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Leetonia honored on list of top U.S schools
By D.A. WILKINSON
LEETONIA
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Eighth-graders Hailey Scoville, left, and Melissa Sawman stand and scream during the assembly, which took place at the school Wednesday.
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Leetonia kindergarten pupils, from left, Michael Miller, Cameron Firtik, Brooke Frye and Conner Alflen, take part in an assembly honoring Leetonia High School for its being named one of Ohio’s top schools.
The younger students were on one side of the Leetonia High School gym while the upper classes were on the other.
At stake was which side could shout the loudest.
“Go!” yelled the kids while students in the higher grades shouted back the district’s mascot, “Bears!”
The shouting on Wednesday was part of the district’s celebration for being named as one of U.S. News & World Report’s top 100 high schools in Ohio.
U.S.News & World Report magazine, in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education data, analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than 21,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. The Ohio rankings are part of that analysis.
Principal Troy Radinsky said that the award is the same award that the Columbiana School District has received several times.
That’s not bad, considering that district voters have rejected a levy seven times.
But education is looking up at the district.
Radinsky said: “First and foremost, we have good leaders and an excellent teaching staff, a staff that is caring. The big reason for the award is the evidence of the good things that are going on in our district.”
The district has an online school with 30 students who want that form of education.
Artie Altomare, Leetonia’s mayor, was substituting as a teacher during the celebration. He told the assembly he was a lifelong village resident who taught school for 33 years.
“I do believe in Leetonia” he said.
Retired Salem businessman Robert Sebo told the students that he serves on the board of trustees at Bowling Green State University. He told the students of the need to do well on educational scores such as the SAT tests.
Sebo said he did not apply himself in education at first and when he did, “It was two times as hard and two times as long.”
He also urged the students to do the right thing and always do their best.
There are three types of people, he added — those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wondered what happened.