State Board President Spends Day In District
Ohio Board of Education President Tess Elshoff is greeted by Lakewood High students.
Lakewood has always been proud of its public school system and on September 15, the District was able to show off just why the community has supported it so strongly over the years when Ohio Board of Education President Tess Elshoff spent the day experiencing the Lakewood Way.
Elshoff, who hails from New Knoxville in southwest Ohio, saw first-hand the students, staff and programs that make our District the special place of which we are so proud! With stops at Lakewood High, Harrison Elementary and Garfield Middle School, she enjoyed the true flavor of our schools and all the District has to offer.
Elshoff began her day at Lakewood High School where students greeted her upon arrival and shared with her the various programs and extracurriculars they take part in, giving her a sense of the tremendous opportunities available to our high school students to enrich their learning. She then took a tour of our state-of-the-art high school and often remarked on the resources available to Lakewood Schools' students versus what students in her small, rural school district experience.
A lunch in the Ranger Café followed. Before moving on to see other parts of the District, Elshoff enjoyed a chance to get hands-on with the West Shore Career-Tech Culinary Arts students. Little did she know that dessert-making was on the itinerary!
Next stop was Harrison Elementary School, where Elshoff learned about Harrison’s robust Career Day and the effort to expose Harrison students to the breadth of careers to which they can aspire. The presentation was handled with aplomb by the Harrison News Crew and the school’s student ambassadors. She also had fun interacting with our preschoolers at Harrison and learned that our District has preschool classrooms at all of our elementary schools.
Final stop of the day was Garfield Middle School. There, Elshoff learned about the 19 different languages students at Garfield speak. In Patty Mews’ English Learners classroom, each of the students greeted Elshoff in his or her native tongue as part of a Welcome Circle. Many were wearing traditional dress from their homelands of Nepal, Pakistan, Russia and Thailand, among others.
A lot of ground was covered and only scratched the surface of all that makes Lakewood City Schools special, yet all in all, it was an engaging and inspiring day!