I'm grateful that you've visited our website and that you're interested enough to learn more about the great people and opportunities available to students at Federal Hocking High School.

I think it will help for me to explain a little about my perspective before I tell you about all of the exciting work being done in our building. I am entering my 25th year as a professional educator and my tenth with Federal Hocking Local Schools. During that time, I have served students from first through twelfth grade. I have worked as a teacher, a principal, and an Assistant Superintendent. I have worked in downtown Cincinnati, suburban Piqua, and our rural Federal Hocking. My wife - also an educator in FHLS - and I are proud residents of Guysville and parents to five daughters. Two of our daughters have graduated from FHHS and gone on to attend their first choice colleges, and the other three are enrolled at FHHS and FHMS. My wife and I chose this community after having lived in a variety of other locations. Although we have moved, we tend to settle in and stay once we find a home that feels right. I know that my girls have been exposed to opportunities and benefits that they would not have experienced in any of the other places that we've ever been.

You see, no community or school district can do everything. Small, rural schools like ours have budgetary and logistical constraints that prevent them from providing the breadth of courses, clubs, or teams that large, suburban or urban schools can. Large schools lack the depth of connection and personal attention that small schools can offer. Big districts have countless individuals with specialized, narrowly focused responsibilities, but small district employees juggle a variety of conventional titles and roles. The big district employees may have an answer faster, but the employees in a small district will have a better understanding of how that answer will impact a specific student. The important thing is that every district, school, and employee focus on doing what they do better today than they did yesterday.

Let me tell you what I think we do best at Federal Hocking: we respond to students. The student experience has always been the foundation of the work that this staff has done. Years ago, the staff chose a master schedule that if felt best responded to the academic and social needs of students. Recently, we made significant changes to that schedule, but for the very same reason: to provide the best student experience that we could.

Similarly, our course offerings are a result of talking with and surveying our students. We can't offer every course that every student wants, nor can we offer a schedule that works for every student's first choices. What we can do is explore new opportunities to serve our students. We did that this year by partnering with Tri County Career Center to create a new Health Sciences Career Tech pathway because healthcare is one of the most popular career fields among our current students and recent graduates and because it offers such strong career prospects.

As a parent, I am grateful that my daughters enjoy the attention and devotion of an intimate school staffed by professionals that know them as individuals. My daughters are seen, known, and valued by our staff. I am certain that your children will be, too.