Northern Medina County superintendents give update on respective districts

MEDINA — Medina County superintendents shared achievements within their districts and some concerns for the future of school funding during a state of the schools event on Wednesday. The event was hosted by the Northern Medina County Chamber Alliance and was held at the Medina County Career Center's Center Café. Career Center Superintendent Steve Chrisman said an 18,000-square-foot facility was previously built on the east side of the school's property, which allowed the capacity for the construction trades program to double. Then, in the next month, the Career Center will go out to bid for another 18,000-square-foot facility to move all construction academy programs to that side of campus. "The other thing that we are going to do is bring back welding," he said. "We had 41 students say they would have taken welding had it been offered, so we're going to continue to expand in that capacity." The career center also now has a 30-year lease for the Medina County University Center, Chrisman said. The building is occupied by the career center's adult education programs and the Medina County Sheriff's Office. "It allowed us 10 percent more physical space in our current building when we moved all of that adult education programming out there," he said. "We were able to start an allied health (program). We have allied health prenursing, 50 students, and allied health medical assisting, another 25." Construction is also going on at Brunswick Schools. Brunswick Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said it is an $150 million master facility plan, and the main component, the new high school, is currently on time and on budget to open in August 2027. "To date, we've laid over 255,000 blocks of brick," he said. "The total project calls for about 430,000 blocks of brick. It has been an amazing experience to work with architects, engineers and construction folks." College and career readiness labs have also been implemented for eighth graders at Brunswick Middle School this school year, Niedermeyer said. Students will get to experience modules based on topics like home maintenance fundamentals, computer graphics, cosmetology, nursing, veterinary medicine and welding basics. "There's a correlation between the modules they're experiencing and the opportunities that they have here at the Career Center," he said. "We're trying to inspire them early, so that they have a plan." Buckeye is currently moving forward with an initiative to self-fund a new Buckeye High School and move junior high students into the current high school. Buckeye Superintendent Jeff Stanton said the plan aims to improve the district's facilities without adding pressure on taxpayers. "This plan is only possible due to great fiscal leadership by our treasurer, a long history of conservative budgeting and a forward-thinking board of education," he said. Niedermeyer and Stanton also expressed concerns regarding potential changes in financing at the state level for Ohio's public schools. They both said they are not against property tax reform, but they want it to be done in a way that does not hurt public education. "We've been willing to have dialogue with (elected officials), to work together with plans to not only benefit the community but hopefully not impact the public schools," Stanton said. "I am a very hopeful person by nature. I hope elected officials realize that making decisions that negatively impact public schools impacts over 85 percent of students who attend schools in our state." Highland Director of Curriculum Laurie Boedicker ended the state of the schools event by describing how the district updates its curriculum. Curriculum is revisited every seven years, and this year's focus at Highland is language arts. The district conducts a "needs assessment" to determine what skills students should learn like reading and writing in cursive and crafting an argument, she said. A rubric is then developed listing what the district needs and wants, and Highland will look at the approved vendor list for textbooks from the state. "We make sure that we are able to differentiate for all learners," Boedicker said. "We will actually pull samples of those materials in, and we will use them with the students to gather feedback." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.