In June last year, a Franklin County Court of Common Pleas judge handed down a summary judgement ruling Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program as unconstitutional.
On Oct. 15, the day after the school board meeting, Ohio’s 10th District Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the 2025 lower court ruling.
Despite the ruling, the voucher program remains operational pending further appeal; the State is expected to eventually appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.
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