Greetings! I know this is a long-awaited day for most of you, although some of you will already have begun Winter Break by the time this is sent. I’m still amazed we’re nearly halfway through our school year and ready to begin 2008. Where has this decade gone?!? Remember all the Y2K hype?
It’s been fun to see and hear about all of the holiday activities going on throughout our programs (and with our staff!) I’m especially proud of our Student Advisory Council on Main Campus for organizing a food drive to benefit our local food banks. Alyssa Ziehm, a Council member and Architectural and Mechanical Design student, e-mailed me that the project wasn’t as successful as she had hoped. But she realized every little bit helps, and I assured her that she and the other members of the Council have started a tradition that will surely grow! Thanks to everyone who participated.
In spite of the holiday spirit, I haven’t been goofing off all week! On Monday, Darlene Chiles and I attended an Ohio Department of Development regional meeting to discuss the new focus of the Department under Governor Strickland’s administration and to evaluate various incentives which are offered to attract and retain business and industry in Ohio. We were the only educators present, thanks to Darlene’s membership in the Ohio Economic Development Association. The others in attendance were primarily business and industry representatives and economic development coordinators. One of the topics discussed in our breakout groups was the impact of economic incentives (such as tax abatements and tax-increment financing incentives) on schools. I was very glad to have an opportunity to share our perspective as a JVSD and describe the impact of these incentives and other state budget changes on our state funding. (In a nutshell, JVSD’s are not always invited to the table when incentives are discussed and we typically lose tax revenues.) But I also “switched hats” and recognized the importance of attracting and retaining business to strengthen economic development in our communities and stressed the important role career-technical education plays at both the high-school and adult levels in providing a well-trained workforce. The group was very receptive to what I had to say and agreed that they need to get behind a school funding system in Ohio that provides schools with progressive growth in funding without reliance on personal property taxes. The facilitator of the meeting indicated that he would next be working with “education representatives” to further discuss the school funding issue, and he was agreeable to including the Ohio Association of Career-Technical Superintendents. I look forward to continuing to work with the Ohio Department of Development on this important issue.
On Tuesday I visited our satellite programs at Riverside Schools—Career-Based Intervention and Teaching Professions Academy. What a treat! Brandie Roberts, CBI teacher, and her junior high students gave me a wonderful welcome and shared the work they’ve been doing in learning about careers and applying academics while learning the Microsoft Office Suite programs. I observed the group researching banks and credit unions and creating Venn diagrams to compare the two. I was also able to observe them charting data they collected about personal interests and hobbies in Excel. One of the surveys they asked me to respond to was which video games I like the best. I’m embarrassed to admit—I had never even heard of any of the games listed!! (I’m really beginning to realize my age.) So I just picked the names I liked best—I hope I didn’t skew the data! These students were great fun and were totally engaged in their work from beginning to end. They also presented me with thank-you letters to Ohio Hi-Point for our support of them and their program. The letters were a delight to read, and I wish I could share them all; but some excerpts include:
Thank you for supplying all the wonderful things. I love being able to work on the laptops. I really like the new plasma screen TV, it is any 15 year old’s dream to use one . . . Thank you for supplying the best teacher in the world.
Thank you for letting us come to the career center and showing us all the things you can do at Hi-Point.
Thank you for putting a program like this in Riverside. Now we will be able to know how to do things before we’re out of school that some of our parents don’t even know how to do.
The entire eighth grade went to Ohio Hi-Point and it was pretty cool . . . From what it looks like I plan on going to Ohio Hi-Point. I think it would be fun and educational to go. I would also like to say how good Ohio Hi-Point’s staff was. They are very polite.
First off I would like to thank you for CBI class. It is one of my favorite classes at school. Thank you for the opportunity to go to the symphony at Clark Sate. It was really fun . . . This class has given me a lot of new possibilities. I am really looking forward to the Knowledge Bowl contest later this year.
Thanks to Mrs. Roberts and her students for a great visit, and best wishes as you prepare for the Knowledge Bowl Contest!
