“This achievement is truly incredible,” said Denise Hayes, veteran principal of the school located in Fairfield Twp.
“Our team has worked for years with great dedication to reach this milestone rating, and it holds deep significance for both myself and our school community,” said Hayes.
Fairfield Schools officials said it’s the first time one of its 10 schools, which enroll 9,600 students from Fairfield City and the adjacent Fairfield Twp., had earned the state’s highest rating.
According to ODEW’s report card for the 2024-2025 school year, half of Butler County’s school districts dropped in their overall rating by the state’s annual report card released Monday.
And graduation rates declined for seven local school systems.
Overall, report card results for local districts were mixed with some school systems showing relatively slight declines or gains in a variety of key measurements by state education officials.
Five of the county’s 10 public school systems, including Fairfield, showed a slight decline in the state’s five-star ranking for the 2024-2025 school year.
Hayes credited her teaching staff “for their hard work, commitment, and perseverance, and of our students for believing in themselves, striving to reach their personal goals, and continually pushing to be their very best.”
She cited empowering staffers, focusing on data-driven decisions and addressing “whole child” needs through close cooperation with school families.
Officials in other Butler County school systems cited similar strategies for their report card gains in the sweeping annual ratings.
Officials in Talawanda Schools said while they spotlight the district’s highest graduation rate among county schools, they also noted there are areas needing improvement as the schools’ overall rating dropped from 4.5 stars to 4.
“Notably, our Early Literacy component declined from 4 stars to 2 stars districtwide, signaling a need for focused intervention and support at the elementary level,” said Talawanda Spokeswoman Holli Hansel.
“Talawanda High School saw an overall decline from 4.5 to 4 stars, with Achievement falling from 4 to 3 stars and Gap Closing from 5 to 4 stars. In contrast, Talawanda Middle School showed positive growth, increasing from 4 to 4.5 stars with growth in Achievement and Gap Closing,” said Hansel.
“While we remain committed to strengthening literacy, we are also prioritizing expanded access to rigorous math instruction to drive stronger math achievement across the district.
Middletown Schools officials cited a similar re-focus on a number of academic areas in the wake of the city district continuing its trend of more than a decade of being the lowest rated school system in the county.
Middletown Schools saw its overall district rating drop from 2.5 Stars to 2 Stars last school year.
But the district also recorded a small increase in its performance index going from 58.7% to 58.8%.
District officials also cited improvement as three of its schools increased in ratings and progress was made in battling chronic absenteeism.
Deborah Houser, superintendent of Middletown Schools, said “we sustained our progress on four of the major report card components and recognize that meaningful change takes time. There is still important work ahead.”
Houser added: “The 2023-2024 chronic absenteeism rate on the state report card was 44.5%, compared to 35.9% in 2024-2025. This 8.6% districtwide reduction reflects meaningful progress, and reducing absenteeism remains a key focus supported by our community partners.”
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