Home Care In North Ridgeville, OH

NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio – Every school day at North Ridgeville High feels like a logistical juggling act. With enrollment totaling 500 more students than the building allows, administrators face an exhausting daily challenge—finding space where there simply isn’t any.

Policy changes, repurposed spaces and creative workarounds manage to keep the school compliant with state mandates and city fire codes, but student enrollment continues to outpace the city’s already booming population. After multiple failed funding attempts, a long-awaited new school is on the horizon, but it’s still years away. And for the students navigating the crowded halls today, that relief isn’t coming soon enough.

North Ridgeville is the fastest-growing city in northern Ohio, its population surging from around 22,000 in 1990 to more than 37,000 in 2023. Despite this substantial growth, the high school has remained frozen in time – as the building, redesigned in 1994 for 900 students, now strains to accommodate more than 1,400.

“It’s significantly overcrowded,” David Pritt, assistant superintendent for North Ridgeville City Schools, told cleveland.com. “It’s a challenge on a day like today, when the rain is pouring down and you’re moving those students every 40 minutes between inside and outside.”

He’s referring to the mobile classrooms – or temporary trailers – stationed behind the school to handle overflow, a makeshift pressure valve for a building bursting at the seams.

Much of the city’s growth has been fueled by a steady influx of young families. While North Ridgeville has grown at an annual rate of 1.5% over the past five years, the school district’s student population has ballooned at double that pace, creating capacity issues that administrators have been fighting to address for years.

Since 2019, district leaders tried three times to pass bond issues that would fund a new high school, yet each attempt fell short – one by just 23 votes. After each defeat, administrators regrouped, recalculated and reshaped their proposals to minimize taxpayer impact while addressing the critical space needs.

Their persistence finally paid off in November 2023, when voters approved a 37-year, 6.26-mill bond issue, that will bring in a total of $143 million for the district. The issue passed by a razor-thin margin: 50.7% to 49.3%.

While the funding is secured, the relief is still years away. The new high school isn’t expected to open its doors for another three academic years. Until then, administrators are relying on a patchwork of strategies to manage the swelling student population, while maintaining educational standards in a facility never designed for such numbers.

Two years ago, the district added eight temporary trailers to be used as classrooms near the school’s baseball field. Organized in two rows of four with a shared hallway between, they create additional space for 168 students per class period.

Lincoln Gates, a sophomore who takes algebra and AP U.S. history in the trailers, told cleveland.com that while they’ve added much-needed capacity, the setup is far from perfect. Small desks are tightly packed together, which can be challenging to use for taller students and upperclassmen.

Still, Lincoln said that the daily walk outside to the trailers isn’t as bad as it might seem. It takes less than 30 seconds to get from the main building to the temporary classrooms, so students aren’t exposed to the elements for too long.

Lincoln says most students understand that teachers and staff are doing their best to make things work.

“They’re trying to help us deal with this every day and are making sure that everyone gets inside quickly,” Lincoln said. “We know that they’re doing what they can and that they care.”

Beyond creating temporary teaching spaces, the district has shifted policies to reduce strain on the building. The graduation requirement was lowered from 22 to 20 credits — the minimum allowed by state standards – by decreasing the number of required elective courses. While some Lorain County districts require students to take well above the minimum state requirement, more than half of the public districts in the county require fewer than 22.

The goal, Pritt said, is to restore the 22-credit requirement once the new building opens. Until then, school counselors are working closely with students to develop appropriate courseloads based on students’ individual goals and post-graduation aspirations.

“It’s not unusual for our students who are looking at the upper echelon of schools to have 24, 25 credits when they graduate, so I think they’re going to continue on that pathway,” Pritt told cleveland.com. “Our counselors do a nice job reminding kids that just because we have a minimum requirement, it doesn’t mean that they can’t exceed the minimum.”

Meanwhile, off-campus opportunities have helped to free up space as well. Currently, about 170 students are enrolled in Joint Vocational School programs, while another 166 students are taking dual-enrollment college classes. While some of those classes take place at the high school, many students are instructed off-site in the college setting.

“We will have students who are technically seniors with us that don’t spend any time at all in our high school,” Pritt said. “If we had all of those students in the building, if we had our JVS kids in the building, it would be a much bigger problem than what we’re currently facing.”

The solution impacting the greatest number of students has been the expansion of the school’s “privilege system,” which previously applied only to seniors. Now, juniors are included, allowing 448 students to leave campus during free periods, such as lunch or study hall, throughout the day. It’s a change that Lincoln considers essential.