I also visited Donna Jarzab and two of her Teaching Professions students (most of the students were out on their internships in classrooms). The group had been to Graham High School earlier that day recruiting for the program and were still so excited they could hardly sit still. I’ve always said our students are our best marketers, and these two young ladies were a shining example! They also shared with me their internship experiences and how they felt about working with the various age groups. Adding to the excitement was the fact that one of the girls, Brandy, learned while I was there that she had been elected to the Snowball Court for Riverside’s winter dance. Congratulations Brandy! And thank you to Mrs. Jarzab and her students for taking time to share with me.
Wednesday evening we held our December Board Meeting and our annual Christmas Board Dinner prepared and served by our Culinary Arts Students. They continue to out-do themselves every year! The menu was delightful, the Inn looked festive, and the students were articulate and mature in their presentation. I know our Board felt like very special guests and greatly appreciated the talents of our students. These students and staff were all here on their own time on a Wednesday evening to make this very special event possible. Many, many thanks to Donna Beale, Culinary Arts Instructor, her able assistant Tami Troyer, and our Culinary Arts Students for a fantastic job!
Thursday at lunchtime I visited our Adult Education Staff for their Christmas party which they sandwiched in during their Stephen Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People training (presented by our very own Eric Adelsberger). I appreciate the dedication of this group in pursuing professional development in the area of self management in order to be more effective in both their professional and personal lives. And I appreciate the invitation to join them for their festivities!
I’m noticing a theme here—most of my activities this week have involved eating! Speaking of food, our Staff Holiday Luncheon will be Friday from 10:30-12:30 in the Hi-Point Inn. Please stop in if you have an opportunity—we’ll have a delicious lunch and a very special visitor!
Finally, here’s wishing all of you and yours a joyful holiday season. I know many of you will be traveling—please be safe. Take some time to get rested, enjoy family and friends, and ring in a New Year full of new possibilities!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
December 14, 2007
Good Friday morning to you all! I hope you’ve all had a good and productive week—and I’m glad we got a full week in this week! It’s been a busy one, and I know we’ve all had to juggle schedules to make up for missed events due to last week’s weather.
Tuesday we hosted all of our satellite teachers on Main Campus for their quarterly meeting and a Christmas Luncheon. It was great to have them all here and get a collective update on all the terrific things happening in these programs! I heard about grants received, community service projects, field trips, business partnerships, and innovative curriculum. I shared our 2006/2007 Performance Measures with them and thanked them for the important role they played in making our success possible. It’s not often we have these folks together in one place, and I was appreciative of their enthusiasm and team spirit. And I also appreciate that they serve as such positive ambassadors for OHP in our partner schools, which is clearly benefitting our Main Campus as well. Many thanks to this group of dedicated teachers!
Wednesday the Tri-County Community Action Commission, which serves Champaign, Logan, and Shelby Counties, held a Senior Citizen Luncheon here at Hi-Point. Darlene Roll, who had been coordinating the event with the CAC, unfortunately couldn’t be here due to a family emergency. But JoEtta Spain and her group of able assistants from our staff, as well as several of our students, stepped right in and did a wonderful job serving lunch, providing musical entertainment, and making our guests feels very welcome! Denise Bergen, Executive Director of the CAC, made a point of thanking me for allowing them to hold their event here and said she just loves to facilitate intergenerational events such as this—it benefits both age groups!! (Some of the staff and I were commenting that we’re far closer to the “senior citizen” end of the spectrum than the “youth”!)
JoEtta shared with me her thanks as well:
A special thank you in for Mr.Carrig’s class who printed the holiday poem and the placemats, Amanda Blackburn’s class for the design of the placemat, and Sally Andrews’s class for helping with the serving and set-up as well as Mark Davis’s 7th-period class. I don’t want to forget Jessica Elliott from Culinary Arts who couldn’t go on the field trip so she wrapped all the cookies for the event. Last but not least were the students who performed (below). The show wouldn’t have gone on without all their help! Hope I didn’t forget anyone.
