Levy will be sought for new facilty

FORT RECOVERY — Career education has become a popular topic. Fort Recovery and a group of partner school districts are hoping to step to the forefront.
Tim Buschur of Tri-Star Career Compact spoke to Fort Recovery School Board at its meeting Tuesday about plans to build a new facility at Wright State University Lake Campus in Celina.
Tri-Star is a partnership between nine school districts in Mercer and Auglaize County that focusing on providing career technical education to high school juniors and seniors. Students spend half of the day at their home school and half of the day at Tri-Star.
The organization is proposing “Tri-Star 2.0”, a partnership with WSU to build a $20 million facility. It received permission from the state legislature to seek  a one-time tax levy — estimated at 0.5 or 0.6 mills and limited to five to 10 years — to pay for 50 percent of the project.
“Career tech is hot right now,” said Buschur, Tri-Star’s director. “Legislators have put more money into it. … The iron’s hot. They like career tech because they need people, labor. … There’s such a shortage.”
In its current format, Tri-Star has six locations — three in Celina, two in St. Marys and one in Coldwater — and does not have sufficient space. The goal of “Tri-Star 2.0” is to provide a state-of-the-art facility at a single location in an effort to provide better service to students and to build a stronger workforce.
Buschur noted that a single, centrally-located campus is projected to cut bus routes from the current 42 to 10. Because of a reduction in travel time, it would also result in about 30 more minutes of instruction each day.
The goal is to have the levy on the ballot this spring. If it passes, Buschur said the hope is to have the new facility open in the fall of 2018.
“When you don’t hit the ground running, things tend to get slower,” said Buscher. “So we’re pushing.
“Tri-Star used to be at the cutting edge when it started. We’re behind now. This would put us back to the forefront.”
Fort Recovery High School principal Jeff Hobbs also presented board members Jose Faller, Ginny Fortkamp, Dave Hull, Aaron Guggenbiller and Amy Bihn with a proposed policy on career advising, which is now required by the state for sixth through 12th graders. The policy, which the board plans to vote on in the next few months, includes developing an “individual career plan” in the sixth grade and then building off of that over the course of the next six years.
The goal, Hobbs said, is to help students begin thinking earlier about careers and providing them more information about opportunities.
Transportation director Kurt Wendel gave the board an update, noting that there remains a shortage of bus drivers.
There are currently only seven full-time routes each morning and afternoon, but only five contracted bus drivers. The remaining routes are being filled by substitute drivers on a daily basis.
Wendel suggested the possibility of combining bus driver with other school positions in order to make them more attractive to potential employees.
In other business, the board:
•Honored the football, cross country and golf teams, marching band and FFA on their recent successes.
•Heard from superintendent Justin Firks that a professional staff day is set for Sept. 25 and a district input meeting has tentatively been set for 6 p.m. Oct. 5.
•Scheduled a finance committee meeting for Oct 13. The board will hold a work session focusing on its five-year financial forecast at 6 p.m. Oct. 20 to be following by the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.
•Heard from elementary principal Tracy Hein-Evers that an open house is scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2. It will be held in conjunction with a blood drive from 1 to 7 p.m.
•Learned the program “Relationships Under Construction,” a sexual education program that focuses on abstinence, will be implemented in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades this year. Hobbs said the school system has always taught abstinence, but this will be the first year for this specific program.
•Reviewed ACT scores, with Hobbs noting that Fort Recovery had an average composite score of 22.6 compared to the state average of 22. The school posted its best scores in math — 23.2 compared to the state average of 21.7.
•Were presented with a sketch of a mural that is planned for the north wall of Fort Site Fieldhouse behind the student section. Students and staff are working on the project together and hope to have a special event to unveil the mural prior to the basketball season.