“Lunch is packed,” Lincoln said. “Every single junior and senior I know leaves because they know if they didn’t, there would be no space for them to sit. Even with them gone, you have to cram into a lunch table.”

Administrators emphasize that off-campus education options and the privilege system are completely voluntary and that students are welcome to stay in the building if that is their wish.

“We have not forced any students to leave,” Pritt said. “What we’ve implemented should carry us until the new school opens – but we are certainly counting down the days.”

Preparations for the construction of the new 340,000-square-foot high school — more than double the size of the current building — will begin this summer. The new building will feature state-of-the-art classrooms, a performing arts center, a natatorium and additional space for collaboration.

Class sizes are expected to stay within the current range of 25 to 28 students per room, but the new building will offer a significant upgrade in space. The classrooms will be much larger than the current ones -- which fall below the state’s recommended square footage – allowing students to learn more comfortably and teachers more space for instruction.

As enrollment has steadily risen over the past few years, the need for qualified educators has been growing in tandem. The district typically brings on eight to 10 new educators each summer to accommodate this growth, a pattern Pritt expects will continue.

When programs are introduced in the new building, older and less popular classes will naturally be phased out. Pritt said this will allow the district to shuffle teaching staff and avoid a significant increase in the annual summer hires.

To fund the new high school, the bond measure will cost residents an additional $219 per year for every $100,000 in home value. Some residents have voiced concerns about the added financial burden -- especially in light of recent property reappraisals.

“We know passing a bond means added costs for taxpayers, and we’re sensitive to that, but the community has largely shown support,” Pritt said. “I think this is probably the most exciting thing to happen, school-wise, since I’ve been here, because it provides opportunities that most kids don’t have. It’s going to be a game changer and really take North Ridgeville to that next level.”

Pritt hopes that when construction is complete and open houses let residents walk through the new school, they’ll understand the broader impact it will have — not just for students, but for the entire community.

Lincoln, however, will graduate before the new school opens and won’t get the chance to experience the building as a student. While the timing is bittersweet, he recognizes the excitement and opportunity it brings for the classes to come.

“I’ll be honest -- it kind of sucks that it got delayed for so long, and I wish it would have passed sooner,” Lincoln said. “I’m not going to pretend that I wouldn’t have loved to be in a new school, but I’m happy for the kids in middle school now who will be the first ones to get to enjoy it.”

The North Ridgeville staple is one of just about 300 drive-in theaters left across the country.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — The drive-in movie theater. Invented in the 1930s, but perfected during the 1950s, as America reached its peak love of car culture.

Whether you had a station wagon full of kids or a first date in a hot rod, drive-ins were a way to take in warm nights while seeing a double-feature. Keeping the tradition alive is the Aut-O-Rama in North Ridgeville. It’ll be celebrating its 60th year this summer, and third-generation co-owner Del Sherman knows how rare that is.

“It’s crazy to keep any business open for 60 years, let alone a drive-in,” he said. “There were some struggling times, but people want a fun family atmosphere that’s affordable and easy. So we stick to that, and they keep coming back.”

He’s right. While there are still around 300 drive-ins left in the country, that number shrinks every year. Aut-O-Rama has stood the test of time because it’s more than a place to watch movies. It’s a place to make memories.

“People love film. They love being taken away from reality,” Del said. “And they also love cars. That’s why the drive-in was created — you can relax, be yourself, come in pajamas, cuddle up with blankets, sit on a mattress in your truck bed …"

Del’s family built the drive-in back in 1965. Their first night was July 2, and the premiere feature? A B-movie called "Mr. Moses."

But Aut-O-Rama isn’t just run by the Sherman family — it’s run by a whole community. On a busy summer night, the theater has around 40 staff members working. Many of them started their first jobs there and stuck around for years, some even decades. It’s the kind of place where coworkers become family — and sometimes literally.

“We’ve had couples meet here, get married, and now they’re raising kids together,” one employee shared. “It’s a special place.”

And there's never a shortage of entertainment, both onscreen and off.

“We’ve found phones, shoes, umbrellas, car seats, even a tent,” Del laughed. “But the weirdest thing ever? Back when my dad was running the place, someone left behind a missile. Like, an actual old torpedo-looking bomb. They were using it as a wheel stop. Bomb squad had to come out the next day when they cleaned the lot.”

Aut-O-Rama is full of stories like that — quirky, wholesome, uniquely American. It’s a piece of living nostalgia that somehow still feels relevant in a world full of streaming apps and short attention spans.

Congratulations to the hard-working crew of the Aut-O-Rama. You’ve kept an American tradition alive.