Like most other area public schools, Lakota conducts a staggered opening with students divided alphabetically by last name reporting over two days.
Friday will see another half of enrollment have their first school day of the 2025-2026 school year and Monday will see all students attend.
Parents said they appreciated Lakota officials, who conducted recent open houses at its schools to help familiarize students and their families with new teachers and buildings.
“We came to the open house here and I loved everything,” said Lakota West Freshman school parent Yatziri Galan, who was dropping off her 9th grade son at the West Chester Twp. school.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Opened in 1959 as Lakota’s original high school, in recent decades the now 66-year-old school, which is one of oldest in the school system, has operated as the 9th grade feeder school to Lakota West High School.
School buildings are a key community issue this fall as Lakota has a two-part tax issue on the November ballot to raise property taxes to build new schools and renovate others.
The district is the largest suburban school system in southwest Ohio and the ninth biggest among Ohio’s 613 public school districts.
Lakota’s leader, Superintendent Ashley Whitely, said the district hopes to reduce the number of schools from 21 to 18 should voters approve the proposed school tax increase, which would not begin to be collected until 2029.
“Our theme this year is ‘WE are Building OUR Future…One Piece at a Time,’” said Whitely.
“Coming back together to start a new year, we are reminded that every member of our staff plays a role in building a future filled with purpose, unity and possibility for our more than 17,000 students.”
“Our master facilities plan is in high gear, with the bond issue on November’s ballot. We are out of space in many of our schools and enrollment continues to grow, albeit at a more normal pace.”
“Even though the facilities plan calls for decreasing our footprint from 21 buildings to 16, the grade-band reconfiguration and four new schools will alleviate the pressure from our overcrowded ones, while allowing for the forecasted growth of an additional 2,000 students over the next 10 years.”
Opening day for schools is special, said Whitely.
“We are thrilled to welcome back our students for the first day of school. Our teachers and staff returned on Monday, and it’s been great to have the energy back in our buildings.”
Among some of the other Butler County school districts opening this week were Fairfield and Hamilton schools while Middletown Schools will open on Monday.
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