Pre-Kindergarten Registration is OPEN!

Pre-Kindergarten registration is OPEN! All children who will be 4 years of age on or before September 1, 2024 and reside in Lancaster City or Lancaster Township are eligible to apply for pre-kindergarten for the 2024-2025 school year. Please note that spaces are limited, and enrollment is based on need, not on a first come, first served basis. Apply now!

APPLY NOW!
Together we can
Superintendent's Blog

The View From Here

Welcome to The View From Here, a blog by School District of Lancaster Superintendent Dr. Damaris Rau. She publishes about once a week on a range of issues, from topics local to international. Rau is a veteran of 35+ years in education, including stints as teacher and principal in urban and suburban school districts. She has been superintendent of the School District of Lancaster since 2015.

The Lancaster Nutcracker Ballet Celebrates 30 Years

The Viktor Yeliohin International Ballet Academy is celebrating the magic and memories of the 30th anniversary of The Nutcracker Ballet in Lancaster. Since 1993, Viktor Yeliohin has presented the story […]

Read More

My final commencement address

After 40 years in public education, I am retiring at the end of June. McCaskey’s 88th commencement was bittersweet for me, and my remarks to the “miracle Class of 2022” […]

Read More

Helping students make sense of the crisis in Ukraine

The crisis in Ukraine is dominating news headlines around the world. Many of our teachers, especially at the secondary level, are or will be having conversations with students about the […]

Read More

My remarks on charter school reform in Pennsylvania

On June 1, we had the pleasure of welcoming Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf to J.P. McCaskey High School. He and others spoke on the importance of reforming our state’s outdated […]

Read More

On our last-minute virtual day for secondary students

To parents of secondary students: Please accept our apologies for the last-minute notice that students would attend classes virtually on Monday. I want to offer a deeper explanation. As many […]

Read More

The impact of federal and state funding on our budget

In December, we informed the school board that the School District of Lancaster is facing a structural deficit over the next several years that will progressively strain our ability to […]

Read More

On the McCaskey musical situation

For the past several years, our school district has had a focus on equity, overcoming bias, and diversity. We have challenged ourselves to view situations through the “lens of equity” […]

Read More

On our phased return to in-person instruction

On Monday, we announced an accelerated plan to bring all of our students back into the classroom for in-person instruction at least two days per week. I am energized to […]

Read More

On COVID reporting, it is in our best interest to isolate cases

As small groups of students begin returning to our school buildings, I am sure many of you are thinking about how—and when—we will report COVID-19 in our school community. It […]

Read More

On our first day of at home remote learning

Today was an unprecedented first day of school in the School District of Lancaster. All 11,000+ students and about 1,500 teachers and staff opened the 2020-2021 school year teaching and […]

Read More

Reach for the light: My address to SDoL at our annual all-staff meeting

Every August, we kick off a new school year with a meeting involving everyone of our staff members. Due to COVID-19, this year’s all-staff meeting looked different, and had to […]

Read More

My remarks to the Class of 2020

Congratulations to the McCaskey Class of 2020, and hats off to the many people behind the scenes who helped make the broadcast of our commencement ceremony on WGAL go off […]

Read More

On the searing symbolism of George Floyd

Like so many of you, I am outraged at the sight, on national television, of the senseless killing of George Floyd. Losing his breath under the knee of a police […]

Read More

Principles for reopening schools in the fall

As our students and staff wrap up the unprecedented 2019-2020 school year, it is time to turn our eyes to the upcoming school year and the “new normal.” We have […]

Read More

Op-Ed: Going through the obstacles

This post was originally published as a joint op-ed in LNP | LancasterOnline signed by me, school board president Dr. Edith Gallagher and Lancaster Education Association president Mr. Jason Molloy, […]

Read More

2022

2021

2020