HIGHLAND COUNTY ESTABLISHES WORKFORCE LEADERSHIP GROUP

Local government agencies in Highland County have formed a new collaborative group called the Highland County Workforce Leadership Council. The Council is made up of representatives from the following agencies: the Highland County Chamber of Commerce, the Highland County Community Action Org., the Highland County Economic Development office, Highland county public schools, the non-profit: Growing Rural Independence Together (GRIT), the Southern Ohio Educational Service Center, Southern State Community College and the Village of Greenfield.

The mission of the council is to coordinate and sustain efforts among Highland County schools, businesses and communities to build a stronger workforce by identifying and cultivating the strengths of individuals and aligning them to the needs of existing and emerging industries.

The Council has employed former Fairfield Local Schools Superintendent, Tim Dettwiller as the Director of their new program called A.C.C.E.S.S. The acronym ACCESS stands for the Alignment of Community Connections for Employer and Students Success. The ACCESS program will provide coordination amongst all the Council members and the services they provide. “Our vision is to position Highland County to have a healthy and relevant workforce ecosystem”, Dettwiller said.

“My initial focus as the ACCESS Director is to work with the businesses and school districts within the county to coordinate and support Career Readiness programs that feature Work Based Learning opportunities including internships”. School districts have had many versions of work experience opportunities for some students in the past. What makes this program different is it looks to provide a career readiness curriculum for all students driven by the input from our local businesses.

If you are a local business who would like to participate in the program either as a host for a student work based learning site, provide an internship opportunity or to join our speaker pool please email me at tdettwiller@southernohioesc.org.

In honor of attendance awareness month, SOESC celebrated Kimberly Douglas and Kelsey Smith on our social media platforms. Kimberly works as Highland County Attendance Officer, and Kelsey works as the Attendance Officer for Clinton County.

THANK YOU for all that you do for families and students! 💟

Southern Ohio ESC has created a partnership with Butler County ESC to provide Deaf/Hard of Hearing virtual services to support our students and the staff within our districts. We welcome back Heather Spychala, who has worked with our team in the past, and also Amber Webb. The rest of our team includes an in-region teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing to provide direct, in-person support, an audiologist, and interpreters.

Dear Team Members,

I hope that you are now back in the swing of your daily routines. I wanted to share that the SOESC Wilmington office and the Hopewell Center have had some physical upgrades and changes recently. After years of need the Hopewell building has some additional space for storage. The climate-controlled building has now passed all inspections and is being used to store equipment for the motor team. Many thanks to Jeff Royalty for seeing this project through and to the motor team volunteers who moved all of the equipment.

Southern Ohio ESC in Wilmington has recently gained additional space as the Animal Science Department of Laurel Oaks moved to the main campus. At this time, the area is under construction but will become offices for SOESC employees who are housed at the Wilmington office. I wish each of you a very happy and healthy school year.

Beth

Meeting Dates:

📌September 27th at 7:00 pm

📌October 25th at 7:00 pm

📌November 21st at 6:30 pm

📌December 13th at 6:00 pm

Board minutes can be found by visiting www.southernohioesc.org find the Administration tab then choose Governing Board. All approved board minutes will be there on the right side of the page for all to view.

Meeting Dates:

📌 October 11th

📌November 8th

📌January 31st

📌March 21st

📌April 18th

📌May 30th

Materials must be submitted to the LPDC no later than two weeks in advance of each scheduled meeting. Please submit all materials electronically to lpdc@southernohioesc.org.

Front Row: Rebecca Wise, Alexis Kirk, Trish Hutchinson, and Jessica Stanfield

Back Row: Kyle Lewis, Staci Hamilton, Jenni Howell, and Curt Bradshaw

Southern Ohio ESC - Region 14 Hopewell Center Team Members

• Request for business cards, social media submission, and booking space for meetings all can be made via forms linked on our website www.southernohioesc.org
• Please ensure all licenses and fingerprints are up to date for the 22-23 academic year
• Team members who are required to adhere to preschool guidance, your folders with requirements must be updated by the start date of the 2022-2023 academic year, for questions you may reach out to Megan Trowbridge (mtrowbridge@sst14.org)

• Director of Human Resources | Southern Ohio ESC
• Health Aide | Adams County Ohio Valley
• Paraprofessional |Southern Ohio Learning Center
• Student Monitor | Adams County Ohio Valley

If there is anything that you wish to see in the next SOESC Newsletter please email, media@southernohioesc.org

Email: treed@southernohioesc.org
Website: https://www.southernohioesc.org/
Location: 3321 Airborne Road, Wilmington, OH, USA
Phone: 937-382-6921
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthernOhioESC
Twitter: @SouthernOhioESC

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