Olentangy Local Schools families got their last in-person look this week at the attendance maps that could move thousands of students, as the district held its final redistricting forum on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Olentangy Orange High School. The forum closed a four-stop tour of the district’s high schools and left one date circled for parents across southern Delaware County: Dec. 10, when Superintendent Todd Meyer is expected to announce the final boundaries.
The stakes are easy to understand in a district that keeps growing. Olentangy is Ohio’s fourth-largest district, according to The Columbus Dispatch, and it is preparing to open two voter-funded buildings — Deer Haven Elementary in August 2027 and Olentangy Hyatts High School in 2028-29. New buildings only relieve crowding if students are assigned to them, and that is why a map drawn this fall will shape commutes and feeder patterns for years.
Deer Haven, now under construction in Liberty Township, will become the district’s 18th elementary school, the district says. Hyatts, being built at Bunty Station and Sawmill roads, will become its fifth high school.
Voters set this process in motion a year ago. In November 2025, Olentangy voters approved a $235 million bond issue with about 56% in favor, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The district is using the bond money to buy land and build the two new schools and to improve or build other facilities. In other words, the buildings are already a taxpayer decision; the boundary map is the part that determines which families actually use them.
The maps themselves were not drawn by administrators alone. A Superintendent’s Attendance Boundary Committee of 25 parents, community members and staff members developed three scenarios, labeled A, B and C. According to the district, the committee has dedicated more than 600 hours to reviewing boundaries, feeder patterns, enrollment projections and student-distribution data, guided by Board-approved guidelines and mapping tools from planning partner Woolpert. The Dispatch reported the committee explored more than three dozen options before narrowing the field to three.
The district stresses that no scenario is being prioritized and that the labels are simply identifiers. All three scenarios would redistribute students and better balance building use, according to materials presented at the forum and reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Scenarios A and B were identified by the committee as the strongest options, The Dispatch reported, while Scenario C would move the fewest students overall but would likely require additional high school boundary adjustments in the future.
One detail in the plan is designed to spare older students a difficult final year. Hyatts High School will not have a 12th-grade class in its first year, because the district does not want to separate seniors from their current high schools during their final year, Krista Davis, the district’s chief communications officer, told The Columbus Dispatch. The new high school will grow into a full four-grade building the following year, while the elementary changes take effect when Deer Haven opens in the fall of 2027.
At the forums, parents studied the maps up close — The Columbus Dispatch described families gathering in the Orange High School cafeteria to examine the lines after a presentation on how the scenarios were developed. Davis told The Columbus Dispatch the community has seemed generally receptive. “Nobody wants to leave a great school,” Davis told The Columbus Dispatch, adding that principals at schools that have been through redistricting before are skilled at welcoming students who change buildings.
Other voices captured the trade-offs families are weighing. Roger Bartz, a committee member and former Olentangy board member, told The Columbus Dispatch that feedback has generally been positive, though boundary changes are “never a perfect fit” for every family. Tim Shaw, a parent of two Olentangy students, told The Columbus Dispatch he preferred Scenario B because of safety concerns about students crossing busy U.S. 23 — keeping communities together and keeping routes safe run through nearly every redistricting debate in a fast-growing suburb.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. Confirmed, from the district and The Columbus Dispatch’s forum coverage, is the framework: three scenarios, two new schools, a feedback window that closed Nov. 5, and a decision expected Dec. 10. What is not yet known is the map itself. The committee will study feedback from the forums and the online survey before recommending a plan to Meyer, and the district notes the final boundaries can differ from all three scenarios. Families cannot know for certain whether their street moves until that announcement.
The timeline stretches back almost a year. The committee was formed in December 2025, shortly after voters passed the bond issue, according to the district. Enrollment projections were available in June 2026, the committee met from August through October, and the scenarios were presented Oct. 26 at Liberty High School, Oct. 28 at Berlin High School, Nov. 2 at Olentangy High School and Nov. 4 at Orange High School. November is set aside for studying the feedback before the December announcement.
What happens next is specific. The committee makes its recommendation to Meyer, who under Ohio law is responsible for assigning students and staff to buildings, according to the district. He is expected to announce the final plan at the Dec. 10 board meeting. After that the work turns practical: staffing for Deer Haven is already running on a voluntary process from October through January, and families who learn they are moving will have months — for elementary students, until August 2027 — to plan for a new school and a new morning routine.
Photo: BPaulLucas, CC BY-SA