Bobby Ward
Sallie Roth
Anna Steggeman
Joe Winiger
Barb Taylor
Spencer Wolf
Jessica Skeen
Jeremy Stewart
Tim Sutton
Rechel Renkel
Breanne Gamble
Matt Overfield
Tiara Hinkle
Jordon Fitzpatrick
Deidra Thompson
On Thursday, we hosted our partner school guidance counselors for their regular meeting as well as a special luncheon prepared by our Culinary Arts Students. I could only stop in briefly and wasn’t able to stay for lunch, but it certainly looked wonderful!! (I’ll get to sample the same menu when these students prepare dinner for our Board next Wednesday.) Thanks to Lynne Hall and Lynda Arehart, our Guidance Counselors, for facilitating these meetings and keeping the lines of communication open with our partner school counselors.
While walking through the cafeteria on Thursday, a delightful young man named Dalton (Graphic Arts student) stopped me and asked if I had participated in the Netday survey. I asked him to tell me more about that, which he did very well! He explained that the purpose of the survey is to collect information so we can make improvements in our technology. Then he gave me a small card with the website to go to for the survey and a password. How neat to see our students actively involved in improving their school and their own learning! I appreciate Tracy Franck’s efforts in organizing this survey. And it’s important that staff participate also! If you haven’t filled out the survey, please go to http://www.netdayspeakup.org and use the password “starfish.”
I received another e-mail from one of our Board Members, Scott Johnson from Marysville, congratulating us on our Performance Measures. He apologized for being a little late—he’s been under the weather!
I am very proud of the efforts that you, your administration and staff have made over these past few years. I know all of you have been working very hard at improving the entire educational experience at Ohio Hi-Point; and from these latest results, I think others are sharing that same belief. I am thankful that you have allowed me to sit in on several of your work sessions these last two years. In those I have always been impressed at how the overall spirit of everyone attending and how focused they are on improving Ohio Hi-Point. Those meetings have also been a great learning experience for me as a Board member.
It always nice to see hard work pay off, and in this case, it has paid off very well. Again, please accept my most sincere congratulations for the great gains you have all made at Ohio Hi-Point over these past three years.
Thanks,
Scott
As I said last week, our accomplishments wouldn’t be possible without our very supportive Board of Education!
Joan Manns in Adult Education shared with me this week that Perry Hodies, who teaches our Digital Photography course and is attending Columbus State finishing a degree in Digital Design and Graphics, recently won a digital Holiday Card Contest. Joan asked him to share his winning design with us, and he responded:
Good morning! You had asked me about my card design that placed in the Holiday Card Contest at Columbus State. If you go to www.cscc.edu and let the main photos scroll (about every 5 seconds), my picture will come up. Click on the picture to get to the article.
Congratulations, Perry, on your recognition; and thank you for sharing your talents with the adult students in your classes!
As many of you know, we lost a dear friend and supporter this past fall with the passing of Judge James B. West, one of our Sloan Trustees. But I’m very happy to share with you that we recently learned Judge West and his wife Shirley had decided before his death that they would endow a James B. West Scholarship for our adult education Practical Nursing students. Shirley had taught in our program years ago, and Judge West had encountered many of our students and graduates in local health care facilities. He commented frequently on the fine nurses that our program produces and expressed appreciation for the asset that these adults are to the community. The scholarship has been put in place, and we know it will have a very positive impact on the lives of many future nursing students!
Well, tell you what. Since the weather predictions are so bad, I’m going to go ahead and cancel school for Saturday and Sunday. Have a great weekend, stay home if you can; and if you can’t, be very careful!
Tuesday we hosted all of our satellite teachers on Main Campus for their quarterly meeting and a Christmas Luncheon. It was great to have them all here and get a collective update on all the terrific things happening in these programs! I heard about grants received, community service projects, field trips, business partnerships, and innovative curriculum. I shared our 2006/2007 Performance Measures with them and thanked them for the important role they played in making our success possible. It’s not often we have these folks together in one place, and I was appreciative of their enthusiasm and team spirit. And I also appreciate that they serve as such positive ambassadors for OHP in our partner schools, which is clearly benefitting our Main Campus as well. Many thanks to this group of dedicated teachers!
