BUCYRUS — The Bucyrus Board of Education heard from representatives from both Mid-Ohio ESC and North Central Ohio ESC on Wednesday evening to hear what both companies have to offer.
The presentations come before the board makes its decision on which educational service center it is going to join for the next school year.
The representative from Mid-Ohio ESC addressed concerns that the board had, which led to its initial search of finding another ESC to join. The problems were curriculum and poor leadership.
Mid-Ohio is looking to solve these problems with new leadership, as current Bucyrus Superintendent Kevin Kimmel will be taking over as Mid-Ohio ESC’s superintendent.
As for curriculum, Mid-Ohio’s representatives said they are looking to communicate more with member schools and will run requested audits for them to help the center know where it stands and how and what it may improve on.
They also expressed their excitement with student internships they have coming up. On May 2, area seniors will be able to have an hour head start on visiting a job fair and filling out applications.
Mid-Ohio ESC also made it known that they will not sponsor charter schools, as they believe in public education.
North Central Ohio ESC also addressed curriculum, academic achievement, and gap closing.
They showed some of Bucyrus’ statistical numbers on how the district is doing overall, and they talked about different things that they offer that would help better Bucyrus, like running an audit to diagnose what needs fixed.
They also discussed special education, and they talked about the importance of hiring an appropriate special education staff and named different employees the ESC has for that.
North Central Ohio ESC also discussed how they hire people at the beginning of the calendar year by using information that the schools give them to hire people most suitable for the schools’ needs.
The board has not yet decided as to which ESC they will choose, but that decision should be announced soon.
Two other school boards made decisions this week as to which ESC to contract with as Northmor Local Schools and Galion City Schools both decided to stay with Mid-Ohio ESC after the hiring of Kimmel as superintendent.