Olentangy Local Schools has held its final public forum on a redistricting plan that will redraw attendance boundaries across Ohio’s fourth-largest school district, as two new schools rise to absorb years of population growth in southern Delaware County. The last forum was held Nov. 4 at Olentangy Orange High School, following earlier sessions in late October and on Nov. 2, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
At the center of the plan are two buildings funded by the $235 million bond issue voters approved in November 2025 with about 56 percent in favor, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Deer Haven Elementary School will open in August 2027 for the 2027-28 school year, and Olentangy Hyatts High School will follow for the 2028-29 school year.
The new high school will open without 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.
Families at the forum studied maps laying out three boundary scenarios developed by the Superintendent’s Attendance Boundary Committee, a 25-member group that spent more than 600 hours on the work and explored more than three dozen options, district officials said in The Columbus Dispatch’s reporting. The scenarios are aimed at relieving overcrowding at some schools while directing students to Hyatts High School and Deer Haven Elementary once construction is complete.
The committee identified scenarios A and B as the strongest options, according to materials presented at the forum and reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Scenario C would move the fewest students overall, but it would likely require additional high school boundary adjustments in the future.
Reaction at the forums has been generally receptive, Davis told The Columbus Dispatch, though committee member Roger Bartz, a former Olentangy school board member, acknowledged in the same reporting that boundary changes are never a perfect fit for every family. Parent Tim Shaw told The Columbus Dispatch he preferred scenario B out of safety concerns about students crossing busy U.S. 23 between the district’s east and west sides.
The boundary committee accepted community feedback through an online survey that closed Nov. 5 on the district’s 2027-28 Redistricting webpage, and it will now make its recommendations to Superintendent Todd Meyer. Meyer will make the final decision, which he is expected to announce at the Dec. 10 Olentangy school board meeting, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Photo: Olentangy Liberty High School in Powell, one of the district’s existing high schools. Photo: BPaulLucas, CC BY-SA