The Vantage Board of Education held their August Board meeting on Thursday, August 7, 2025 in
the District Conference Room. During the board meeting, Minutes from the June 26, 2025 regular board
meeting were approved along with financial statements for the month of June, 2025.
Superintendent Rick Turner welcomed the following guests to the meeting: Sam Shriver with The
Times Bulletin, and Mr. Benjamin Winans, High School Director.
Mr. Winans provided the 2024-2025 Cafeteria Yearly Report
Mr. Turner also spoke about and highlighted the following items at the meeting:
➢ The new school year is upon us, with staff and students returning next week. The maintenance and
custodial staff have done an excellent job preparing the facilities and everything is looking great.
Support staff have worked hard to prepare for a large group of students to begin August 14th. Our
high school administrative team has worked diligently to schedule each student into their
academic classes and career tech programs. Instructors are beginning to come in to prepare their
labs and classrooms. This will be an eventful year as we celebrate Vantage turning 50 years old
and we continue working on the new Vantage Academy of Medical Careers as well as to begin
utilizing our new fire training facility that has been in the works for several years.
➢ We had our administrative retreat this week and have identified Professional Development as our
overarching organizational goal for this year, with each department identifying the needs and
opportunities to help us grow professionally throughout the organization. Each department shared
their plan for meeting their needs and documenting the activities so we can review our efforts at
the end of the year. We will share that documentation of Professional Development activities with the Board of Education next summer so you will have reference of our efforts.
➢ We will have our ribbon cutting and live burn demonstration for our new fire training facility on
August 19th. Please join us if your schedule permits. The Van Wert Fire Department conducted live
burns in the facility on the day that American Fire Training Systems held a train-the-trainer event
for our instructors. Feedback on the facility was very positive and the technology used to monitor
the burns was impressive. This facility should allow departments in our area to train much more
conveniently and effectively for many years to come.
➢ A representative from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission will be here next week to take
pictures of our lighted CDL lot and fire training facility. The OFCC manages the finances for the CTE
Expansion grant awards and presumably wants to show legislators how their investments have
been utilized to expand capacity for training. Vantage has completed our CTE expansion project
one year early as the deadline to have the money spent and the project built is September of 2026.
Kudos to our Vantage team, both fiscal and operations, for making this happen so efficiently.
➢ Work progresses on the Vantage Academy of Medical Careers as we are in process to hire a
Construction Manager at Risk. Our goal is to have a recommendation to you for the September 4th
Board meeting. Hopefully, once a CMR is hired, actual work on the facility can begin soon after.
➢ A reminder to Board Members to join us for lunch at 12:30 p.m. in the Commons during our staff
pre-service day next Wednesday, August 13 if your schedule permits.
High School Director Benjamin Winans reported on the following:
➢ Enrollment: We are currently sitting at 574 students, just 306 incoming juniors and 268 returning
seniors. (compared to 576 students, 327 juniors and 249 seniors last year at this time). Outside of
these numbers, we also have offered roughly 30 students a ½ day (lab only) option and have 7
currently committed, 14 that have said no or it will not work for and are still waiting to hear from
the rest. This is a new option for us this year as academically we are at capacity, but a handful of
our labs still have spots open. Kudos to our high school admin team (specifically Tonya Temple)
for squeezing all these students in the courses they need in our schedule.
➢ Our orientation nights for new students are August 11 for the Trade and Industry Programs and
August 12 for the Business and Service Programs. We have again split each orientation session
into two groups to better accommodate the larger numbers we are seeing. All students have
received a letter outlining their orientation evening and also will receive a call from student
services to follow up this week.
➢ Staff will return to the building on August 13 for our annual in-service/work day. We will have a
presentation for the United Way, general internal updates and Cornerstone of Hope will be here to
provide our staff with a professional development training on being Courageous Leaders and
assisting students with Handling Hard Things. We had several moves this summer in regard to
staffing but feel confident we will be ready to begin the school year. Our new lead teacher, Katie
Drerup, has been working closely with new staff to orient them to our building and processes. We
look forward to seeing our new staff and veteran staff members return to the building soon. Mr. Winans also reported the following upcoming events:
➢ Monday, August 11 – Trade and Industry Orientation for new students and parents
➢ Tuesday, August 12 – Business and Service Orientation for new students and parents
➢ Wednesday, August 13 – Staff Workday and Professional Development
➢ Thursday, August 14 – First day of school (All students)
Adult Education report provided by Superintendent, Rick Turner:
➢ Fire Charter
○ VCC’s Fire Charter
■ Fire Charter renewal through 7/22/2028
➢ CDL
○ In discussion with Buckeye Hills to partner with them for a CDL Training Manager
○ Hartsel Bryant had a successful visit with them to review their campus
➢ Customized Training
○ Recent Classes
■ Blueprint Reading
■ Fork Truck Safety
○ Current
■ Welding and AWS Certifications
■ FANUC Handling Tool Operations and Programming
■ Fork Truck Safety
■ Benchwork
○ Future
■ Train-the-Trainer for Internal Trainers
■ CNC Operations
■ Principles of Machining I and II
○ In Development
■ Supervisor Training
■ Leadership Training
➢ Police Academy
○ 2025 Police Academy
■ Begins 8/19/25
■ 10 students have been accepted, 1 is pending In new business, the Board:
➢ Employed a list of certified and a list of classified personnel
➢ Approved stipends for cafeteria manager duties, mentoring, and College Credit Plus incentives
➢ Approved hourly rates for transition training
➢ Approved one column movement on the teacher salary schedule
➢ Employed a list of Adult Education instructors
➢ Approved two contract corrections
➢ Approved the Practical Nursing Handbook
➢ Appointed an OSBA Capital Conference delegate (Lonnie Nedderman) and alternate (Tim
Fitzpatrick)
➢ Approved the Vantage and Western Buckeye substitute lists
➢ Approved the Vantage Bus and Van drivers list
➢ Accepted bids from Nickles Bakery and Schenkels Dairy
➢ Approved lunch prices for 2025-2026 school year
➢ Rescinded mentor stipend amounts approved at the June/July meetings and replaced them with
the current collective bargaining agreement amounts
➢ Approved a MOU with Apollo Career Center
➢ Approved the revised cell phone/electronic device portion of the Student Handbook for 2025-2026
➢ Approved two out-of-state and overnight travel requests
➢ Accepted five resignations
➢ Approved an addendum to an administrator contract
➢ Approved three additional days for a new employee at the per diem rate
➢ Accepted a quote to put in the basement on our spec house in Latty
Outside of Consent Agenda Items
➢ Approved incentive payments for College Credit Plus courses
Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22(G)(1), the Superintendent hereby requests that the Board
adjourn to executive session for the purpose of considering personnel matters of the school district.
Adjournment -at the call of the President and at the pleasure of the Vantage Career Center Board of
Education
Next meeting – Thursday, September 4, 2025
New Staff Meet and Greet at 6:00 p.m. in the Cup & Saucer
Board of Education Meeting at 6:30 p.m.
In District Conference Room
Regular Board Meeting
