Huron School District Finds Support in Western Ohio

The Huron City School District has partnered with the Bluffton Exempted Village School District in Bluffton, Ohio to compare academic performance and game plan strategies to achieve higher marks on the 2011-2012 District Report Card.

Bluffton Exempted Village School District, located in western Ohio, holds many of the same principles and values as the Huron City School District. Similar in the size, make-up of the student body and commitment to the community are just a few of the similarities the Districts share, explained Superintendent Fred Fox.

“The partnership is designed to benefit the students of both districts,” stated Fox.  “We have partnered together to see what they are doing and how they are doing it and to share some of our ideas with them.”

This past October the Huron principals and Superintendent Fox traveled to Bluffton to visit the Bluffton District and to meet with their principals and Superintendent Greg Denecker.

Bluffton’s Performance Index ranking is in the top 10% of the state, just slightly higher than Huron’s.

One of Bluffton’s strengths is in their 4th and 5th grade math programs.  Bluffton scores outweighed Huron’s by 10-15%.  Bluffton has integrated a High School Mentoring Program to help with their scores.  High school students are tutoring the elementary students for Community Service hours.  This program is partially made possible due to the close proximity of the Bluffton schools. No extra transportation is required as all of the schools are within a city block of one another.

Bluffton and Huron both adhere to the same concepts of sharing teachers across the District and handling the Professional Development in-house.  Both districts share the same philosophy of renovating their current buildings versus building new.

“Both districts have benefited from the support we have been able to offer each other,” stated Fox.

This spring Superintendent Denecker and the Bluffton principals will travel to Huron to tour the Huron facilities and to will mutually continue to find ways to achieve higher marks on the 2011-2012 District Report Card.