Emily Passias from the ODE  Office of Career-Technical Education will hold three conference calls to discuss the details of the report card. The dates and times for those calls are:

• Wednesday, May 22 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
• Thursday, May 23 from 8:00am-9:00am
• Friday, May 24 from 2:30pm-3:30pm

Additionally, the Office of Career-Technical Education will address questions related to the report card during weekly one-hour conference calls  Noon to 1 p.m. each Wednesday, starting June 5 and continuing through the middle of August.  Educators and others seeking information and with questions can participate in the calls.

To participate in the calls, dial (866) 551-1530  and use pin number 7398417#

Questions about the CTE Report Card? Email ODE at ctereportcard@education.ohio.gov.

When he retired in 1984, an award was created in his honor through the Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education (OACTE).  Since then, the award has been given annually to an Ohio educator with the same ethics, values, determination, and passion for adult education.

The 2013 Bill Ruth Award was presented this week to Harry Snyder, Director of Adult Workforce Development (AWD) for Great Oaks Career Campuses.  As Director, Snyder oversees adult education for one of the largest career-technical districts in the United States.  Each year, more than 50,000 adults come to Great Oaks for career training, professional development, workshops and classes.  Through Snyder’s leadership, new programs in health care, manufacturing, and computer technology have been developed for adult students.  Partnerships with Southern State Community College and other colleges now provide students with the chance to earn college degrees along with industry certification, and more students have the chance to improve their lives through education and training.

The Award was presented to Snyder by Bill Ruth, now 91 years old, along with Great Oaks President/CEO Dr. Robin White at the 2013 Workforce Transformation Conference.

Snyder is the second Great Oaks associate to win the Bill Ruth Award.

On April 12, Rob Portman, United States Senator for Ohio, held a statewide summit concerning Ohio jobs and workforce development. More than 300 people participated in the summit including educators, employers and other stakeholders, representing 80 of Ohio's 88 counties. At the summit, participants discussed workforce development issues and ways to improve efficiency and work  with business and industry. One session talked about how to bridge the skills gap and the challenge of 400,000 Ohioans out of work with 100,000 positions open in Ohio. More than 200,000 employees were represented through the breakout panelists who attended this session.

Judy Wells, Superintendent of Apollo Career Center, participated in the opening discussion, which incuded representatives from business, industry, communnity college and four-year institutions.

Judy Well is pictured here with Sen. Portman during the panel discussion April 12.

Career-technical educators and Ohio ACTE leadership continues to advocate for adequate funding for career-technical education to serve students and businesses and contribute to Ohio’s economy and workforce.

As Ohio ACTE leadership, staff and Legislative Counsel, Terrence O’Donnell, Esq. meet with legislators and the Governor’s education policy staff, the message has been focused on three main objectives, which Ohio ACTE members and other career-technical educators are encouraged to use in their conversations with legislators:

1) Tiered Funding/Weighted Funding: Weighted funds represent the delta in cost differential between traditional education and career technical education. While a “tiered” system that awards different weights to different programs as in HB 59 may be workable, funding in the aggregate should be sustained.

2) Guarantees: As the state has signaled it would like to move away from funding guarantees, it is counter-intuitive that the budget bill would almost double the amount of JVSDs on a guarantee over the next two years. This could destabilize CTE budgets if and when the guarantees are removed.

3) Dedicated Funding and Associated Services: Career tech funding in the

comprehensive and compact districts should be provided per the “75/25 rule” and associated services funding should be dedicated as well so that funds meant to serve CTE are not diverted.

These principles were developed in collaboration with representatives of career-technical education groups through the Ohio ACTE Legislative Committee. 