Wednesday the Tri-County Community Action Commission, which serves Champaign, Logan, and Shelby Counties, held a Senior Citizen Luncheon here at Hi-Point. Darlene Roll, who had been coordinating the event with the CAC, unfortunately couldn’t be here due to a family emergency. But JoEtta Spain and her group of able assistants from our staff, as well as several of our students, stepped right in and did a wonderful job serving lunch, providing musical entertainment, and making our guests feels very welcome! Denise Bergen, Executive Director of the CAC, made a point of thanking me for allowing them to hold their event here and said she just loves to facilitate intergenerational events such as this—it benefits both age groups!! (Some of the staff and I were commenting that we’re far closer to the “senior citizen” end of the spectrum than the “youth”!)
JoEtta shared with me her thanks as well:
A special thank you in for Mr.Carrig’s class who printed the holiday poem and the placemats, Amanda Blackburn’s class for the design of the placemat, and Sally Andrews’s class for helping with the serving and set-up as well as Mark Davis’s 7th-period class. I don’t want to forget Jessica Elliott from Culinary Arts who couldn’t go on the field trip so she wrapped all the cookies for the event. Last but not least were the students who performed (below). The show wouldn’t have gone on without all their help! Hope I didn’t forget anyone.
Bobby Ward
Sallie Roth
Anna Steggeman
Joe Winiger
Barb Taylor
Spencer Wolf
Jessica Skeen
Jeremy Stewart
Tim Sutton
Rechel Renkel
Breanne Gamble
Matt Overfield
Tiara Hinkle
Jordon Fitzpatrick
Deidra Thompson
On Thursday, we hosted our partner school guidance counselors for their regular meeting as well as a special luncheon prepared by our Culinary Arts Students. I could only stop in briefly and wasn’t able to stay for lunch, but it certainly looked wonderful!! (I’ll get to sample the same menu when these students prepare dinner for our Board next Wednesday.) Thanks to Lynne Hall and Lynda Arehart, our Guidance Counselors, for facilitating these meetings and keeping the lines of communication open with our partner school counselors.
While walking through the cafeteria on Thursday, a delightful young man named Dalton (Graphic Arts student) stopped me and asked if I had participated in the Netday survey. I asked him to tell me more about that, which he did very well! He explained that the purpose of the survey is to collect information so we can make improvements in our technology. Then he gave me a small card with the website to go to for the survey and a password. How neat to see our students actively involved in improving their school and their own learning! I appreciate Tracy Franck’s efforts in organizing this survey. And it’s important that staff participate also! If you haven’t filled out the survey, please go to http://www.netdayspeakup.org and use the password “starfish.”
I received another e-mail from one of our Board Members, Scott Johnson from Marysville, congratulating us on our Performance Measures. He apologized for being a little late—he’s been under the weather!
I am very proud of the efforts that you, your administration and staff have made over these past few years. I know all of you have been working very hard at improving the entire educational experience at Ohio Hi-Point; and from these latest results, I think others are sharing that same belief. I am thankful that you have allowed me to sit in on several of your work sessions these last two years. In those I have always been impressed at how the overall spirit of everyone attending and how focused they are on improving Ohio Hi-Point. Those meetings have also been a great learning experience for me as a Board member.
It always nice to see hard work pay off, and in this case, it has paid off very well. Again, please accept my most sincere congratulations for the great gains you have all made at Ohio Hi-Point over these past three years.
Thanks,
Scott
As I said last week, our accomplishments wouldn’t be possible without our very supportive Board of Education!
Joan Manns in Adult Education shared with me this week that Perry Hodies, who teaches our Digital Photography course and is attending Columbus State finishing a degree in Digital Design and Graphics, recently won a digital Holiday Card Contest. Joan asked him to share his winning design with us, and he responded:
Good morning! You had asked me about my card design that placed in the Holiday Card Contest at Columbus State. If you go to www.cscc.edu and let the main photos scroll (about every 5 seconds), my picture will come up. Click on the picture to get to the article.
Congratulations, Perry, on your recognition; and thank you for sharing your talents with the adult students in your classes!
As many of you know, we lost a dear friend and supporter this past fall with the passing of Judge James B. West, one of our Sloan Trustees. But I’m very happy to share with you that we recently learned Judge West and his wife Shirley had decided before his death that they would endow a James B. West Scholarship for our adult education Practical Nursing students. Shirley had taught in our program years ago, and Judge West had encountered many of our students and graduates in local health care facilities. He commented frequently on the fine nurses that our program produces and expressed appreciation for the asset that these adults are to the community. The scholarship has been put in place, and we know it will have a very positive impact on the lives of many future nursing students!
