Welcome to the Gallia County Local Schools! Our school district encompasses approximately 400 square miles in Gallia and Jackson counties. Our school has a history of academic excellence established by the joint efforts of students, families and staff committed to continuous improvement. The school district has been rated Excellent three of the past four years and was rated Excellent for the past year.
We are especially appreciative of a community that has evidenced support of our school district through their approval of the renovation and construction of school facilities without any state assistance. The school district is currently engaged in the construction of new athletic facilities for our two high schools. “Gridiron for Gallia,” a community based organization focused on the support of athletics programs in the school district has been a driving force in bringing the needs for better facilities to the attention of the community. “Gridiron for Gallia” has organized the “Jamboree” game between the River Valley Raiders and South Gallia Rebels for three years as a fund raiser for athletics in the school district. This fund raiser has been designated for the athletics complexes. In addition major contributions have been made to the school district for the athletics facilities by the Ohio Valley Bank and Farmers Bank, the county’s two local financial institutions. The new facilities are scheduled to be completed in Fall 2011.
Our school district is committed to supporting the social and academic growth of each student to reach his/her full potential. We believe that helping students to develop a sense of responsibility for themselves and others is essential to them taking their place in our society. We stress basic values of integrity, hard work and continuous learning as the keys to future success. We believe that our community expects and appreciates the school district’s attention to these qualities. In response to this responsibility, the school district is an active participant in the Gallia County Family and Children First Council. We also seek partnerships with higher education, such as the Ohio University collaboration with the Center for Adolescent Research in Schools (CARS) project which will be active at River Valley High School in the coming year. In the past the district has participated in CARS projects at Hannan Trace Elementary and Addaville Elementary as a way to support staff, families and students in addressing social and mental health issues that might serve as barriers to student learning.
The district continues its collaboration with the Gallia-Vinton Education Service Center to provide after school programming through the Twenty-First Century Community Learning Center program. In addition the school district and ESC were awarded a XXICLC grant to initiate a credit recovery program for high schools who might be at risk of not graduating due to course failure. The PILOT Center will open to students in Fall 2011. The Center will be staffed by licensed teachers and will operate during the after school schedule.
Each student in our district has developed a “Student Education Plan” with the collaboration of a classroom teacher. This “SEP” contains the student’s quarterly goals and a menu of strategies to achieve them. Staff reviews student progress at the interim and again at the end of the quarter. We believe that focusing students on their own learning goals and focusing instruction and ancillary activities on those same goals results in higher achievement for all students.
With the opening of our two new high schools, the district has been totally reconfigured. The result are two high school programs strategically located to serve students in the northern and southern regions of the school district, two middle schools either co-located with or located adjacent to the new high schools, and four elementary schools serving the two middle schools. We believe that his is a much more efficient system which will support our students as they make the transitions through our system.
Dr. Charla C. Evans, Superintendent