The opening class bells ringing soon throughout Butler County’s 10 public school districts also marks the first school-year start since August 2020 that is not being conducted while under a formal national emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May federal officials rescinded the emergency status, which had been in place since March 2020 when Covid began its historic disruptions of schools that lasted through the first half of 2022-2023 school year.
Among the major changes for area schools are new faces in school building leadership, including new principals for some Lakota Schools, which with an enrollment of 17,500 is the largest in the county and one of the biggest districts in Ohio.
Lakota, like some area districts such as the 10,000-student Fairfield Schools, are using a holdover strategy from the pandemic and easing into the school year with a staggered start for students according to the first letters of their last names.
About half of Lakota’s students will be attending opening day classes on Wednesday with the remaining half in class on Thursday. Friday will see almost all Lakota students in the districts’ two dozen school buildings.
“The start of the new school year is always exciting and filled with anticipation,” said Interim Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli, who was recently hired to the lead the district through the 2023-2024 school year.
Lakota school families will see a number of new principals and assistant principals at some schools.
Lolli said the fresh leadership adds to the new school year excitement.
“We welcome our new administrators to Lakota and look forward to the new ideas and experience they bring to our schools.”
Fairfield Schools last week began experimenting for the first time with a staggered start.
The 9,000-student Hamilton City Schools began its staggered start schedule on Monday and will continue through the week with all students in class by Friday.
About half of Middletown’s 6,000 students will start the new school year Tuesday and the other half on Wednesday with all students learning together in the 10 city schools starting on Thursday.
Butler County’s only Catholic high school will host its more than 600 students on their first day on Thursday. Badin High School draws students primarily from the county but also from adjacent communities around southwest Ohio.
And one of the region’s largest universities — Miami, with its main Oxford campus and regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown — is scheduled to start classes for its fall semester Aug. 28.
School families should check their local district websites for class schedules and more details on school calendars.
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