January 29, 2010

OK, does anyone know what happened to January? It certainly got away from me! Some good news you can hold onto, though—someone told me today only 50 days until spring. Bring it on!

Hope you’ve had a great, productive week. A couple of highlights from my week:

Wednesday and Thursday the administrative team, Shane, and I attended the annual Ohio ACTE Legislative Conference in Columbus (while Jon and Glenn stayed back to hold down the fort—thanks!) Seems what we hear most about today is the need for jobs, jobs, jobs. Our visits with legislators gave us the opportunity to stress to them how career-technical education in Ohio can be part of the solution to the jobs crisis. One visit was especially neat: When Joel and I visited Senator Gillmore’s office, the Senator wasn’t available, so we met with her aide Erica. Once Erica connected who we were, she went on to tell us how much she values career-tech and how she feels more students (including some she graduated with) should take advantage of what we have to offer. She recognized how critical our training programs are to Ohio’s economic recovery. Wow—we hardly had to say a word! If you’ve ever talked with legislative aides before, you know that they’re the “gatekeepers” of information and filter what gets to legislators. So I sometimes actually prefer to meet with them! Erica is one contact we will definitely cultivate. And as we work to stay in touch with our legislators, we will be calling on you to share your success stories and provide data that demonstrates that we get the job done!

During the conference, we also heard some really good speakers on legislation, funding, and the economy. Not entirely the most uplifting messages, but it was gratifying to have legislators, ODE leadership, and business people validate the training we provide to high-school and adult students. We’ve got some tough times and tough decisions ahead of us, but we also have some real opportunities to position ourselves well for the educational reforms being driven by the economy. I’ll have more to share about that at our District Update on February12.

On Wednesday evening we held our Board Meeting and welcomed seven new Board Members. We took a little extra time to educate them on our operations, and I could sense from their reactions that they are really amazed at the many facets of our organization. I’m sure it’s a little overwhelming at first, but we’ll invest time to make sure we get them oriented and up to speed. They’ll be attending orientation sessions the middle of next week, and I look forward to touring them through some of our labs and showing off our students!

We’re heavily into recruiting season, and new opportunities are opening up to us all the time! Last week, Marysville High School hosted a Career Fair and gave our teachers and students an opportunity to come in and share about their programs (see photo at right). This is partnership at its best—making all students aware of opportunities available—and we appreciate Marysville opening their doors to us!

I have to share kind of a cute story about a group of our students. I came out of a meeting in the Inn on Tuesday morning, and I noticed a young man among a group in the Commons with his hat on. I went over and asked him to please remove it (which he did, no problem). I also told them I was glad they made it to school safely in the snow that morning. I have some small bandages on my face where I had some lesions removed. One of the kids—being uninhibited as they tend to be—asked, “What happened to your face?” I had honestly forgotten the bandages were there, so I’m not sure how I came up with this so quickly; but I said, “This is an example of facial piercing gone bad.” He looked pretty shocked, and I could see his wheels spinning wondering why I would try to pierce my face where these bandages are. I laughed and told him I was just kidding—and I reminded the whole group to wear their sunscreen.

Isn’t Groundhog Day coming up? I never can remember when it is or whether we want the little guy to see his shadow or not. Anyway, have a great weekend and hopefully we’ll get to see our shadows!