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!

September 13, 2010

Is anyone else guilty of taking technology for granted? I would like to blame problems with my laptop and Internet access as the official reason that I was unable to post a blog by last Friday! Unfortunately my weekend schedule didn't allow me enough free time to draft a blog before today. Everytime I reached for the laptop last week, I encountered unsolvable problems. Many thanks to Eric Vennekotter, technology assistant at Vantage, for getting the laptop up and running so that I can continue "running"!

What a weekend! I was able to attend the Wright State Lake Campus annual scholarship awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon in Celina. I represent Van Wert County as a trustee on the Western Ohio Education Foundation board, and 45 students received scholarships for this school year. Congratulations to all of the recipients! I would like to especially recognize Camille Harting, who received a scholarship and will pursue a degree in Early Childhood Education. Camille graduated from Crestview and completed two years in Health Careers at Vantage.

Another worthwhile event was the Delta Kappa Gamma meeting, Beta Eta chapter, at Just Something Different near Ft. Jennings on Saturday. Beining Nursery presented a program on proper care of your trees and plants. DKG is an international sorority for women educators. The meeting was well attended, and it provides me the opportunity to get to know several Putnam, Van Wert, Allen, and Paulding county educators, both retired and currently teaching. BTW--Beining's noted that it is people like me who keep them in business! (I need to make time to water my landscaping and I now know the correct season to trim shrubs!).

September 3, 2010

Vantage Career Center students have been in school for three weeks so far; our attendance record is excellent at 96.9% for the month of August. Career Technical Education Director Bob Vennekotter shared this information with our Board of Education at last night's meeting, noting that starting school earlier than usual on August 16 had not affected student attendance.

Several community members have asked how enrollment looks this year at Vantage--yesterday's numbers were 465 high school students, which is a very solid start for 2010-11. Vantage continues to draw about 25 percent of our associate school districts' juniors and seniors. The most fully enrolled programs are Auto Mechanics, Industrial Mechanics, Networking Systems, Welding, Auto Body, Health Technology and Cosmetology. Electricity enrollment of the junior class is also higher than in past years, at 16 students.

Vantage hosts a student appreciation day annually, to thank our students for choosing Vantage. This is scheduled for September 9, and offers fun activities outside on the grounds to help students meet others from neighboring districts, experience the thrill of competition and the agony of defeat as they enjoy outdoor games and the annual tug - of -war challenge. Student and staff picture day is September 14. Vantage will offer a Pancake and Sausage Breakfast on Saturday, September 25, from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. $3 is all it takes to enjoy a hot breakfast cooked by our staff members that morning!

Stop by the Vantage booth at the Van Wert County Fair this week and pick up a new Adult Education course catalog. Adult Education enrollment has continued to grow--over 1900 adults in our area enrolled in a course at Vantage last year. Enjoy the Labor Day holiday weekend, and I hope to see you at the fair!