Today, December 19, is the last day of classes before Winter break. We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful break. We look forward to seeing everyone back on January 3, 2024!
Alumni Spotlight – Katie Hornik Windholtz
Katie Hornik Windholtz believes so strongly in the experience she had with Hilliard City Schools that Hilliard is where she decided to set down roots. She continues to be a strong supporter of the school district – and community – today.
A 1999 graduate of Hilliard Davidson, she is the owner of Security Plus Insurance and supports Hilliard Schools through donations and advertising. She also sponsors Motivation at the Station in the summer.
Her brother, Kevin Hornik, didn’t go far either. A 1997 graduate of Hilliard Schools, he owns Elysium Tennis in Plain City, Ohio!
If you have an alumni you would like to see spotlighted, click here to send us an email!
Congratulations to these Embrace, Empower & Inspire Award winners, Cathy Emmons (Language Arts Teacher at Weaver), Drew Sprouse (2nd Grade Teacher at Hoffman Trails), and Sandie Raynes (Secretary at the ILC).
These staff members go above and beyond the expectations of the Hilliard Way and truly make a difference in our district. If you know a staff member who goes above and beyond their way to make a difference, you can nominate them for next month’s award by clicking HERE!
To prepare all students without exception to be Ready for Tomorrow, we must create authentic partnerships with our community. We want to hear your ideas, thoughts, and opinions about how your schools should approach a changing landscape. That’s why the Hilliard Board of Education created the Community Conversation Program.
How we educate students is changing rapidly. There are many choices about how schools will look and work as we move forward. These decisions need to be made as a community and with the consideration of many different voices. We need to understand our residents and build a better relationship between the school district and the community. This demands a different kind of conversation. Sometimes, that will mean reaching out to a specific group in our community. Other times, it means defining an issue or topic that demands community input. There will be board members and district administrators at each conversation.
These will happen quarterly.
- Tuesday, March 7 – 5:30 pm at the Hub (3859 Main Street, Hilliard)
- Tuesday, June 13 – 9 am at the Hub
- Tuesday, September 5 – 5:30 pm at the Hub
- Tuesday, December 5 – 9 am at Central Office (2140 Atlas Street, Columbus)
Please join us to share your voice.
Tharp students had a chance to show off their creative thinking by designing something to improve the health and well-being of astronauts while in space. Their focus was either on redesigning the living quarters for astronauts, improving the quality of food they eat, or creating a fitness routine or piece of equipment astronauts could use to prevent bone loss.
These students learned about what life is like for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. After doing their own research and interviewing Dr. Marshall Potterfield, an engineering professor from Purdue University and NASA researcher, students identified ways they felt they could solve some of the problems astronauts face. Working in teams, students designed prototypes and presented their designs to Dr. Potterfield, who was excited to see what they had created.
Alumni Spotlight – Kellan Grainger
Kellan Grainger is a 2018 graduate of Hilliard Bradley High School where he took full advantage of the district’s engineering pathway. This provided him with a head start on college and his future career goals.
He went on to attend the University of Cincinnati and graduated in 2023 with a degree in aerospace engineering. He participated in several co-ops throughout college, including working for Maverick Molding, which manufactures high-performance polymers and composites for jet engines, as an engineer with Rhinestahl Customer Tooling Solutions, a global leader in aircraft engine tooling, and as an engineer at Honda R&D where he worked in development. Each experience further solidified his love for engineering, and aeronautics specifically.
Today, he is a staff engineer in Flight Simulator Engineering for United Airlines in Colorado. The facility at which he works houses 63 full-motion, full-cockpit flight simulators. His role involves maintaining seven of these simulators and six flight training devices on which pilots train to fly the 737 MAX.
The simulators are used up to 20 hours per day with pilots training in four-hour segments. Grainger said they are similar to a videogame, which needs constant updates, but the technology evolves at a much higher level.
Hilliard presented him with the opportunity to learn coding starting in middle school, which directly impacts his career today. He said his engineering teachers throughout high school, particularly Mr. Armelie, also encouraged his interest in the field. In fact, they inspired him to one day want to teach engineering classes.
