PLSD Student Research Team Selected to Send Algae Experiment Into Space
Mission 16 winners Isaac and Trevor
Two Pickerington High School Central seniors now have a truly out-of-this-world achievement to add to their resumes. Trevor Blankenship and Isaac Hoshor’s research proposal, named “Algae: The Fuel Source of Space,” was selected by a panel of scientists for the real microgravity experiment to be sent on a mission to the International Space Station! Selected by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program’s Mission 16 project, Blankenship and Hoshor’s proposal beat out 73 other PLSD Earth and Space Science Education high school teams for the honor. Read the rest of the article online: www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/mission-16-project/.
Class Full of Authors Launches “Bedtime Stories” Series
Pickerington Schools is excited to introduce the “Bedtime Stories” video series, which will feature different books read by PLSD students and staff. Find out why the first book featured is the perfect way to kick off the new series on the PLSD Communications YouTube channel.
PLSD Overcrowding Concerns Grow with Growing Population
Based on January 2022 projections from the consulting firm Cooperative Strategies, the Pickerington Local School District (PLSD) is continuing to grow and the space needed to educate our students is rapidly dwindling.
Ryan Jenkins, Treasurer/CFO for the District, shared a presentation and discussion with PLSD’s Board of Education at its Jan. 10 meeting. The presentation highlighted the capacities at each of the district’s 14 school buildings, along with an analysis of the anticipated enrollment growth in each building by the end of the 2029-2030 school year.
The reports analyzed the projected enrollments in three ways:
Based on the students attending that school during the 2021-2022 school year
Based on the students living within that school’s boundaries during the 2021-2022 school year; and
Based on the analysis, the District has created a grid that shows just how full our buildings are getting. There are currently two buildings that are beyond programming capacity (Toll Gate Elementary and Pickerington Central High School) along with four more buildings (Ridgeview Junior High, Toll Gate Middle School, Sycamore Creek Elementary and Tussing Elementary) that are more than 90 percent full.
By the 2025-2026 school year, those numbers increase to seven buildings above programming capacity (Pickerington Central High School, Diley Middle School, Toll Gate Middle School, Toll Gate Elementary, Tussing Elementary, Sycamore Creek Elementary and Violet Elementary) with another three buildings (Lakeview and Ridgeview Junior Highs and Fairfield Elementary) more than 90 percent full.
During the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Chris Briggs said, “If you look at the continued (housing) development that is going on in our District, these numbers are very real. These numbers are at a point where we are impacting programming.”
Board Member Cathy Olshefski also stated, “It’s important for our community to understand that there is a three-year lag between the passage of a bond issue and a building opening. Looking at the 2021-2022 school year, we already have buildings that are full … so even if a bond issue passes (in 2022), it won’t be until the 2024-2025 school year (that a new building opens), which is already an even fuller school year.”
Noting that the District had proposed previous bond issues to the community within the last couple of years, Board President Vanessa Niekamp and Olshefski asked if the District was considering changes to the facility plan moving forward. Briggs said the District is taking a hard look at its facilities plans to come up with the right options for meeting its needs. While these plans are evolving, the District has identified and is vetting some short-term options to try to ease current and anticipated overcrowding.
