Administration

Welcome Back Letter - August 2024

Dear Norwood Students, Staff, and Families,

It is hard to believe that the start of school is already here. The first day of school for K-12th grade students is right around the corner on Monday, August 19th!  Preschool starts on Tuesday, September 3rd  and Kindergarten has a phase in by last name on the 19th and 20th. I truly hope that you have had time to relax, spend quality time with family, and that our students are ready and eager to return for the upcoming school year. 

Our staff has been hard at work preparing for the new school year. We look forward to seeing our students back in the classrooms on August 19th. The summer is a great time to reflect on the past year and to plan for new ways to make Norwood City School District an even better place for students. Here's a sneak peek at some of the items you'll be hearing more about over the next several weeks and throughout the school year:

Staff Changes  - Brooke Gregg is the new principal at Norwood View Elementary replacing Tom Robinson who moved to Nagel Middle School in the Forest Hills district. We also have a new assistant principal at the high school, Amanda Blanton, to replace Emma Godfrey who returned to the Great Oaks system. We have new staff at each of our buildings and we look forward to you meeting them on the Family Information Nights (NHS/NMS Thursday, August 15th and Elementary Buildings Friday, August 16th)

Facility Improvements - We are excited to be at the end of our building renovation plans. We are now working on outdoor beautification and updated playgrounds with green space. This summer both playgrounds at Sharpsburg have new equipment and designs. We have added a fenced-in playground area for the safety of our Montessori youngsters. We will be working on the Williams playground update next summer. 

Shea Stadium has been refurbished with new turf and track replacement plus new lighting and a new scoreboard. We are working to schedule an open house before a football game.

Academics and Career Readiness – We will be rolling out new English Language Arts resources for K-12 this year. Our new programming is based on the Science of Reading work.  We are grateful that partial funding for some of our new resources came from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.  This summer our staff continued their work around the study of how students learn to read and write proficiently.

Physical and Mental Health Back-to-School Information - As a district, we recognize that happy, healthy students perform better academically. The Norwood City School District has full-time school counselors in each building. A social worker and a behavior health and wellness coordinator serves district-wide to support the needs of all students.  Additionally, we have mental health therapists available through Talbert House and Perceptions.   

We are very excited about our school based health center which is available to serve our staff and families. CenterPoint Health is located at Norwood High School by the Sherman Avenue entrance.  CenterPoint Health is staffed with a nurse practitioner, and a dentist to meet staff, students’ and families’ health needs. CenterPoint is available for sport physicals.

Lastly, we have a full-time registered nurse, and six health aides serving students in our schools.

Food Service/Student Nutrition - Norwood has partnered with several other districts to provide delicious, yet nutritious, meals for our students. The partnership allows us to expand our menu and current offerings at lunchtime.  If your child wishes to order any extra items at lunch Milford Nutrition Services will be coordinating our food service pre-payment plans.  Several pages of information will be sent in a different email to explain how to set up an account. There are directions attached and numbers to call if you need assistance in setting up your account.

As we start another school year, we want to remind everyone of the safety measures the district has in place.

Building Security:

These are some of the physical safety measures we have in place:  locked doors- visitors need to be buzzed in, cameras, panic buttons, staff badges for identification and entry.  In addition, a school resource officer, Officer Town from the Norwood Police Department is present on the  Norwood High School and Norwood Middle School campus with regular visits to the three elementary schools.  The Norwood Police Department is involved in the development of the Norwood Crisis Plan, have a copy on file, and are familiar with all our buildings since they use them for active shooter and drug search training.  We are fortunate that the Norwood Police Department is located so close to our school buildings for a rapid response time. 

Lastly, I will continue to provide updates on these initiatives as well, as other exciting news, as the school year begins.  Enjoy this last week of summer with your family.  We look forward to welcoming our students back to the classrooms on August 19th!

Sincerely,

Mary A. Ronan
Superintendent