As OH students return to school from the latest five-day weekend, with another shortened schedule the following week and another five-day weekend a week after that, students are reminded of the extensive time off scheduled into the fall semester.
"I believe that the loss of days in the fall semester could ineffectively impact the ability for students to learn the skills and content that their classes intend to teach them," OH senior Riley Balhan said about the seven days lost in the fall. "Personally... this change will negatively impact my individual learning this year."
During the creation of this year's school calendar several changes changes were made. While the total number of student attendance days remains the same for the year, all schools in SD#308 were cut short by a week and a half of class time in the fall. Along with this decrease, an extra five-hour-day was added, ultimately reducing class time for students and staff by over seven days during the first semester.
As part of this November’s ballot, SD#308 residents will have the opportunity to vote on whether to approve a $317 million dollar bond measure to support the updating and repairs of district buildings as part of the district facilities plan.
“The purpose [[of the referendum]] is to invest in our facilities, primarily in the infrastructure… since most of our buildings have now reached the 20-year mark or older,” SD#308 Chief Communications Officer Theresa Komitas said.
Even the best cared for buildings need repairs eventually, and for SD#308 schools, SD#308 Director Operations Ondre Schoensee said that time is approaching.
During today's OH Homecoming Pep Assembly, the 2026 Homecoming King and Queen were announced: seniors Danny Claycombe and Emma Francheschini took home the hardware.
The nominations were released Sep. 3, and since then, students were scrambling to vote for their favorite pair in one of Homecoming’s biggest traditions.
“I chose to run for Homecoming Court because a lot of my friends were doing it, and I thought it would be fun if all my friends and I got [[on]] court,” said OH Senior Reagan Zaccardi, who posted on her Instagram and Snapchat stories immediately after voting came out.
Most of the time, students who run for homecoming court are either a couple or friends with other candidates.
Last week, libraries around the nation celebrated the annual Banned Books Week, aiming to bring awareness to book bans and challenges, and to encourage conversations about sometimes uncomfortable topics and people’s right to read.
“I think [[the goal of Banned Books Week]] is to give people information about when censorship does occur, and when we withhold ideas from others, we need to talk about why, and the other part of the discussion becomes ‘Why do I believe my values and morals should be placed on you?’ And so [[Banned Books Week]], really kind of, opens up the discussion and kind of leads to some of those conversations,” OH Library Director Drew Mundsinger said. “There's some books [[like]] Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye,’ kids really don't read that anymore, but… that's, like, in the top [[most banned books]] of all time.”
While OH isn’t running any specific programs this year, the Oswego Public Library District (OPLD), with locations in Downtown Oswego and in Montgomery, is running reading challenges for both the youth and teen and adult departments.
“This year, we are honoring Banned Books Week with a reading challenge, called the ‘Perspective Challenge’ for teens and adults, and ‘Discover A Different Story’ challenge for children. Challenge cards are available at each campus for patrons to pick up and complete one of the challenges. This is to encourage patrons to read a book about an experience or a character that is unlike themselves, as many of the titles frequently banned show a character or story with different or diverse perspectives,” Assistant Library Director of the OPLD Alli Parker said.
elements of writing and publishing a book. In her presentation, she discussed writer’s block, building more emotion and depth into characters, as well as finding one's way to writing.
Speers opened up her speech with an icebreaker, Two Truths and a Lie, except all her statements were true.
“The point of the exercise is, you don’t know me until you get to know me. What you see here is just one persona,” said Speers.