A letter from Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach
Greetings,
We are looking forward to a great 2018-2019 school year. We want to welcome all students and parents back from a hopefully safe summer break. Last year was exceptional in regards to student growth and improvement both in the classroom and with extracurricular endeavors. Our entire staff and community are to be commended. A clearly articulated goal is continual and incremental improvement in every area. With the extended community support we are so fortunate to have we will just get better and better at serving our students. Come see what is going on at Olney ISD!
Students and staff are making good use of our remodeled junior high and new vocational facility. Our high school is now in the middle of a total remodel. At the high school we are beginning the first year of a three to four year machining/manufacturing program. This is a partnership program with Tower Fabrication and Tower Extrusion. Our intent is to provide students with the opportunity to graduate and step into starting machinist positions. Last year we reinstated a stand-alone welding program with the availability of some certification areas. It is our hope that the continual improvement of our vocational programming will have a positive impact on the wide array of manufacturing in our community.
School security is a hot topic. We are working with the City to expand the presence of School Resource Officers and will have additional safety measures at each campus. Safety and security are ongoing topics for our board. We are in the process of tailoring The Texas School Safety Center’s Standard Response Protocol to fit the security needs of our district. Proactively we continue to conduct yearly staff training that can cover a wide array of areas such as crisis intervention, bullying, suicide, depression, and abuse. Much of the safety training we hear of in the news has been ongoing in our district for some time. It is also noteworthy that we will again have a crossing guard in the mornings and afternoons at Avenue L and Highway 114.
Last year we had issues arise with the dropping off and picking up of students at the elementary and junior high. This is resolved. We will use zones in front of both campuses for what they were intended. With the exception of blocking access to designated fire zones, parents may park in the drives to pick up their children after school. We only ask that vehicles not be left unattended during posted times designated for drop off or pick up and that designated fire lanes are not blocked. Many thanks to the city, police department, and fire department for providing time and input. They were of great help.
Again, a huge THANK YOU to the citizens, business, and industry here in Olney and Megargel! None of our student accomplishments are possible without this support.
Dr. Greg Roach
Superintendent