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Warren High School receives bronze medal

VINCENT — Warren High School has been awarded a bronze medal as one of the nation’s top high schools, according to an announcement by Superintendent Kyle Newton during Monday’s Warren Local Board of Education meeting.

“Warren High was recognized as one of the best high schools by the U.S. News 2017 Best High Schools National Rankings,” Newton said as he displayed the award plaque for the board members.

According to the U.S. News Web site, the rankings “highlight public schools that best serve all of their students, including disadvantaged populations. Overall, the rankings focus on student outcomes with an emphasis on graduation rates and state proficiency tests.”

The report noted 6,041 schools have received national recognition in 2017 and those institutions have graduation rates 15 percent higher on average than schools not included in the rankings.

The Warren and Fort Frye school districts both received an ‘A’ rating in the recently-released Ohio Department of Education district report cards for the 2016-17 school year.

In addition to graduation rates, enrollment, diversity, and participation in free and reduced price lunch programs were also factored into the national rankings, according to the U.S. News.com Web site.

Board member Debbie West said the board’s Learning, Instruction and Assessment Committee has reviewed the district’s 2016-17 report card from the state in which Warren showed improvements in several areas over the previous year.

“We’ve looked at the report card to see where we are and what improvements can be made,” she said. “And we exceeded the state average in most areas.”

“I thought Warren did pretty well,” added board member Willie Holbert, noting last week’s Marietta Times article that reported the district went from an ‘F’ to a ‘B’ grade in the K-3 Literacy rating portion of the state report card.

“These are things in which we’ve always done well,” Newton said. “We’re above the state average in almost every subcategory, but they don’t measure that in the report card.”

He noted the annual report card can be confusing as the data collected by the state from each district to use in the report cards changes from year to year.

“And the tests they use have been changed three times in the last four years,” Newton said.

In other business Monday, the superintendent said Fanning Howey, an architectural firm located in Dublin and Celina, Ohio, was selected to be the architect for the district’s new elementary and high school construction project.

Board president Bob Allen noted the decision to contract with Fanning Howey was also supported through comments by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.

Newton also gave a short video presentation on the computerized Building Image Modeling (BIM) program that Fanning Howey will use to assist in the design of the school buildings.

The program provides a 3-D “blueprint,” allowing virtual internal and external tours of the school facilities and grounds, including all details and measurements, as they are being designed.

“We won’t necessarily have to be able to read blueprints” by using this program, Allen said.

Newton said the BIM would eliminate guesswork in the building design.

He said the BIM should also be available for public viewing on the district’s Web site within the next six months or so.

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