Dr. Oestreich poses for a picture while reviewing the strategic plan on Oct. 31. Oestreich said the strategic plan lays the foundation for all of the initiatives schools across the district implement for the next couple of years.

As the first semester of 2025-2026 school year starts to wrap up, Superintendent Tom Oestreich said he is focused on getting the goals of the recently passed strategic plan into motion.

“The strategic plan was (recently) passed unanimously by our school board and now we’re going to work. We have six pillars of the strategic plan. The first one focuses on academic achievement, we have a student support and student safety (pillar), employee engagement is the third pillar, operations and resource management is pillar four and we recently passed the budget to accomplish that goal, and the two new pillars this year are effective communication and community engagement,”  Oestreich said. “We’ve been out and about and I’m everywhere as much as I can be. Last night I was at Dracula, last weekend I was cheering on our soccer teams, tonight I’ll be at football, and this weekend I’ll be cheering on our soccer and cross country teams for their state competitions.”

Senior Ivy Wei said Dr. Oestreich’s involvement in the school makes her feel like she can reach out to him and that he is a vital part of the student body.

“Dr. Oestreich went on the Orchestra trip to Vienna with us last year and I see him often at community events interacting with students. He really tries to get to know students which makes me trust him more and I think he definitely makes this school better,” Wei said. “I think it’s important for high school administrators to be in touch with the students and interact with us more regularly.” By Mahitha Konjeti