Vantage BOE shifts funds for main building renovations

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Vantage Career Center Superintendent Rick Turner shared good news at Thursday night’s monthly meeting – the new Vantage Academy of Medical Careers has occupancy.

He noted the Adult Education Business Offices have started moving into the building, and the medical programs will move in November 17-18. High school medical programs are scheduled to begin moving December 21-22.

Board members are expected to take part in a walkthrough before the board’s December 3 meeting. A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for January 25, the same day as the Taste of Vantage and Open House.

The Vantage Academy of Medical Careers is in the former Thomas Edison building across the street from the main campus.

The focus now turns to renovation work at the main building on the Vantage campus and Turner said those renovations will begin sometime between October 15-20.

“Phase 1 will repurpose the current Adult Education offices to become the district office,” Turner explained. “Scheduled completion of this phase is the end of December. We hope to have the January or February board meeting in our newly renovated space. We will also plan a monthly Board of Education meeting to be held in our new Academy of Medical Careers once all of our programs are moved in.”

A transfer of $1.3 million from the general fund to the capital projects fund for the renovations was approved.

“The transfer amount includes the contract with the architect and some furnishings,” Treasurer Denise Mooney said before the vote. “We can only transfer money once from every fiscal year, so that dollar amount should be sufficient cover everything from now through July of 2027. If there are any leftover funds after both projects are complete in the capital projects fund, we can use that money for up to 10 years and if need be we can move it back to the general fund.”

Turner noted last week’s Vantage Day of Caring was very successful.

“Our staff and students worked hard to make our United Way donation drive a success, and it served as a great opportunity to reinforce to our students the value of giving back,” Turner said.

Turner and High School Director Ben Winans congratulated staff and students for achieving a 5-star rating on Vantage’s state school report card, with Winans calling it a group effort.

“I certainly want to thank our staff and students too for the hard work they put into that,” Winans said.

Turner told the board that Vantage issued 2,357 industry credential last school year, up substantially from 592 issued 10 years ago.

Three adult education instructors were hired on an as-needed basis:

• Lori Allen, assessment proctor
• William Starr, public safety instructor
• Amber Brown, nursing instructor

A pair of out-of-state travel requests were approved – one for carpentry instructor Jerry Robinson to visit MacAllister Rentals in Fort Wayne on Thursday, October 8, and the other for Adult Education Office Coordinator Kendra Sentelik to attend the FASFAA Clock Hour Workshop in St. Petersburg, Florida November 2-4.

A donation of 50 pounds of ground beef from Landeck Cattle Company (Julie Schroeder) was accepted on behalf of  the Culinary Arts Program. It was used for presentation at Canal Days in Delphos.

Before adjourning for the evening, the board went into executive session to discuss personnel matters.

The next meeting of the Vantage Career Center Board of Education will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, November 5, in the district conference room.