Well, tell you what. Since the weather predictions are so bad, I’m going to go ahead and cancel school for Saturday and Sunday. Have a great weekend, stay home if you can; and if you can’t, be very careful!
Friday, December 7, 2007
December 7, 2007
Happy Friday to all of you, although I suspect many of you will be reading this on Monday! I hope you’re enjoying your second snow day this week. While I know these days can be a welcome gift of “found time,” I have to say I’m not crazy about the fact that we’ve had two snow days already and it’s the first week of December! But who knows, maybe Old Man Winter will settle down after the New Year. Most importantly, I hope you will all be safe as you’re out and about.
These two days have given me time to dig through some piles on my desk and feel some sense of being caught up. It’s mighty quiet around here with all of you gone!
While it was a short week, it was an eventful one! On Tuesday at our staff breakfast, which many of you attended, we were thrilled to announce that our high-school performance measures for 2006/2007 placed us at #10 in the state, up from #37 just four years ago! We also announced that our Adult Education programs met 7 out of 9 high-performance targets for 2006/2007, and rankings will follow. This is huge, and I couldn’t be more proud of the accomplishments of this school. It has truly been a team effort—teaching staff, support staff, administrators, board members, and—of course—our students! Without everyone staying focused on improving performance, it just wouldn’t happen. It’s great (and important) to look back and celebrate. And it’s equally important to keep an eye on the horizon! The state and federal measures we’ll be accountable for will change significantly over the next few years, and we need to continue our excellent initiatives to assure our students’ continued success--I’m confident we will!
The community and our stakeholders have also taken notice of our success and are happy for us. Board President, Anne Reames, wrote:
Kim,
On behalf of the Board, please share our congratulations to all. It is heart-warming to see all work so hard to achieve goals. This one was hard earned. So pleased that I am a part of it all.
Anne Marie Reames
Warren Stevens, our Board Member from Urbana, wrote:
Kim,
I commend you and all of the Staff for this most recent accomplishment. Everyone has worked very hard to attain this new ranking.
Warren
Bill Cook, our Upper Scioto Valley Board Member, wrote:
Congrats to all involved ! I'm sure we will hear more about the road to success and the map for the future.
Bill
One of our community agency representatives wrote to Darlene Roll:
Darlene,
I just wanted to write and congratulate the Ohio Hi Point Career Center for being ranked 10th in the state! I heard that on the radio this morning and just wanted to pass on my congratulations!
Susan Downing
Tri-County Community Action
Community Relations Specialist
On Thursday morning, the current Union County Leadership Institute (which I’m participating in) visited Ohio Hi-Point as part of their Education Day. I didn’t serve on the committee planning the day and didn’t even suggest that they come here (although I would have!) But a member of the committee approached me and asked if the group could take a tour, and of course I jumped on the opportunity! Nila Marquard introduced five of our Student Ambassadors who talked to the group about why they came to OHP, what they like best about their experience here, what kind of extra-curricular activities they participate in, and what they have planned for the future. Due to our delay that day, we called on students other than those we had planned to use; but the substitutes stepped in and never missed a beat! Deb Wortman filled the group in on our Satellite Programs, and Darlene Chiles informed them about our Adult Education offerings. The students then gave them the “grand tour” of our main building. I just wanted to burst with pride in watching and listening to the student ambassadors as well as our students in labs! They were mature, articulate, and confident as they spoke; and it’s clear they value the experience they’ve been given here at OHP. Most of the visitors had never been to our campus, and I heard from several of them later in the day how impressed they were with our students, our facility, and our vast program offerings for both young people and adults. Thanks to Nila, Deb, and Darlene, as well as Pat Roby, Joel Staudter and Shelly Swaney, who assisted with tours. And special thanks to JoEtta Spain for her work in preparing our Student Ambassadors to represent us so well. All around, it was a class act!
I have to share one cute story from this event: One of the students who spoke, Andrew, told the group that he ended up at Ohio Hi-Point “by accident” because he got on the wrong bus at Graham during 10th grade visits. But he came up anyway and liked what he saw. Now he’s a half-day student here and very active in band, SkillsUSA, and our Student Ambassador program. Andrew—we’re glad you got on that wrong bus!!
