Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools Bi-Weekly Newsletter

District Bi-weekly Newsletter | February 9. 2023 | Volume 3, Issue 15

Students work together to complete a project that was a part of the Eastland Career Center's Focus Friday program list.

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Dr. Kim Miller's Blog

Dr. Kimberly Pietsch Miller is the superintendent and CEO of Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools.

State of the Schools

One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. In it, the narrator is on a journey, and he stops his horse at the edge of a forest to watch the snow fall for a bit. The horse pulls him from his reflection with a shake of harness bells, and the narrator continues his journey remembering, “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”I often think of this poem at the mid-points of a journey or a project. It reminds me that taking some time to reflect before moving forward is not only restful but beneficial in refocusing on the task or goals at hand.

In that same spirit, this is a good time in the school year for us to reflect on the progress that our district has made toward our strategic plan. The Board of Education adopted our strategic plan in January 2022. This past August, I presented the Board of Education with an updated plan for 22-23. The plan retains the four original pillars, overall goals, and key objectives. But we refined and updated the key strategies specific to 22-23 and either deleted or added objectives based upon our progress last year and in consideration of our current context. At the January 11th Board of Education meeting, I provided a detailed review of our progress thus far this year and would like to share the same information with all of our stakeholders.

Read the State of the Schools blog

Apply for the 23-24 school year

The priority application period ends on Friday, February 10th. Be sure to submit your student's application before the weekend!

APPLY TODAY!

Celebrate CTE Month!

February is CTE Month, where we celebrate what a career-tech education can do for students. Follow us on social media or click here for fun facts on CTE students!

Schedule your Family Tour!

If you'd like a personalized tour of EFCTS or a program for your student or family, you can schedule one now! Click here to SCHEDULE YOUR TOUR TODAY!

Career Tech Thursdays are BACK!

Interested students can spend a half-day immersing themselves in programs of interest to them! MORE INFORMATION/SIGN UP!

February is CTE Month

CTE is on the Rise. Let's shine a light on the accomplishments of the 127,000+ high school students in Ohio who chose to pursue career-technical education at one of 99 career centers. These students are the future workforce, and CTE is crucial for preparing them for a variety of paths - college, career, enlistment and entrepreneurship.

Every Monday is February and throughout each week, we'll present information and fun facts about why career-technical education is so amazing! Follow us on our social media channels and visit our website as we celebrate CTE, its students, staff, and why it is On the Rise!

CTE is On the Rise!

Around Eastland-Fairfield

Eight DECA students will represent at States

The DECA district competition was held at the Fairfield County Workforce Center where more than 140 students from five schools gathers on January 24, 2023. Eight students from the Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools Marketing & Logistics program will be competing at the DECA Ohio state conference following their strong performances at a recent district competition. Below is a complete list of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-place finishers.

First place

Eva Walton (Jr., Groveport Madison), Principles of Marketing *

Kevin Inguil (Sr., Whitehall Yearling), Accounting Applications *

Kristian Dougherty (Jr., Groveport Madison), Automotive Service *

Second place

Neiko McDougal and Trinity Tinney (Jrs., Groveport Madison), Hospitality Team *

Richie Saelim (Jr., Groveport Madison), Principles of Finance *

Jonya Russell (Sr., Groveport Madison), Retail Merchandising *

Landon Sexton (Jr., Pickerington Central), Apparel and Accessories *

Third place

Kyger Weston (Jr., Groveport Madison), Principles of Marketing

Elliot Phillips (Jr., Groveport Madison), Principles of Hospitality

Nana Aboagye and Aminata Sow-Mamoudou (Srs., Groveport Madison), Marketing Management Team

* indicates that student advanced to the DECA state competition

Read more!

Going Up! Habitat Home Sees Progress

In November, a massive four-year project began with the first of four houses to be built by EFCTS Construction students over the next four years, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Southeast Ohio. That project is seeing incredible progress while students from multiple programs gain invaluable experience.

Construction instructor Troy Dennison shared that the students have made fantastic progress and have learned a lot about site prep, framing, flooring, and working together as a team. While the winter months do slow operations down with weather restraints, the students are still on pace to finish their contribution of the home before the end of the school year. The goal is to have more than 75% of the home built before it is then transported to its permanent residence in Lancaster.

Check out the progress our students are making and watch one the home's walls go up!

The EFCTS Welding program helped construct the I-beams for the project!

The floor foundation is in!

One wall up, 3 to go!

Click here to watch the wall go up!

EFCTS Presents, Focus Fridays! (Part 1)

At Eastland-Fairfield, we believe in educating and growing the WHOLE student. We value the traditional academic courses and the specialized skills they learn in their labs, but in what other ways can our young people develop? Focus Fridays is an initiative that has grown from within our campuses, driven by the passion of preparing our students in other areas of interest or need. The programming is unique between the Eastland and Fairfield campuses, and held one Friday each month (when possible).

