Volume 57, No. 8
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, September 24, 2025
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West Geauga Earns 5-Star Rating on State Report Card School District Ranks Among Top in Ohio By Emma MacNiven macniven@karlovecmedia.com West Geauga Schools has once again held its own among Ohio’s top-performing districts, ranking 11th out of 607 districts in the state. “We are thrilled to once again be recognized as one of the top performing districts in the state,” Superintendent Nancy Benincasa said in a follow-up interview, referring to the 2025 Ohio School Report Card ratings. “This level of excellence can be attributed to the collective efforts of students, families and staff, as well as the time and attention spent on individualizing instruction, student supports and opportunities for enrichment and acceleration,” she said. West Geauga scored five stars in the “achievement,” “progress,” “gap closing,” “graduation” and
“early literacy” categories. However, the district joined others in the county with only three stars in the “college, career, workforce and military readiness” category, which Benincasa said is the only category measured in the 2023-2024 school year. “Last year, we addressed the requirements through a robust pre-apprenticeship program in our English 11 and English 12 programming,” she added in a follow-up interview. “We expect to fulfill the requirements of this measure on next year’s report card. Ensuring that students are successful post-high school is a top priority.” Additionally, West Geauga High School was ranked second out of all public high schools in Ohio with a performance index of 110.7. Benincasa’s goal for next year is to not only achieve a five-star rating in the CCWMR category, but also make it in the top 10 dis-
tricts in the state. “Next year, our goal is to return to the top 10 districts in Ohio as we have achieved that designation for the past four years,” she said. The school report card ratings aren’t based on standardized testing, West Geauga Schools Board of Education President Christina Sherwood said Sept. 5. “This is about the whole child,” she said. “This is not just a testing thing, this is — a ‘They are walking out ready to tackle the world’ thing. So that's amazing.” Benincasa emphasized her commitment to providing a high quality experience for students inside and outside of the classroom. “We can't do it without the support of our board,” she said at the Sept. 15 regular board meeting. “We can't do it without the support of our community. So, we want to say a thank you to our board. We want to say thank you to our staff, to our students (and) to our families.
Happy Halloween from WGRC
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West Geauga Recreation Council youth wrestlers prepare for Halloween and the upcoming wrestling season.