I hope you all have a safe, warm, and relaxing weekend!
These two days have given me time to dig through some piles on my desk and feel some sense of being caught up. It’s mighty quiet around here with all of you gone!
While it was a short week, it was an eventful one! On Tuesday at our staff breakfast, which many of you attended, we were thrilled to announce that our high-school performance measures for 2006/2007 placed us at #10 in the state, up from #37 just four years ago! We also announced that our Adult Education programs met 7 out of 9 high-performance targets for 2006/2007, and rankings will follow. This is huge, and I couldn’t be more proud of the accomplishments of this school. It has truly been a team effort—teaching staff, support staff, administrators, board members, and—of course—our students! Without everyone staying focused on improving performance, it just wouldn’t happen. It’s great (and important) to look back and celebrate. And it’s equally important to keep an eye on the horizon! The state and federal measures we’ll be accountable for will change significantly over the next few years, and we need to continue our excellent initiatives to assure our students’ continued success--I’m confident we will!
The community and our stakeholders have also taken notice of our success and are happy for us. Board President, Anne Reames, wrote:
Kim,
On behalf of the Board, please share our congratulations to all. It is heart-warming to see all work so hard to achieve goals. This one was hard earned. So pleased that I am a part of it all.
Anne Marie Reames
Warren Stevens, our Board Member from Urbana, wrote:
Kim,
I commend you and all of the Staff for this most recent accomplishment. Everyone has worked very hard to attain this new ranking.
Warren
Bill Cook, our Upper Scioto Valley Board Member, wrote:
Congrats to all involved ! I'm sure we will hear more about the road to success and the map for the future.
Bill
One of our community agency representatives wrote to Darlene Roll:
Darlene,
I just wanted to write and congratulate the Ohio Hi Point Career Center for being ranked 10th in the state! I heard that on the radio this morning and just wanted to pass on my congratulations!
Susan Downing
Tri-County Community Action
Community Relations Specialist
And finally, I heard the following from Candace Watson, Director of the Logan County Convention and Tourism Bureau:
Kim, Nila & Shane-
Congratulations on being ranked 10th in the state! I think it is important for the community to realize the positive progression that OHP has achieved. This is good news to all Logan County businesses owners seeking quality employees.
On Thursday morning, the current Union County Leadership Institute (which I’m participating in) visited Ohio Hi-Point as part of their Education Day. I didn’t serve on the committee planning the day and didn’t even suggest that they come here (although I would have!) But a member of the committee approached me and asked if the group could take a tour, and of course I jumped on the opportunity! Nila Marquard introduced five of our Student Ambassadors who talked to the group about why they came to OHP, what they like best about their experience here, what kind of extra-curricular activities they participate in, and what they have planned for the future. Due to our delay that day, we called on students other than those we had planned to use; but the substitutes stepped in and never missed a beat! Deb Wortman filled the group in on our Satellite Programs, and Darlene Chiles informed them about our Adult Education offerings. The students then gave them the “grand tour” of our main building. I just wanted to burst with pride in watching and listening to the student ambassadors as well as our students in labs! They were mature, articulate, and confident as they spoke; and it’s clear they value the experience they’ve been given here at OHP. Most of the visitors had never been to our campus, and I heard from several of them later in the day how impressed they were with our students, our facility, and our vast program offerings for both young people and adults. Thanks to Nila, Deb, and Darlene, as well as Pat Roby, Joel Staudter and Shelly Swaney, who assisted with tours. And special thanks to JoEtta Spain for her work in preparing our Student Ambassadors to represent us so well. All around, it was a class act!
I have to share one cute story from this event: One of the students who spoke, Andrew, told the group that he ended up at Ohio Hi-Point “by accident” because he got on the wrong bus at Graham during 10th grade visits. But he came up anyway and liked what he saw. Now he’s a half-day student here and very active in band, SkillsUSA, and our Student Ambassador program. Andrew—we’re glad you got on that wrong bus!!
I hope you all have a safe, warm, and relaxing weekend!
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