Support for Ninety Entry-Year Teachers; Penta Enrollment Soars; Reed Steele Takes the Helm at Challenger Center

My post this evening is full of links to other sites - one of the helpful aspects of blogging, in my opinion. I encourage you to explore these links if the subject is of interest to you!

For those of you in the Maumee, Rossford, and Springfield school districts - the Lucas County ESC continues to provide state-mandated entry-year teacher training to your teachers, along with training the first-year teachers at the ESC and at numerous parochial and charter schools. Ninety first-year teachers are enrolled in the program (more than ever before), which matches them with mentors and provides extensive programming in how to succeed in the field of education. Rose Kandik is the director of this program at the LCESC. To read more about it, follow this link: http://www.lucas.k12.oh.us/index.php?section=43.
In other news, Joe Rutherford and Judy Hansen reported that Penta County has increased in enrollment, and may next year reach the cap of two thousand students. While Joe will continue on the Penta Board, the downsizing of the board results in the elimination of Judy Hansen's seat as of January 1, 2009. You can read more about this situation here: http://rolandhansencommentary.blogspot.com/2008/10/penta-career-center-gives-shaft-to.html.
Reed Steele is set to take the helm at the Challenger Learning Center in Oregon - an amazing facility where my own child experienced the excitement of science and rocketry. He follows Julie Muffler, who resigned to take a position elsewhere, but she will return periodically to visit. The Springfield Local School Board provides for every fifth grade student to spend a day at Challenger; Joan Kuchcinski mentioned that Pickett Elementary recently attended Challenger; this is a resource not to be missed in our community. Here is a link: http://challengerlc.org/main.html
Finally, it was decided that the organizational meeting for the 2009 year will take place at 5 PM on Tuesday, January 13th. At this meeting we will elect our president and vice-president for the coming year; s/he will take charge immediately, as our first general meeting follows immediately.
As a sidenote, three of our board members are up for re-election in 2009: Judy Hansen, Joan Kuchcinski and Joe Rutherford. While I have not heard definitively, it sounds as though all three may well run; however, that should not deter any interested parties from taking out a petition and getting on the ballot. The race for my seat was contested: there were three of us running for two seats (Karen Krause - incumbent, William Michael (Mike) Spahr, and myself). The fact that the race was contested made us all work harder and look more closely at why we were running, as well as appreciate the fact that there are no guarantees - our constituents (should be) watching, and holding us accountable for the work we are privileged to perform.