Mansfield’s Board of Education met for a regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21 and voted on specific personnel items, but first they heard a report from chairpersons Dawn Kitchen and Teana Sykes from the Springmill Learning Center Committee.
The Springmill Learning Center Committee has held regular meetings since June of 2014. The group is a result of the districtwide reduction in force earlier in the year. The reduction in force eliminated all teaching positions in the Springmill Learning Center.
The committee’s mission has been “to assure the maximum, most efficient and sustainable use of the Springmill Learning Center for the academic achievement of Mansfield City Schools students and the benefit of the region at large,” said an adopted statement.
The building, which opened as an elementary school in 1961, has been considered an asset to Mansfield City School and children from surrounding districts. It features various science and math galleries, a ropes course with climbing walls, and a bird study area. The center has also been the site of the Outdoor Education Program.
Dawn Kitchen, associate professor of anthropology at Ohio State University in Mansfield, said one of the group’s biggest accomplishments is its partnership with Ohio State University. The partnership specifically bonds the learning center with the university’s math literacy center.
“This partnership does a number of things. One of which, is providing content and an administrative expert who is a position shared by math literacy and Springmill,” said Kitchen. Within the partnership, she explained, the district has committed to pay for utilities and custodial maintenance, and the university’s math literacy center will provide staffing and consultation.
Kitchen also mentioned the partnership led to collaboration with The Ohio State Univeristy – Mansfield education students. The students developed curriculum that satisfies pedagogical methods of Common Core. In terms of how this was done, Kitchen said the students wrote hard copies of lesson plans that will remain in each gallery of the Springmill Learning Center.
Sykes, a Mansfield Senior High School and Ohio State graduate, shared the committee’s marketing plan. According to Sykes, marketing is a critical component to the center’s success for the long term. As the center’s curriculum develops, the committee hopes to develop the center’s revenue creating opportunities.
Sykes listed many ideas for creating revenue for the center, which in turn would benefit the school district. These include, ropes courses, summer camps, grant writing, and sponsorships of galleries. She explained that this would be done by developing social media sites and using digital media resources at Mansfield Senior High School to create advertisements that will be sent out to the whole region.
“It will be our goal to reach out to the region at large to get our names out there so it’s (Springmill Learning Center) a household name,” said Sykes.
Also part of the steering committee is Superintendent Brian Garverick; Renda Cline, president of the board of education; Terri Bucci, OSU-M associate professor of teaching and learning; MCS teacher Jennifer Plaisted; Bridget McDaniel, executive director of the Richland County Development Group; parents and local residents Kim Sanders and Joe Reed, and Cheryl Cronbaugh, director of education at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center.
The steering committee’s next meeting will be Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. in the Raemelton Administrative Building. The committee will continue to meet every third Wednesday of the month.
