What has School Board been up to?

This week board members, administrators and supervisors representing the Vermilion Schools attended a portion of the Ohio School Boards Association annual conference.  The Ohio School Boards Association is a recognized and respected voice in public education.  Their mission is to be a leader toward educational excellence by serving Ohio’s public school board members and the districts they represent through unwavering advocacy and creative solutions to the problems faced by public schools.

Capital Conference is the second largest education conference in the country, attracting school board members, superintendents, treasurers and other education professionals from Ohio and beyond.  The conference is not only a place for educators and Board members to gain knowledge about current trends and laws that impact education, but it is also a celebration of student learning, a spotlight for educational technology, and a chance for schools to share cost - cutting strategies.  Workshop topics include school board development, career education, community relations, facilities, finance, school law, technology, human resources, social media, student achievement, 21^st century education and more. 

The enormously successful Student Achievement Fair, which highlights educational innovations of 100 public school programs from around the state, is a popular event at the conference.  Each year teachers from around Ohio submit applications and are selected to share innovative education programs they are using in classrooms.  Vermilion teacher Lisa Murray was selected in 2015.  Lisa and her students were featured at the conference and received statewide recognition for their use of inquiry and deductive reasoning to locate classrooms around the globe.  You can learn more about the 2016 teacher and student participants by visiting the Capital Conference website.

Keynote presenters at the conference this year included respected broadcast journalist and author Jane Pauley; engineer, educator and two-time space shuttle astronaut Leland Melvin; author and educational media expert Dr. Milton Chen, who shared the most innovative models of K-12 teaching and learning in the digital age; and former State Senator Nina Turner, a professor at Cuyahoga Community College who has made it her mission to empower individuals, institutions and communities.  All of these individuals have made an impact on education, and brought messages of support or innovation to the conference attendees. 

In today’s ever-changing world it is imperative that school board members and administrators stay abreast of not only the newest trends in education and technology, but also changes in state and federal laws that impact how we do business.  Conferences like this one provide us with a wealth of knowledge that we can bring back to Vermilion and use to improve our schools.