October 29, 2008

I’m posting to my blog today (Wednesday) because I was off campus last Friday and will be again this Friday. But there’s a lot to share about the past week and a half!

If you’ve been on our Main Campus lately, it would be hard not to notice the historical marker which has been placed at our entrance in honor of the 664th AWC—the Air Force group that was on our campus from 1951-1969. It’s a very fitting tribute to those who served here to protect our country during the Cold War. On October 20, several veterans of the 664th were on campus to dedicate the marker, and their pride in placing the marker was really touching. We are so very fortunate that this site was turned over to the Ohio Hi-Point JVSD so that this school could be built to serve thousands of students over the past 35 years. Please take a moment to read the historical marker—it tells a wonderful story!

On October 21, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown hosted a round-table discussion at OHP for representatives from a cross-section of Logan County: education, local government, retail, real estate, health care, agriculture, manufacturing, and banking. It was good discussion. I asked Senator Brown if he had visited other career centers, and he said a few. He called us a “jewel of the state”—a fitting description, I think! He commended us for the contribution we make to workforce development at the local and state level.

Tom Oates, V.P. for Academic Affairs at Urbana University, paid a visit last Wednesday to talk with me about how we and UU can partner better to provide additional pathways for our students. I was impressed by the message he relayed from President Steven Jones—that the University is ready to break through past barriers and work with us and our student population to provide relevant, affordable, and convenient degree programs. As we work toward formal agreements, I’ll keep you posted as to the new opportunities our students will have!

Thursday and Friday I attended the National Career Pathways Network Conference (formerly the Tech Prep Conference) in Cincinnati along with several other staff members. When national conferences come to Ohio, I think it’s great to take advantage of the opportunity. I attended some good sessions on partnerships with business & industry, retaining students in high school, and transitioning students to higher education. But the real highlight of the conference for me was attending a presentation made by Art Spragen and five of his Architectural and Mechanical Design students on inquiry-based learning. They were super! They presented a project they completed on streamlining the production process of an office chair and designing packaging for the chair—impressive stuff. But I was most impressed with how they fielded questions after the presentation. Their maturity level was amazing! The answer that struck me most was that through working as a team, they got to know each other better, learned each other’s strengths and limitations, and maximized each team members capabilities to work efficiently as a team. Wow! Those skills will serve them will in any career pathway they take! Congratulations to Art and his students (Jonathan, Scott, Zac, Daniel, and Brandon) for a terrific job, and thanks for representing OHP so admirably.

We host a lot of meetings here at OHP; and during one meeting I recently attended here, we decided about mid-way that we needed some snacks (in other words—we got the munchies!) It was about 5 p.m. on a Friday evening, so I had to use my magical master key to go snack-hunting in the kitchen. (And for the record, I made a list for Jann of what I took so she could bill us!) A gentleman who was also attending the meeting came into the kitchen to help me, and he looked around and said, “Wow! Who keeps this place so clean?” Those kinds of observations make me so proud of our facility—as you should be also. Certainly I don’t police the kitchen for cleanliness—there’s no need to. Our cafeteria staff does a super job of providing tasty, nutritious meals out of an immaculate kitchen, and I wanted to pass this compliment along so they know others are noticing. Nice job ladies!

Lisa McCullough, our EMIS Coordinator, prepared a report for me recently documenting the professional development points earned by our staff over the 2007-2008 school year. As I looked over the multiple professional development opportunities our staff took advantage of, I was amazed at the variety of topics related to so many different positions. As a staff, you earned a total of 2,418 PDP points! Thanks to all of you for your commitment to continuous improvement on a personal level so that you can better serve our students.

Have a great finish to the week, stay warm now that winter seems to have rolled in, and I’ll be back on my blog on November 7!