4 Clark County schools add new staff, upgrade building

Students head toward buses at the end of the first week of classes at Northeastern Elementary School on Friday, August 22, 2025, in South Vienna. JOSEPH COOKE/STAFF

Students head toward buses at the end of the first week of classes at Northeastern Elementary School on Friday, August 22, 2025, in South Vienna. JOSEPH COOKE/STAFF

With a new school year in full swing, some local Clark County districts have new things coming to their buildings.

Clark-Shawnee Local, Global Impact STEM Academy (GISA), Northeastern Local and Springfield City schools have all either added new faculty, classes and programs, students or upgrades to their districts for the start of the new year.

Clark-Shawnee

The district hired a new special education director, working on a STEM classroom partnership and strategic plan, and more.

Timothy Sullivan was welcomed as the new special education director. He has experience in educational leadership, special education services and mental health services.

They are partnering with local businesses to launch a STEM class at the elementary school for the 2025-26 year that will serve students in K-8 who will learn about a variety of STEM topics.

The district is working through a strategic plan that’s expected to be completed in September, and have many extracurricular activities throughout the year such as athletics, musicals, band and more.

A group of high school students will travel to Peru and the Amazon in June 2026 as a cross-curricular experience for their trip with the Spanish and Science departments.

Teacher Jenny Damron, left, socializes with students before they get picked up by cars at the end of the first week of classes at Northeastern Elementary School on Friday, August 22, 2025, in South Vienna. JOSEPH COOKE/STAFF

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GISA

GISA hit a few big milestones this year with opening its Upper Academy on Clark State College’s campus and allowing sixth graders to attend the academy.

The $16.9 million Upper Academy opened this month at 572 E. Leffel Lane with academic spaces, labs, prep rooms, general classrooms, a patio with a garage door, delivery dock, a greenhouse, an entry plaza, plus offices, conference rooms, and a commons area.

The new facility is for students in grades 10-12, who will be earning college credits, preparing to enter the workforce or choosing a path to continue their education.

By providing additional space to help serve more students, it allows for them to expand overall programming down to sixth grade and expand the number of students in grades 7-8, which helps alleviate capacity restrictions at GISA’s current location inside the Springfield Center of Innovation at The Dome on South Limestone Street.

Kenton Ridge High School students wrote letters back and forth with third graders in Mrs. Dugan and Mrs. Lemmings' classes during the year before the annual Pen Pal Picnic. The high school students were able to buy their pen pals a gift, spend the afternoon with them enjoying lunch, and played games. Contributed

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Northeastern

The district has several things going on this year including waiving the technology fee for the 2025-26 year, added a social worker and special education leadership team, and working through facility updates.

“In an effort to do our part and assist many of our families,” the district decided to waive the annual technology fee for all students for this year and will reevaluate in the spring for the next year.

Jessica Zakowski was welcomed as a district social worker, alongside counselors, mental health therapists ad psychologist to provide more resources and help to students in need.

To enhance special education and better serve those students, the district named Melissa Jewell as the director of special education, Stacy Slusher as special education supervisor of Kenton Ridge, and Betsy Vanhoose as special education supervisor of Northeastern and Springfield-Clark Career Technology Center.

The Northeastern Athletic Complex fieldhouse is complete and teams have moved in. A classroom at Northeastern was renovated to house the new special education unit, new goal posts were added to the Northeastern stadium and the old ones at both schools were installed on the new practice fields for football, new fencing was put in for the Northeastern baseball stadium, and field maintenance was done on the Kenton Ridge band field.

Springfield City Schools launched an STNA certification course at the high school that’s in line with the healthcare career pathway. This is a new lab space in the Health Center at Springfield High School that was created to help with hands-on learning. Contributed

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Springfield

The district launched this year its STNA certification course at the high school, which is in line with the healthcare career pathway.

The program is made up of two courses — Medical Terminology/Patient Centered Care and STNA Certification, that are available to juniors and seniors. A new lab space in the Health Center at the high school was created to help with hands-on learning experiences.

Beginning with the Class of 2028, the district implemented six “Career Pathways” that allow them to chart a course for their future based on the results of the YouScience career assessment tool that tells them their career strengths.

For example, if a student is interested in digital media, they’d follow the digital media career pathway that maps out their high school coursework, potential post-secondary education, in-demand careers and career gaps in the local area.

The district also has a new extracurricular this year called Medical Mentors, in which OSU Medical students come to the high school once a month to mentor a group of students who are interested in pursuing healthcare as a potential career. The med students will go over various skills, as well as how to apply for med school and more.

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