11/4/13 East Holmes breakfast group talks school successes, future path

  • By Nick Sabo
  • October 31, 2013
  • 368
                        
SUMMARY: Schools look to business, religious community for answers Having settled its budget issues for the time being, the East Holmes School District is hoping to build a plan for the future through a series of monthly breakfast meetings with community business and religious leaders. The first such meeting was held Oct. 29 at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek. After hitting the breakfast buffet, administrators and school board members discussed the issues facing the district, mining each other’s ideas to get a better feel for what the community sees as the district’s strengths and where things could be done better. “Finances are always the elephant in the room,” Edinger said. “Everyone still thinks we’re doing levies, that we’re moving backwards to balance budgets. We’ve gone past that now.” District finances are expected to be stable through the end of the 2014 fiscal year, thanks to an unexpected increase in state funds, lower health insurance premiums and cuts in staffing. Treasurer Kelly Lester said the district will do well through the 2014 fiscal year. The 2015 budget will see a small deficit that should be easy to absorb, but after that, the future is uncertain. Myron Weaver, Berlin Mennonite pastor, said the district needs to speak to the community “away from the money” if they want to pass levies. “You need to tout the school,” Weaver said. “People will support the schools if they value what they get from it.” Nettie Troyer said the district puts its best foot forward when it represents students who only go as far as eighth grade as well as those who graduate from high school. Boardmember Eli Hochstetter noted that the business community appreciates the work ethic of the county labor force, but often need to give workers training on computers. The school offers computer training to eighth grade graduates free of charge, and the program currently has 40 people enrolled. Weaver said that type of program is the very thing that should be highlighted when talking levies. “My point being, the Amish who had someone go through that program, will vote for a levy,” Weaver said. Troyer said it is also important to teach good work skills. “I think our kids get the computer early in school, but we still need the workers,” Troyer said. “They also need to know how to work, to see what’s on the computer then be able to do it.” On the topic of better relations with the religious community, Weaver said making updated calendars of school events available would be a big help. Often, the church will schedule events unaware that a large school activity is going on. Boardmember Monika Zinck agreed that calendars should be available to the community. In Holmes County, Zinck said students involved in school activities tend to also be active in their churches. “Usually, you have a group of kids involved in the church, and you have a group of kids involved with school,” Zinck said. “Here, the kids who are leaders in the schools are also leaders in their church.” Roger Hipsley, a consultant who moved from Cleveland to Walnut Creek after retiring, said one of the district’s biggest strengths is the people. “I look at life down here and the people here are different,” Hipsley said. “The closer you get to the big population centers, you get problems. You don’t have the problems here with juvenile deliquency like in the bigger cities.” Troyer said the East Holmes schools are attractive to young people who might look at a private, parochial school. “My daughter had a fear that she might get sent to a private Christian school,” Troyer said. “I told her not to worry. This is a district where you can still live out your faith.” Edinger said he is looking forward to growing the group and expanding on conversations. “Hopefully this is a good thing to get started, something that will grow,” Edinger said.


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