Vantage welcomes new adult ed. director

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Vantage Career Center Board of Education welcomed new Ohio Technical Center Director Missy McClurg to her first board meeting and also heard an update from Training Manager Jim Rosen on Vantage’s CDL truck driving program during its August meeting.

Rosen said the program recently had its annual state audit, with no deficiencies noted by auditors. He also noted that vehicles will be inspected as well in the next three weeks.

The program manager said auditors were impressed that Vantage is also training high school students as part of the program, as well as through the adult program.

“They thought it was really neat that we were training the 18-year-olds,” Rosen said, while also noting that, with the low unemployment in the area, the main problem was getting enough students to apply and making sure Vantage had enough equipment to train them.

Rosen noted that Vantage could use some additional equipment. With only two trucks, each of which can train only two students at a time, the program is limited to how many people they can train at a time.

“When one breaks down, we’ve got a problem,” he said, noting that additional equipment would be helpful.

“Obviously, we have to have viable equipment,” he added, suggesting that Vantage invest in some newer equipment to maintain competitiveness with other area CDL programs.

“It is an asset that will maintain most of its value for quite a while,” he said, noting that Vantage should also consider purchasing trucks with automatic transmissions, since the industry is trending that way because of more non-traditional employees who didn’t grow up driving manual transmission vehicles.

Rosen noted that a number of local companies have been coming to Vantage seeking drivers, which there have not been that many of, because of the current low unemployment.

“They’re always struggling for drivers, and they’re saying, ‘hey, give us some students’,” Rosen said, while noting that he then suggested companies hire people who don’t have CDLs and send them to Vantage with their equipment for training. Some companies are also adding tuition reimbursement into their benefit packages to help potential drivers pay for CDL training.

During his report, Superintendent Rick Turner noted that Vantage staff will be back in the building in about two weeks to prepare for the start of school.

High School Director Tony Unverferth said Vantage is seeing an enrollment increase of approximately 20 students at this point.

“It really is a good number to be at,” he added.

Unverferth also said Vantage has set three goals for the coming year: to maintain 95 percent attendance, to have a graduation rate of well over 95 percent, and to establish a safety team for the school that would not only look at safety from potential shooting incidents, but from tornadoes, fires, and other natural disasters as well.

“Anything you can think of to make our school safer,” Unverferth said. “We want to make sure we have a team in place that talks about it at least every quarter.”

McClurg also gave her first report to the board, updating board members on the new LPN program and other OTC programs. She also noted that all of the Police Academy graduates passed their exams, and announced that Van Wert Police Sergeant Rob Black has replaced longtime Police Academy commander Bruce Showalter in that position.

In other action, the board:

Hired Mickey McConahay as a part-time guidance counselor and Reesa Rohrs as high school STNA coordinator.

Hired Black, Showalter, and Mark Figert as Police Academy instructors; Patti Rodman and Karen McGilton as Medical Assistant instructors; Tiffany Schnipke as evening secretary; and Melanie Banks as Practical Nursing clinical instructor.

Authorized three additional days of payment to Gary Cearns, Career Technical Education welding instructor.

Recognized Health Technology instructors Leigh Carey and Wendy Baumle as emergency first aid providers for the school, and approved Baumle as a van driver as well.

Approved Community Reinvestment Area agreements with the Village of Continental and Kalida Truck Equipment Inc.

The next meeting of the Vantage Career Center Board of Education will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 6, in the district conference room.