Election…Interviews…Appointments... What is Going on with our School Board?

The Vermilion School Board has certainly had an exciting couple months. I wanted to take a minute to tell you about the new school board and to explain what has been going on. First, we had the election on November 3^rd. As I’m sure you all know, we had five candidates running; Shelly Innes, David Rice, Michael Stark, Nancy Oates, and Melanie Williamson.

Shelly Innes won her seat back in the election. Michael Stark and Nancy Oates also won open seats so they will be part of our new school board. They will be sworn in before the January meeting, and their term officially starts in January. They will each serve a four-year term.

We have school board elections every two years, so at this election three of the five board seats were available. At the next election, in two years, the other two seats will be up for election. Doing elections this way provides some consistency, opposed to having all five positions available every four years.

This year was somewhat different because we had a board member resign during the November meeting. As I’m sure you all saw in the Photojournal, Grant Harding stepped down from his position as a board member. When there is a resignation, the seat has to be filled by appointment. There are both school board policies and state codes that have to be followed in this situation.

The position was opened to the public. Any adult in the school district had the option of submitting a letter of interest. Everyone who filed a letter of interest has to be interviewed by the current board. In our case, there were ten people interviewed.

According to state code, the interviews and the decision all had to be conducted within the same meeting. The board had to make an appointment before their next meeting, but it also had to be between 10 and 30 days following the resignation. As you can imagine, this put a serious sense of urgency on the matter, and the current board members had to make this appointment a top priority.

Shelly Innes, David Rice, Dale Dawson, and Chris Habermehl interviewed all the candidates and voted on the one they wanted to appoint. Although the exact reasons behind their decision can’t be discussed, Shelly Innes did explain that they were focused on finding someone that believed in the shared vision of the district, someone that was committed to improving the district, and someone that could be part of communicating openly with the public.

All the candidates were very qualified and dedicated, which made their decision a difficult one. However, after the interviews were over and they had a chance to discuss their options, they voted to appoint Sara Stepp to the open board seat. Sara and her husband, Rudy, own a business in Vermilion. They also have two children in the district.

Sara was sworn in at the December regular board meeting, which was December 8th. She started immediately because she was filling an open seat. So, starting in January, our new Vermilion School Board will be Shelly Innes, Chris Habermehl, Michael Stark, Nancy Oates, and Sara Stepp.

 In January, the school board webpage will be updated with pictures, profiles of each candidate, and contact information. When that is complete, we’ll post an announcement on the district Facebook page. I encourage everyone to take a minute and read the profiles. Feel free to contact board members with any questions, and as always, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

SCHOOL ZONE 12-3-15

CLASSROOM VIDEOS

Technology Coach Jennifer Bengele created some wonderful videos highlighting some of the innovative education going on in our classrooms.  Links to the videos can be found on our Facebook page or Twitter feed.  The latest video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/GSlFuqv-bxQ

BOARD MEMBER VACANCY

We have received letters of interest from 11 residents who are interested in filling the board member seat recently vacated by Grant Harding.  The remaining Board members will interview the candidates this week and hope to make a decision by December 8, in accordance with Ohio Revised Code and Board policy.

NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY

Congratulations to the new members of the National Honor Society who were inducted into the Society on November 23.  New Senior members are:  Brooke Dickey, Ashley Hofstetter, Chad Morrison and Andrew Volzer.  New members from the Junior class are:  Theresa Albrethsen, Christopher Canter, Mikayla Hall, Abbigale Hampton, Kellie Innes, Alexis Koeth, Alexander Lutz, Sierra Lyons, Isabelle McCale, Macie McDaniel, Rebecca Oates, Tara Pena, Samantha Peters, Violet Piskur, Lindsey Schaffer, Nicole Schmauch, Caitlyn Schnur, Kennedy Shreve, Kathryn Stumpp, Robin Terschak, Madison Urig, Jakob Warren, and Sierra Whitman.

EMERGING TRENDS

One of the most well-known and influential educational leaders is William Daggeth.  Recently our administrative team was invited by North Point Educational Service Center to be part of a consortium of schools that will study and participate in high quality professional development that is focused on the emerging trends in education.  Our team has made a commitment to partner with 14 Erie County schools in writing a grant that will result in a five-year study and enable our district to receive in-depth information on Career-Readiness of our students.  Our team chose this topic from a list of five trends that were identified by Mr. Daggeth after he and his team from the International Center of Leadership in Education visited schools across the nation.  Below is a brief summary of the topics that were identified. 

1.     Digital Leadership and Learning – Embracing digital technology in schools isn’t just about buying devices or using flashy tools.  It’s about knowing how to leverage technology to effectively support student learning for real-world readiness.  Real world ready schools are those that focus on learning in a digital age to prepare students for the world of today and of the future.  The culture of these real-world ready schools is based on building a leadership team, establishing a coherent vision for change, developing a systematic action plan, modeling for leaders effective and efficient ways to leverage digital tools to increase effectiveness, and modeling for teachers how to harness tools to support student learning.

2.     Career Ready – The challenge we are faced with today is ensuring that the factors that make students successful in college and careers are the same:  the ability to learn and apply new information, problem solve, communicate and collaborate with peers, and contribute to the greater good of society.  If we can focus on teaching and then measure these more broadly defined characteristics it will be a better indicator of whether a graduate is truly prepared for a successful life after high school.  The focus of K-12 and higher education needs to make a dramatic shift from what classes students have completed to what students are able to do.  College and post-secondary education needs to be seen as a means to the end, not just the end of a student’s learning cycle.

3.     Application-Based Learning – Application based learning allows students the learning experiences in a much more “real world” context.  Allowing students to draw on their own problem-solving, creativity/innovation, and critical-thinking skills will providea much more rich and valuable learning opportunity.  The Rigor/Relevance Framework is a tool all teachers can use to create application-based learning opportunities for students to think and work.  Knowing how to move a typical Quadrant A task toward Quadrant D by using research-based strategies that increase rigor and relevance is the key ingredient for application-based learning.

4.     Rigor – Achieving rigorous learning for all students requires instructing each student in a way that is relevant to him or her.  Pinpointing exactly what rigorous learning is and what it looks like in the classroom can be a challenging process.  It includes nurturing, caring relationships with ALL students and teaching interpersonal skills.  It includes instilling in ALL students the skills they will need for the careers that will allow self-sufficiency as adults.

5.     Data Analytics to Implement Growth Mindsets – As we develop more sophisticated assessments and use technology in more robust ways, we will see an explosion in the use of data for both formative and summative purposes.  More sophisticated use of data will enable us to accelerate the movement toward implementing growth and continuous improvement models.  With an increasing amount of data on individual students, we will find our one-size-fits-all instructional delivery system ineffective.  The need to individualize the organization and delivery of instruction will require focused and sustained professional development.

Our team chose Career Readiness because we believe that it is the most inclusive of all the trends. Our talented and passionate teaching and counseling team is working diligently to help our students discover the passion that will ultimately turn into a career and vocation for each of our students.