Walker J. Huffman, 87, passed away on April 1, 2013. He was born on July 30, 1925 in Zanesville, OH to Walker A. and Mary Moore Huffman. From July 1943 until February 1946 he served in the United States Navy in World War II. After the war he went into the field of Public Education Administration. The Muskingum Area Vocational School District, present day Mid-East Career and Technological Center, was established by him in 1967. He also established the Muskingum Area Technical College, now Zane State College. He then served as both Superintendent of the vocational school and President of the college. He retired after 30 years of service. After retirement he went on to serve with the United States Department of Labor. With this department he worked with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the Vocational-Technical school consultant from 1981-1986. In these five years he created the Administrative Structure for the Kingdoms Vocational Schools. In 2008 the Ohio School Board Association awarded him with the “Advocate of Education” honor. He is survived by his five children, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

On March 29 the Ohio Board of Regents held officer elections for the next two terms. Elected were Vinny Gupta as Chair, Lana Moresky as Vice-Chair and Tim Burke as secretary.

According to Dr. Stephanie Davidson, Interim Chancellor of OBR, Gupta, Moresky and Burke did well as board members and demonstrated leadership and dedication. She is pleased that they can continue their work as officers and on issues affecting higher education.

Additional business at the meeting included the swearing-in of a newly appointed Regent, Tom Humphries. He replaces James M. Tuschman.

Clay High School, in Oregon, Ohio, was featured on the Toledo News for its brand new HAAS VF1 Vertical Milling Center that was unveiled on March 19.

VIsit the school's Web site for more inforamation.

On March 22, Ohio Lt. Governor Mary Taylor addressed attendees at the Ohio Career Technical Administrators Conference.    She said Industry and educators need to speak candidly and often together about the needs and resources to create a stronger workforce in Ohio.

Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor with Harold Niehaus (left), Miami Valley CTC and Dan Murphy, Massillon City Schools and Ohio ACTE Treasurer.

Among inroads Taylor cited are a recent collaborative with the insurance industry and 117,000 jobs created in the state since Governor John Kasich took office.  Among barriers to a healthier economy are: 1) the perception that all students must go to college to be successful; 2) lack of career education information in the earlier grades when parents are more actively engaged; 3) the negative image that career-technical education isn’t as good as a traditional high school education; and 4) competitiveness that hinders sharing for stronger inroads to workforce development. Ohio secondary career-tech leaders at the conference asked the Lt. Governor to consider reinforcing the message that apprenticeships are equal to college and that the branding should be preparing students for “careers” instead of “careers and college” to alleviate the double standard. Taylor also talked about the Common Sense Initiative (www.governor.ohio.gov/CSI).

Comment on this article on the Ohio Department of Education Office of Career-Technical Education Web site

Christine Gardner, Ohio ACTE Executive Director, was included as one of the “20 to Know in Education” published in the March 15 print issue of Columbus Business First. Those selected will also participate in a discussion on education.  The list and profiles can also be found online .

Others included on the list are:

Aimee Kennedy, Metro Early College High School

Ann E. Schiele, Mount Carmel College of Nursing

 Barbara Mattei-Smith, Office of Ohio Governor John Kasich

 Paolo DeMaria, Education First Consulting

 Michael Bowers, Columbus State Community College

 Dr. Christopher Washington, Franklin University

 Dr. Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, Ohio State University

 Katina Fullen, I Know I Can

 Lolita Augenstein, Columbus Council of PTAs

 Lois Carson, Columbus City Schools

 Andrew Boy, United Schools Network

John Mackenzie, Columbus Academy

Elizabeth Martinez, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio

James Lower, St. Charles Preparatory School

Sue Testaguzza, LifeCubby

Liza Lee, Columbus School for Girls

Mary Lou Langenhop, Children’s Hunger Alliance

Bob Boltz, Fahlgren Mortine

Suzanne Coleman-Tolbert, COWIC

A the March 5 meeeting of the Ohio House of Representatives Finance Subcommittee on K-12 Education, career-technical educators testified on behalf of CTE. 

Joyce Malainy, Superintendent at C-Tec and Chris Renn, Career Technical Director at Millstream Career Center testified regarding the proposed Stte budget.

Bassam Homsi, President and CEO of AUTOTOOL provided testimony that emphasized the importance of career-technical education to local business and manufacturing in finding skilled employees.

Read their complete testimony:

Bassam Homsi

Chris Renn

Joyce Malainy