MOESC Board of Governors Meet
Launch the media gallery 1 playerThe Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center Board of Governors held their monthly meeting on April 21st. Among regular business, Lynn Meister, Director of Teaching and Learning, presented to the Board a briefing on her department.
Meister oversees and provides support for the Teaching and Learning Department, the Gifted Department, the Striving Readers Grant (a four-year project ending this year), the Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant (a four-year project ending in 2024), as well as district service in a number of areas and other Mid-Ohio projects. “It’s a privilege to work at Mid-Ohio ESC and serve with the talented personnel in each department,” said Meister. “Their expertise and commitment to the work is exceptional, and the work being done has truly made a difference for our client districts’ teachers, administrators, students, and parents.”
The Teaching and Learning Team provides customized service to districts in support of their school improvement efforts. Based on district goals and data analysis, the team’s experts provide “boots on the ground” high-quality professional development and ongoing support to raise teachers’ ability to implement an aligned curriculum with evidence-based practices. Designed to be timely and useful, the professional development has immediate application to the classroom.
Meister noted that areas of service include K – 12 Language Arts, K – 12 Mathematics, High-Quality Student Data, and many other topics as requested. All Teaching and Learning assistance is based on Ohio’s Learning Standards, the Science of Reading for ELA, and reflects ODE’s initiatives to ensure alignment to current laws and proven practices. She said the team is currently scheduling district services for the 2021 – 2022 school year.
Meister provided an update to the Board about each of the grants. She said the Striving Readers Grant, under the direction of Dena Kirby, has provided hundreds of professional books and teaching resources, as well as professional learning opportunities for teachers and administrators at Plymouth-Shiloh Local, Highland Local, and Buckeye Central, the participating districts. The Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant focuses on creating model literacy sites throughout Ohio – Mid-Ohio ESC is using the grant money to create sites at Plymouth-Shiloh Elementary School and Mansfield City’s Springmill STEM Elementary School.
During Meister’s presentation, Gifted Consultants Leanna Ferreira, Colleen Haynes, Leah Barger, Sherri Richter, and Jennifer Pennell were recognized for their outstanding work for Mid-Ohio’s districts. The Gifted Department has provided expert, personalized support to their districts, offering a wide variety of services to students, teachers, administrators, and parents, including creating and hosting numerous student events such as Academic Challenge, Spelling Bees, and Artapolooza. Meister praised their work in offering exceptional professional development in the area of gifted education through Google Classrooms, book studies, and district-level sessions, as well as assisting with testing to identify gifted students and support districts in serving identified students according to Ohio’s laws and ODE guidelines.
In response, the Board presented each of the Gifted Consultants a certificate of commendation recognizing them for their exemplary service and meeting the needs of the gifted and talented students in Mid-Ohio’s districts.