That's a Lot of New Principals at Dublin Schools

Local News

Dublin just picked up a national budget award for the 23rd year in a row, which is a streak most cities would probably kill for.

The award comes from the Government Finance Officers Association, and it's not a rubber stamp — nearly 2,000 governments apply for it, and it specifically recognizes budgets that work as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications tool all at once. Dublin's kept that up for over two decades straight now.

It's also part of a bigger streak: the city's earned GFOA's "Triple Crown" designation for four consecutive years running, which is a distinction only a small handful of governments nationwide can claim.

Not the flashiest headline in the world, sure. But 23 years of a budget that consistently meets national standards says something real about how this city's actually run behind the scenes.

Local News

If Riverside Drive south toward Columbus is part of your regular route, mark August 3rd on your calendar — a stretch of it's about to disappear for over a month.

Riverside Drive/US 33 is closing between Fishinger Road and River Park Drive for 45 days starting that Monday, while crews replace a culvert and a storm sewer at Fishinger. It's a $2.2 million job. Riverside stays open at both Bethel and Henderson, so it's just that one stretch coming out, not the whole corridor.

If you're headed south, the detour runs 33 to 161 to 270 to Cemetery Road to Fishinger Boulevard back to Fishinger Road. Reverse it heading north. Not exactly a shortcut, so if this is part of your routine, this is the week to start planning around it.

Local News

If you've been keeping track of Dublin City Schools lately, there are a lot of new faces showing up in the principal's office. The district just announced that Nick Bertrams is taking over at Olde Sawmill Elementary and Travis Woodworth is stepping in at Thomas Elementary.

Those are just the latest. Over the past few months, Dublin's also named Monica Woodson as principal at Abraham Depp Elementary, plus new principals at both Jerome and Coffman. That's five principal changes across the district's roughly two dozen schools — including two of the district's three high schools.

To be fair, new leadership doesn't automatically mean something's wrong — people retire, get promoted, or move on to something new. But principals set the tone for a building, and this many changing hands at once is genuinely more than a typical year.

It's also worth remembering this is all happening as Dr. Jennifer Schwanke steps in as the district's new superintendent on August 1st. That puts real pressure on her and the school board — getting five new principals up to speed in one year, right out of the gate, isn't nothing.

A year from now, the story won't be today's announcements. It'll be how these five schools actually performed.