Very good school, awesome teachers, only ill things is horrible parking but that is not a reason to…read morepick a school anyhow.

You could say that I have a bias towards the Sycamore Community Schools, but a lot of what the…read moredistrict has achieved over the years academically can back things up. I made my way through the Sycamore district from kindergarten all the way through high school, so I've pretty much seen it all. The district has four K-4 elementary schools (two of which were rebuilt this decade), the E.H. Greene Intermediate School (grades 5 and 6), and the Sycamore Junior High School and Sycamore High School. The Sycamore district is located in Blue Ash, Montgomery, and Symmes Township, one of the best suburban areas in town, and it's a big attraction for many non-Cincinnatians especially who move to the Queen City. I had an internship earlier this summer and was told by two different people with young children that they were highly considering moving to the Sycamore Community Schools area. While all the lower level schools are equally important to the district, you see everything come around at the high school level, where SHS offers seven global languages and 21 different AP courses. Academically, I've always considered Sycamore the best public high school in the state of Ohio, but this past year its 31 National Merit Scholars ranked first overall in the entire state. Sycamore has received "Excellent" ratings every year by the Ohio Department of Education and continues to earn a perfect 30 out of 30 on the Ohio District Report Card. While its 89.6 percent college attendance rate can be topped by a few other schools in town, its 96 percent daily attendance rate is right up there at the top. Sycamore has 468 certified employees including 31 nationally certified teachers, while 72 percent of the district's teachers have more than 10 years of experience and 81.5 percent of the teaching staff has a master's and/or doctorate degree(s). Another great thing about Sycamore is the athletic program. Although athletes are now required to pay a participation fee, the boosters (who have raised nearly $1 million in the last 10 years) managed to save all the teams when the school underwent budget cuts four or five years ago. When I was at Sycamore just a few years ago, the Aviators' athletic department offered (and probably still does) more varsity teams and sports than any other school in the state. Outside of sports, there are a ton of great extracurricular activities including the award-winning drama department, while newspaper and choir classes are offered during the school day and have led to many national awards and college scholarships each year. Bias or not, there's no denying that the Sycamore Community Schools is an "excellent" district. I was a part of it for 13 years and enjoyed so much about it and will always be proud to call myself an Aviator.

It's that time of year again. High school football is just around the corner. And the football…read moreseason always starts off with various schools getting together for a number of scrimmages. As a licensed football official for the state of Ohio I've had the chance to work at a number of schools and their respective football fields. So over the course of the next couple of months I will be sharing my reviews of the various schools and fields that I get to work. So this particular review is for the field used by Princeton High School, also known as the Vikings. I couldn't find an address for the actual field, but since it falls within the Princeton City School District, I think this is a good fit for it. I've worked a number of games and scrimmages on this field over the last couple of years, the most recent being this past week. The stadium itself is pretty impressive. Nice and large it can easily accommodate a couple of thousand people. The press box is very professional with various rooms set aside for coaches from both teams, game management, and members of the media. The field also has a massive scoreboard overlooking the field. The field itself is a bit worse-for-wear. The artificial turf is roughly thirteen years old which is usually the end of a typical lifetime for a turf field before it starts to go down the pooper. It looks a bit ragged in some areas and even some of the lines have faded. There are also a few patchy areas that can easily trip you up. So the turf can make it a bit uncomfortable to work a game. The staff has always been great. They usually have one person designated to take care of us officials. That person usually has water/Gatorade and some snacks waiting for us during halftime and after the game. During the scrimmage this week they even had icicles waiting for us. So they know how to take care of the officials. That is always appreciated. The only issue I've ever had is the fact that on more than one occasion it has been a struggle to get paid. One year they printed the wrong name on my check and when I tried to get them to reprint it they never did. A couple of other times they just didn't pay at all, and it took numerous phone calls to their main office to get them to finally cut me a check. That's a bit irritating. So Princeton High School is an okay place to work a football game. The field isn't the best and sometimes it's a pain to get paid, but I've been to other places that are worse. Mahalo, and are you ready for some football.

My first basketball game for 4th grade girls. I'm starting to understand this game, next stop the…read moreUC Bearcats Game, same game-taller players