A view of the new wing of classrooms at Woodward Elementary School. The wing was one of the more recent renovations at the school and was toured by the district’s Facilities Committee earlier this year. The district will hear a presentation about the committee’s findings at their next meeting.
Glenn Battishill | The Gazette
At its meeting on Monday, the Delaware City Schools Board of Education discussed both the more than $1 million grant the district was awarded and an upcoming presentation from the Facilities Committee.
In regards to the district receiving $1,026,817 from the Ohio Career Technical Education Equipment Grant Program, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Misty Swanger said one of the goals of the district is to help students identify careers from elementary school all the way through high school, but there was previously no cohesive plan. She said when the district applied for the CTTE grant, it developed a larger plan and examined student data, specifically what careers are interesting to students, what careers students have the aptitude for and what careers the community needs.
Swanger said the grant will help fund the creation of three career pathways at Hayes High School, and the pathways will be advanced manufacturing, health sciences and a teacher academy.
Swanger detailed the programs for the board and said the advanced manufacturing pathway will include courses in IT, computer science and advanced robotics; the pathway in health science will include STNA and exercise science; and the teaching academy is designed to combat a lack of teachers.
“We need to recruit our own,” Swanger said. “The teacher shortage is real.”
She added the goal of the pathways will be to give students introductory courses in their chosen fields and allow them to graduate with credentials, certifications or a head-start on their college courses.
“It’s about getting kids into the workforce as soon as possible when they’re ready,” Swanger said.
The grant, she added, will help create a career exploration lab at Dempsey Middle School to introduce students to to 20 different careers.
“There’s a lot of excitement behind this but a lot of work to be done,” Swanger said.
The grant was filed with the assistance and support of the Delaware Area Career Center, and the pathways were chosen because either the DACC doesn’t offer them or the DACC program is at capacity, she added.
Board President Ted Backus is also the board president of the Delaware Area Career Center Board of Education, and he expressed his approval of the plan during the meeting.
“This has worked exactly the way we wanted this to work,” Backus said. “We (DACC) don’t have the space. We’re trying to grow. There’s a lot of students who want this. (Delaware) schools being able to offer this is just more students who will get those opportunities.”
Board member Janelle Gasaway also praised the work of Swanger and the team that worked on the grant.
“(I want to give a) huge commendation to everyone who worked so hard on that,” Gasaway said. “Grant writing is not easy to do. … It’s a tremendous amount of work. This is amazing. It’s great for our kids. Well done.”
The board also discussed the ongoing work of the Facilities Committee, which has audited and examined all the buildings in the district. Superintendent Heidi Kegley said the committee will receive a presentation about enrollment projections, and the committee will meet in two weeks to put together some of its findings for the board to review.
“(That will allow) us to start to discuss and see where we need to head to ensure we are building not only amazing classroom experiences right now for our students, but into the future for our district,” Kegley said.
She added the district currently has 5,736 students, which is “on par” with their projections, and they will be looking at future projections soon.
Additionally, the board approved a number of staffing changes, including the retirement of Mark Naegele, a fifth-grade teacher at Smith Elementary as well as the resignations of Deborah Bevan, a custodian at Dempsey and Laura Butterworth, a payroll assistant at Willis.
The board also approved the employments of Sandra Barrows, an educational assistant; Jacob finch, a custodian at Hayes; Terrie Kanniard, a bus driver; Hannah Ramey, an educational assistant at Conger Elementary School and Bree Saunders, an administrative assistant at Schultz Elementary.
The board will meet next on Nov. 4.
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
