Author: Tanner Atha

Hoffman Trails Teacher Returns to her Roots

Born and raised in Hilliard, Meghan Caudill is a proud Davidson High School graduate. She’s known since she was 5 that she wanted to be a teacher. Better yet, she knew that she wanted to teach in the very community that gave her her start. 

That dream came to fruition two years ago. After graduating from the University of Dayton in 2017, she was hired at Whitehall City Schools, where she taught kindergarten and first grade for four years. All the while, she maintained her goal of returning to Hilliard. Today, she is a first grade teacher at Hoffman Trails Elementary, the same school she attended.

“It’s a cool and humbling experience to be back in Hilliard and at the same school I went to,” she said. “My fifth grade teacher is still here and remembers me just as I was in fifth grade, and it’s neat to see my students experiencing some of the same things I remember doing.”

She credits her time as a cheerleader and her involvement with Student Council in high school for developing her into the leader she is today. 

She said, “Hilliard Schools more than prepared me for life after high school. The education here is very community based, and I think that helps students prepare for the real world.”

Miss Caudill’s brother is a teacher at Darby High School, her family still lives just minutes from where she teaches, and she and her fiance recently moved to Hilliard, so she is Hilliard all the way!

Heritage 7th-grader Lauren Sutch placed first in the City of Columbus Oratorical Competition in December and was an invited speaker at the City MLK Breakfast at the Convention Center last Monday. She will be representing the city at the state competition in April and, if successful, continuing to the national competition in DC this summer. She placed 2nd in the city competition and 1st in the Hilliard Optimist competition last year.

Lauren got involved in the oration when she was a student of Gail Tanner’s at Hilliard Arrow. Gail encouraged, trained, and supported Lauren and other students to compete. She was at the competition Saturday with a handful of her students, and Lauren was thrilled to have her support. Gail deserves a great deal of credit for Lauren’s success.

Jenny Bertagna is a 2002 graduate of Davidson High School, and ever since becoming a REALTOR® in 2016, she’s taken the industry by storm! She recently earned the $25 Million Dollar Award from Columbus REALTORS® and manages her own group — the Bertagna Group — with Coldwell Banker Realty. 

Upon graduating, she earned a bachelor’s in business management from Kent State University and had an accomplished career in medical supply sales before making the move to real estate. 

“Jenny is just an all-around great individual. I had the privilege of having her as a student, softball player, and caregiver for my children when they were young,” said Karen Downard, a technology coach at Davidson High School. 

If you have an alumni you would like to see spotlighted, click here to send us an email!

This past fall, we kicked off a strategic planning process. The goal of this work is to create a set of common goals and key characteristics of our Portrait of a Learner that will guide our district, but more importantly, our students, into the future. 

It’s important that the final outcome of this work be reflective of our community. That’s why we created a Strategic Design Team, made up of staff, students, families, and community members. Our third of four meetings was held December 8, where our partner, Battelle for Kids, reviewed survey results from the previous meeting listing the core competencies the Design Team, and those who filled out our community survey, believes are essential for our Portrait of a Learner. 

Results were broken out by group (students, parents, staff, etc.), allowing the Design Team to hone in on the top competencies — skills like critical thinking, empathy, communication and adaptability. Small group discussions followed where Design Team members analyzed definitions for each competency and made suggested changes. The team also considered draft logos that will help our community easily identify our Portrait of a Learner work once finalized. 

We look forward to completing this work soon in advance of sharing the new vision with our community in the spring. Thank you to those who have shared their ideas and feedback. It’s not too late to get involved! You can follow along with this work on our website. 

Educational Aide and Coach Shares Life Lessons with Students, Athletes

Hip surgery at 26 years of age isn’t something most people expect to happen to them. Thankfully, when it happened to Max Ratliff last year, despite being new to the Hilliard Schools family, they were there supporting him every step of the way. 

While he ran in high school (which he attended right here in Hilliard) and in his time in the Marine Corps, he found it simply as a means to work out. It wasn’t until going through an identity crisis after leaving the Marines that he truly fell in love with it. 

“I found the thing that makes me feel alive; that I aligned my life and each week around,” he said. 

Between March 2021 and March 2022, he ran 1,000 miles, ultimately hoping to compete in an ultramarathon. Until he received the news that he hadn’t rested his body enough and he was headed for the operating room.

That was in July of 2022. The following weeks and months were one of the most difficult periods of his life. But only six months removed from surgery, he ran 60 miles in December. 

As an educational aide and assistant coach for the boy’s soccer team at Darby High School, he hopes he’s been able to share some of the lessons he’s learned throughout his experience with his students and athletes. Namely, listen to your body. He said no one knows your body better than you. If you’re pushing yourself too hard physically or mentally, speak up. 

Additionally, he said, “For my athletes especially, I hope they are learning the joy of accomplishing difficult things. This carries over into everyday little things.”

Mr. Ratliff joined the Hilliard team two weeks shy of the end of the 2021-2022 school year but said it feels like coming home. He and his siblings attended Hilliard Schools, and his family’s home is within throwing distance of Darby High School. 

His favorite part is interacting with his former teachers on a professional level. He also loves working with kids in whom he sees so much of himself. 

“I tell them all the time that if I had someone like me pushing me in the ways I push them when I was here, I would have fulfilled so much more of my potential at a younger age,” he said. 

Honoring our school board members

School board members exemplify local citizen control and decision-making in education. They volunteer hundreds of hours and an immeasurable amount of energy to ensure that our schools are providing the best education possible for the children of our community. For all are their dedication, we are taking this opportunity to show them our appreciation during School Board Recognition Month.

School board members are citizens whose decisions affect our children — what they learn, who will teach them and what kinds of facilities house their classrooms. These are men and women elected to establish the policies that provide the framework for our public schools. They represent you, and they take this responsibility seriously by attending lengthy — sometimes challenging — meetings, conferences and institutes where they broaden their knowledge about education; during numerous conversations about the schools; and sessions before the Ohio General Assembly.

Our school board is one of more than 700 such boards across the state. These boards enable us to have local control of public schools, meaning that decisions on school programming are made by local, elected representatives who understand the community’s unique problems, values, culture and circumstances. With the advice and counsel of the educational professionals they hire, our school board has an impact on virtually every aspect of our schools. It’s a huge responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly.

Too often we neglect to recognize the dedication and hard work of these men and women who represent us. The staff and students of our school district are asking all local citizens to take a moment to tell a school board member “thanks for caring about our children’s education.”

So, thank you to the dedicated men and women who make it possible for local citizens to have a say about education in our communities. We salute the public servants of Hilliard City School District whose dedication and civic responsibility make local control of public schools in our community possible. We applaud them for their vision and voice to help shape a better tomorrow.

Nadia Long, Brian Perry, Kara Crowley, Zach Vorst, and Beth Murdoch.