Dozens of northern Dublin City Schools parents and students packed a sidewalk along Glick Road in Delaware County to protest the district’s high school redistricting efforts.
The protesters don’t want the district to redraw its maps, forcing northern Dublin students to attend Dublin Scioto High School. That change would require students to drive Riverside Drive, which is dangerous, several of the more than 150 people told The Dispatch at the late afternoon May 18 event.
Dublin parent and protester PJ Cannon called Riverside Drive a “disaster.”
“I don’t want my kids driving on it,” he said.
Protesters clutched signs with slogans like “Proximity Matters” and “Safety First” as passing cars honked their horns in support.
Some protesters also carried signs showing a photo of a head-on crash the morning of May 15 involving a school bus on Riverside Drive. A pickup truck driven by Nicholas Handzel, 38, of Powell, crossed the centerline of the road near the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium early that day, hitting a school bus driven by Carolyn Abdelaal, 70, also of Powell, injuring them both, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Delaware Post. There were no students on the bus at the time of the crash.
Dublin teacher Mollie Thompson said she joined the protest to ensure the district’s families and students stay safe.
“I understand having to make these difficult decisions, but there’s a difference between, I heard someone say, ‘difficult and dangerous decisions,’ and this is a dangerous decision,” she said.
The district’s board of education will vote on a resolution establishing the guidelines and priorities for the redistricting process at its upcoming May 21 meeting. If the resolution passes, the superintendent would then work with an outside firm to draw new maps to be presented at the board’s June 29 meeting.
This is the second time Dublin City Schools officials have started a high school redistricting process in the past year. The district first unveiled new high school district maps in September 2025, drawing community backlash. District officials paused the redistricting process last October.
The process resumed in March with some changes. Superintendent John Marschhausen will no longer have the final say on the maps, instead leaving that up to the board of education.
Whatever maps emerge will take effect starting in the 2027-2028 school year, not the 2026-2027 school year. Only freshmen would be assigned to a new high school starting that year, leaving older students at their current schools, according to a draft of the board’s redistricting resolution.
District officials say redistricting is necessary to keep enrollment balanced across the district’s three high schools. When Marschhausen announced the new redistricting process in March, he said it was essential that the district assign students to the newly expanded Scioto High School to “provide relief for the increasing enrollment at Dublin Jerome High School.”
The district is also considering changing its feeder patterns, which determine what high school a middle schooler is sent to after eighth grade, according to the board’s draft resolution.
Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, @NathanRHart on X and nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Dublin schools parents and students protest high school redistricting
Reporting by Nathan Hart, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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