Badin’s therapy dog Rudy, and 4 other unique things Butler County schools are doing to help students

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

There are 10 public school districts in Butler County and one Catholic high school,and each district and school building offers some unique or rare features to its students and staff.

Whether they be first-time instructional programs, different facilities or traditions, Butler County’s school systems often reveal their unique, local flavor through providing to its communities different aspects of schooling rarely seen elsewhere.

Some of these include:

Badin’s therapy dog, Rudy

Badin High School offers students some four-legged stress relief through its recent adoption of a specially trained therapy dog named Rudy. The dog spends most of its time during school days in the Hamilton Catholic school’s counseling area but also makes special trips around the school to the delight of students.

Lakota’s laptop giveaway program

The program for high school and middle school students. Launched in the fall in all of Lakota’s middle schools - and expanded in January to Lakota East and Lakota West high schools and freshman schools, the district is the first the county to provide free learning laptops to students.

Next year the program will be expanded to some elementary grade levels.

On-campus school medical centers

Such centers are at Fairfield, Hamilton and Middletown schools with another one planned next school year for Edgewood Schools.

The medical centers are a rarity among public schools locally and nationwide. The centers offer medical, dental, vision and behavioral counseling services.

Classrooms to train teachers

Middletown and Lakota Schools both have two of the most high-tech observation classrooms for training and evaluating teachers’ job performances. The two districts each have a specially designed classroom that is wired with microphones to pick up sounds and a one-way observational window so viewers can see and learn from teacher techniques demonstrated in the rooms with students.

Ross program helps students develop mobile apps

Ross High School features a Butler Tech satellite program for students to use computer science and digital technology to develop mobile device apps, some of which have won national awards and may some day be patented and offered for sale in the market.

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