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Utica Shale Academy obtains $2.35M grant for expansion efforts

The Utica Shale Academy received a $2.35 million grant through the Ohio Department of Development’s Governor’s Office of Appalachia to construct a new building along East Main Street in Salineville. Work is expected to get underway over the next three months and it will be the third USA site to offer programming for at-risk students and the community, the latter in partnership with the Sustainability Opportunity Development (SOD) Center in Salem and Youngstown State University. Pictured are, from left, Matt Gates, lead career-tech instructor at USA; Julie Needs, executive director of the SOD Center; R.B. Mehno, grant coordinator at USA; Eva Slagle, training coordinator at the SOD Center; Laura Krulik, special education coordinator for USA and Southern Local Schools; Greg Sabbato, treasurer for Southern Local Schools and chairman of the USA management team; Tom Cunningham, superintendent of Southern Local Schools; Carter Hill, dean at USA; and Bill Watson, USA superintendent.)

SALINEVILLE — The Utica Shale Academy has obtained an estimated $2.35 million grant which will help further plans to expand its facilities in Salineville.

Superintendent Bill Watson said a total $2,356,417 was received through the Ohio Department of Development’s Governor’s Office of Appalachia as part of the Appalachia Community Grant Program and will go towards building a $4.8 million, two-story building along East Main Street. The site, which is located adjacent to the original community school in the Hutson Building at 70 E. Main St., will include nearly 5,100 square feet of space for offices, classrooms, machinery, lockers and restrooms for students working with heavy equipment operation and CNC plasma cutting. An older building was razed to make room for the structure while a separate 2,800-square-foot outdoor welding lab is undergoing work.

USA leaders learned of the grant on March 20 and plans are to have construction underway very soon.

“Part of the project needed to be shovel ready within 90 days,” Watson added. “We already razed an older building on the property and were meeting with the architect to put it out for bid. We’re hoping to have everything submitted to the state so it can be bid out in five or six weeks and break ground within three months.”

He also praised the USA team including Dean Carter Hill and grant coordinator R.B. Mehno, saying it was a joint effort to set the plan in motion. The expansion is part of the Connecting Communities through Workforce Training project to reduce the barrier of transportation and increase accessibility to quality workforce training for residents in Columbiana, Carroll, Jefferson and Mahoning counties. Officials said the project will have a transformational impact on the region by providing residents with a career pathway and an opportunity to earn a sustainable living wage, plus it also looks to eliminate generational poverty in the area.

Watson said USA was able to leverage nearly half the costs with two $600,000 equity grants and Emergency Elementary and Secondary School Relief (ESSER) funding. The construction project is the latest effort to expand following the acquisition of the former Huntington Bank property just a stone’s throw from the Hutson Building. That facility was purchased last year at 50 E. Main St. and serves as the Energy Center in collaboration with Youngstown State University, housing megatronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, AC/DC electric, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s), diesel mechanics and horticulture. Meanwhile, the Hutson Building incorporates general classrooms and Virtual Learning Academy (VLA) programming through the Jefferson County Educational Service Center while the new sites will focus on career-tech education.

USA is a dropout recovery-and-retention school focusing on career-tech education for at-risk students, and benefits of having the new facility will allow it to grow and include heavy equipment certificates. It also aids the community through partnerships with the Sustainable Opportunity Development (SOD) Center in Salem and Youngstown State University, and the grant further allows for the expansion of current services at the SOD Center with an equipped technical training area. Officials said those additions were greatly needed in order to meet demand since the SOD Center works extensively with local and regional businesses to reskill and upskill employees. The project would provide additional equipment and personnel to allow increased training opportunities for companies in the region.

“Both the SOD Center and USA have a rich history of working with companies to retain and employ participants. The SOD Center partners with companies to train their current employees, while the USA partners with industries that hire current students and graduates. There is tremendous support from companies involved with SOD and USA that remain committed to hiring participants from this project. YSU also partners with USA and the SOD Center to provide training for in-demand jobs. In fact, these three entities share equipment, instructors and facilities,” Watson added.

USA’s at-risk students have earned more than 1,100 certifications since 2021 with about 40 graduates placed in work experiences over the past three years. To its credit, the SOD Center has served 85 companies and 2,008 participants with 10,663 training hours provided. Additionally, SOD and YSU satellite data indicated further participation at the USA location in 3-D printing, 5G and job readiness courses. More plans include providing potential recovery-to-work efforts to help recovering drug addicts, people with chronic health issues or facing legal challenges, and adult education classes would be open to residents within the four-county region to help them find new opportunities in the workforce. Leaders said the expansion will revitalize Main Street in downtown Salineville and increase the industrial training footprint in Salem.

Meanwhile, USA has partnered with the Mahoning County Pathways HUB to hire community health workers, or CHW’s, who use evidence-based strategies to obtain health services for students and their families. The Connecting Communities through Workforce Training project is a transformational change that will reduce regional poverty and improve the regional standard of living.

USA is currently in its eighth year and serves 110 students in grades 9-12 through blended learning and hands-on education to prepare them for the workforce. For more information, contact 330-932-9997 or go online to www.uticashaleschool.com.

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