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Fremont City officials review $1.4 million summer program as grant ends
Summary
Assistant director Anthony Walker told the school board the two‑year, roughly $1.4 million summer and school‑year career program gave 80–100 students hands‑on vocational experiences (bike builds, robotics, drone training, PC builds) but the COVID‑era funding has ended and staff will seek new grants to continue services.
Anthony Walker, the assistant director of college and career readiness for Fremont City Schools, told the board the district’s two‑year summer and school‑year career program "was worth about $1,400,000," and provided students with a range of hands‑on experiences designed to help them enter the workforce or further training.
Walker said the program combined credit‑recovery supports with vocational experiential learning. "Each kid in this program was able to build their own PC computer and take it home," he said, and students also completed bike‑build projects, robotics, computer‑aided design and 3‑D printing, and earned CPR certification. Participants toured local employers and training sites — including Bass Pro, the University of Akron, Habitat for Humanity and the Fremont Water Quality Lab — and were offered internships or work‑entry guidance from employer partners.
The district piloted an eighth‑grade engineering program that enrolled 15 students and included drone operation training and a bike‑build; Walker said the class was limited to 15 to keep the project manageable. Participation in the broader program varied across strands, he said: 15–25 students were regularly active in summer vocational offerings, credit‑recovery served roughly 30–40 students when in session, and the program engaged an estimated 80–100 students over the full grant period.
Board members pressed Walker about whether the funding could be renewed. Walker said the specific larger COVID‑era pot that made the two‑year program possible "will not be renewed." The superintendent added the district applied last year with its partner GLCAP for a 21st Century grant for fiscal 2025 but was not awarded that funding.
Superintendent (unnamed in the record) and board members praised the program’s reach. Board members noted workforce exposure — from construction skills and auto detailing to forensics and veterinary care — and thanked partners including Vanguard, GLCAP and local employers. The superintendent said the district will continue seeking grant opportunities and explore scaled alternatives if the full program cannot be sustained at prior funding levels.
No formal board action was required on the presentation. The board’s next steps are to continue pursuing grant funding, evaluate scaled program options and review partner contributions at future meetings.
