As we enter the 2024-25 school year, it’s an exciting time in the Gallia County Local Schools.  We are continuing to work on our goals for the district.  Those goals include:  1) Improving Reading and Math proficiency through the growth of all students.  2)  Continue to grow our culture and offer new opportunities for our students.  3)  Maintain and improve our facilities. 

We are in year 4 of following the Science of Reading.  The greatest impact is happening at the elementary level with a larger percentage of students in our primary grades reading at grade level.  These instructional practices begin at pre-school, and our data shows students who attend our pre-school are much more likely to be on track for kindergarten compared to those students who do not attend our pre-school program.  Our district is offering free pre-school to our families for the 2024-25 school year.  With better prepared students in the early grades, it would lead to better readers and a better state report card in the future.  For example, our 3rd grade reading passage rate for 2023-24 was the highest we’ve seen in the past several years.  While tracking this achievement data is important and promising, we really focus on the growth of ALL students.  Throughout the year, we are able to see if each our students are growing at an appropriate rate compared to their peers.  This is also a good approach as we focus on our students with disabilities.  For example, if a student is performing below the 5th percentile - nationally, that student may not pass a state test, but we can celebrate by moving the student to the 7th percentile, the 10th percentile, or even higher.  

Additionally, our district is taking action to provide college credit beyond our CCP opportunities.  This year, our students will have the ability to earn several hours towards college by participating in the Modern States Curriculum and taking a CLEP exam after completing a course.  There are 32 additional college courses that can be taken within both of our high schools at no cost to our students and their families. 

Our district is also focused on trying to help build good character by providing several opportunities for character education, supporting anti-drug education opportunities, adding counseling services, having a Drug-Free Clubs of America in our high schools, starting a Hall of Fame in our high schools, adding academic competitions such as the Scripps National Spelling Bee, receiving National Beta recognition, and adding new extra-curricular activities. 

Over the past few years since Covid-19, school districts were given some additional dollars.  We understood it was important to not create additional ongoing costs with “one time” money.  We have used some of those funds to purchase student resources, improve our facilities and add additional safety features.  There have been many maintenance issues that needed addressed, but we have also been able to improve our facilities.  An example would be adding AC to our gyms.  Our most exciting facility improvements are yet to come.  We will soon be breaking ground at River Valley Middle School with a new classroom addition.  As a result, our 5th grade students will be added to RVMS in the fall of 2026-27 which will eliminate some overcrowding issues we have in our elementary buildings.  This classroom addition and new gymnasium at RVMS will be at no additional cost to our tax payers.  At South Gallia, we will be adding a medical clinic that will benefit our students and the community of Mercerville.  This medical clinic at South Gallia will be paid for by the Appalachian Community Grant and will also be built at no cost to our residents. 

The above initiatives are only a snapshot of the improvement happening within the Gallia County Local Schools.  We will continue to implement programs which support our students in reaching their potential. 


Phillip Kuhn,
Superintendent

Welcome to Gallia County Local Schools