The new home for North Central Ohio Educational Service Center is just about ready.
NCOESC relocated to the former Kroger building at 928 W. Market St., Tiffin, after outgrowing its office at 65 St. Francis Ave.
Officials are planning an open house at the new facility 5-7 p.m. Tuesday. A ribbon-cutting with Tiffin Area Chamber of Commerce is planned for 5:45 p.m.
Article Photos
PHOTOS BY JILL GOSCHE
North Central Ohio Educational Service Center is located at the former Kroger building at 928 W. Market St., Tiffin.
Kelly Hohman, NCOESC's marketing director, said officials are expecting about 300 people to attend.
"We hope that we have a lot of people out here. ... We want to be an integral part of the community," she said.
Superintendent Jim Lahoski said the cost of the project was about $3.8 million, and NCOESC purchased the property from Clouse Construction Corp.
"We used so many local vendors," he said.
Hohman said officials started moving the third week of May, and it has been an ongoing process throughout the summer. NCOESC brought its Fremont office and its Fremont campus of North Central Academy to Tiffin.
"We merged our Fremont campus here," she said.
The building features a copy/mailroom, a staff break room, a technology conference room, a technology work room, offices, a room for background checks and conference rooms. The building's upper floor is to be used for records storage.
There is a patio on the west side of the building, and Hohman said officials are going to put picnic tables there for employees to use.
Hohman said the conference room near the front lobby is going to be available to the public for people to host meetings.
The conference room has movable walls inside of it. They can be pulled back to make one large room or can be pulled out to make two or three separate rooms. The three conference rooms each have a kitchenette.
"You don't have to interrupt everybody," Hohman said.
Two officials working with Race to the Top, a federal program bringing money for education to Ohio, are housed at the new building.
Ralph Moore, a Race to the Top regional specialist, said a third person is to be added to the office later, and the trio is to work with schools that were awarded Race to the Top grants. Moore said the officials will be a support system for the schools and will help them work through their school improvement plan.
"We're settled in," he said.
North Central Academy, which is to start classes Sept. 7, is housed on the east side of the building and has 10 classrooms.
"Every room will have (some sort of technology)," Hohman said.
Hohman said lessons in North Central Academy are individually based, and every student must meet state requirements to graduate. Two years ago, the academy had 17 graduates, a number that doubled this year.
"We hope that that number continues to increase," she said.