Last week, we strolled through the halls of Eastland Career Center where students got the chance to participate in a variety of offerings. ECC staff held sessions regarding basic life knowledge around finances and tax preparation. Our friends from Huntington Bank hosted a session in which students were given a hypothetical life scenario and were asked to create a budget, and some learned the big difference between wants and needs. To celebrate Black History Month, the social studies department held class conversations and shared research about important Black people and their contributions to our society, all to create a building-wide presentation to share with the school. The Diversity Alliance student group gathered and its numbers grew throughout the day as they worked to spread messages of hope and joy around the campus through art. The options were plentiful for students on this alternative learning day.

Social Studies teacher, Mr. Rollins, leads a Black History Month celebration session, exploring lesser-known, but equally important, Black people that made important societal contributions.

Students that attended the Diversity Alliance session worked on pieces of art that will be displayed and send messages of hope, joy, and representation.

Students from various labs work together to build a person budget as part of a life-skills activity put on by Huntington Bank.

In our next newsletter, we'll share what FCC students took away on their Focus Friday that is being held on February 10th. Be sure to check out what opportunities for growth we walked in on!

Program Spotlight: Interactive Media

Gavin D. (Liberty Union, left) and Danna R. (Groveport Madison, right) show how to properly administer an intravenous blood draw in their Pre-Nursing lab.

In a world where technology is both everywhere and constantly evolving, the skills and knowledge learned in the Interactive Media program are useful for the student that knows exactly what they want to do looking forward, the student that is unsure, or the student that wants to do it all! In our most recent visit to the Interactive Media lab at Eastland Career Center, we found the junior class hard at work on individual and group projects that mixed different skill sets and promoted a true team atmosphere.

Instructor Mr. Jeff Crowell first introduced us to a squad that placed runner-up in their recent BPA local competition. The team was given a theme and asked to tell a short, animated story around it. The theme was Deserted Island and the foursome of Jacob C. (Hamilton Twp.), Jerry A. (Pickerington North), Dayanara C. (Groveport Madison), and Ethan C. (Canal Winchester) ran with the idea of creating a scene in which the four of them woke up and were stranded, alone, on a tropical island.

Jacob (Hamilton Twp.) carefully analyzes the camera angles for the scene that he is creating for his team's project.

First, the team needed to draw up a storyboard, or what would be used to outline the story of their animation. Dayanara took the lead and drew up the who, when, where, why, and how before moving on to creating their animated world. Ethan took the lead on building the model background, essentially the island map. Jacob's specialty was building specific characters and items that were on the island, as well as setting up the camera angles used to tell the story. All four students played a role in building out the bodies, trees, rocks, and all of the other elements that make up the story. They even sourced some outside help from classmates to be voice actors!

The group said that there is still much work that needs to be done before the BPA state conference, where they will take their finished story and compete against other media teams from around Ohio, but is confident that the story on screen and the story of their 3-D animating experience will have a happy ending!

Dayanara (Groveport Madison) zooms out to see the entire 3-D world that she and her team have come together to create.

On the other side of the room, another story was being told through the art of film. The trio of Truth B. (Canal Winchester), Jerry S. (Groveport Madison), and Brooklynn C. (Groveport Madison) were working on a class project in which they were asked to select a single photo, build a story around it, then tell that story through film. The group came up with a tale of a group who is concerned over a friend that appears possessed or concussed and wandered into the audio studio. The team tinkered with their roles, the script, and camera angles but their passion was felt through each discussion and when "Director Jerry" said ACTION!

While some scenes still need to be captured, the group is excited to begin editing and soon showcase its finished work.

Truth (Canal Winchester) and Jerry S. (Groveport Madison) record a first-person scene for their upcoming class film project.

Interactive Media program is a two-year high school program designed to educate students on the principles of video and audio production, special effects, and animation in order to create professional videos and media works.

Applications to enroll in the Interactive Media, or any of EFCTS's 30+ programs, remain open for the 2023-24 school year. The priority application period ends on February 10. Apply today!

Learn more about Interactive Media

National School Counseling Week

Thank you to our school counselors!

The week of February 6-10 marked a nationwide celebration for National School Counselor Week. We'd like to take the opportunity to thank our school counselors for being there for our students in whatever manner they need. Thank you!

Mr. Brad Philhower, FCC (top left)

Mrs. Kendra Thompson, FCC (top right)

Mrs. Ashley Ferraro, ECC (bottom left)

Mr. Phillip Miller, ECC (bottom right)