September 23, 2010

Greetings Blog Readers!

Technology is up and running for the time being, and I don't anticipate any delays in getting this blog posted ahead of schedule.

The past two weeks have been filled with activity, and what seems an unusually heavy community meeting/event schedule. In the past 10 days I have attended a city council meeting for the purpose of supporting and listening to the discussion surrounding filling the gap funding for the mega-site, which sits just north of Vantage. City council will continue their discussion of this topic on September 29. The Western Buckeye ESC meeting for superintendents was held last Friday morning in Paulding, and I received an excellent update of several educational issues. Later that day, Adult Education Director Pete Prichard and I attended our meeting with Rhodes State, Wright State Lake Campus, and Northwest State Community College to further our progress in expanding adult training opportunities and postsecondary degree pathways to our community.

Our architects for the construction project were also on site last week and have been reviewing individual classrooms, labs, and office requirements with our staff. The former Van Wert Women's Club, of which I was a member, continues to gather at the YWCA monthly, and I was fortunate to attend their first gathering since the group disbanded last June. My normal Tuesday schedule contains Van Wert Rotary, and this week's program was of particular interest as it focused on the state budget and concerns with the projected $8 billion deficit.

I was able to keep a meeting with both superintendents of Ohio Hi-Point Career Center and Apollo Career Center, where we discussed current issues for career technical education. On the same day, I participated in a meeting for economic development for business recruitment. The monthly meeting for the Van Wert Economic Development Advisory Committee was also on my slate for last Friday. I made it to Business After Hours for the Chamber of Commerce at the Art Factory on Main Street this week, and attended my first American Association of University Women's meeting at the Van Wert Middle School on Monday evening.

The week finishes out on Friday, Sept. 24 with our area superintendents coming to Vantage where we will sit down with House Representative Lynn Wachtmann to discuss concerns with several educational issues. Many of our students will be working at locations throughout Van Wert on Friday for the Day of Caring--I intend to stop by a few of the locations and express appeciation for our students giving their time to help others. Saturday morning starts early at 6 a.m. for our Pancake and Sausage Breakfast at Vantage, where I will be serving on the buffet line, at 7a.m. (Somewhere in this schedule, we squeezed in a baby shower for my oldest daughter, Colleen, who will welcome their first baby to the family in November)! It's a great life if you don't weaken, as my grandma used to say!