A series of goodbye with some celebration highlighted the Portage Lakes Career Center December board meeting.
The board will have four new board members, as Randy Duncan of Manchester, Glenn Weiland of Springfield, Julie Mash of Springfield and Jay Dettorre of Green who will not return.
Superintendent James Brown presented Duncan (two years), Weiland (four years) and Mash (four years) who were in attendance with plaques for their service on the board.
With Mash, who has been the board president for the past year, not coming back, the board approved that Vice President David Andrews act as the President Pro-Tem through the election of officers at the 2010 organizational meeting on Jan. 14.
The meeting was the last day of school for Lynn Hahn-Wright, who is retiring as the Adult Education Director effective on Jan. 1.
Brown said Wright did what a person should do when they leave a job - leave it better than it was when she got there. Andrews gave Wright flowers and a card as a thank you.
“To end my career at the Portage Lakes was been an asset to me,” Wright said.
Kurt Raymond, teacher for the Visual Design and Imaging program, talking about national contests that his students entered in. Multiple entrants found success in the Engineering Education Service Center contest which originated in Oregon. Shelby First, of Springfield won the contest with her poster of the American Flag within a beacon. Joe Zeffer took third place, while Mikey Folden and Dru Britton were honorable mentions.
“They couldn’t believe these were from high school students,” Raymond said of how impressed the judges were.
Winning a different contest was Tierra Littlefield of Coventry, who entered a book cover contest and won that was well. The book has been published, which Raymond joked he was envious of since he has never been published.
“I’m really proud of all my students,” Raymond said.
Brown said the class currently has 40 students in its second year of existence, as all 20 students from last year came back and another group of 20 signed up this year, the maximum allowed.
With a quick construction update, Brown said things are back on schedule and he appreciated all the work the USR manager has done in terms of quality control, saying their hiring has been “proving invaluable.”
The students of the month were Matt Simmons of Green in the Visual Design and Imaging program and Brian VerDott of Coventry in the Careers in the Service Industries program.
The board also took time to thank Lori Coates for providing food each month for the board meetings along with the other work she does for PLCC.
The board approved the move of $293533 from the Building Replacement Fund 005 to the General Fund 001 for the on going costs of construction that were fronted at a previous date.
