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Tri Star Career Compact hosts the Fall Job Fair in September. More than 50 companies, all nine Tri Star school districts and the public attended the event.
Nine area school boards of education have been asked to approve a newly amended Tri Star agreement that officials believe better reflects the cooperative nature of the compact.
St. Marys City Schools Sperintendent Bill Ruane, president of a Tri Star subcommittee tasked with updating the agreement, last week gave an overview of the new governing accord to Celina school board members.
If approved, it would run from Feb. 1 to June 30, 2027.
At its heart, the amended agreement spells out the collaborative process in which decisions are made regarding the vocational education program founded in 1983. It also details the bonds issued to finance the $25 million, 101,170-square-foot, two-story Tri Star complex on State Route 703 that opened its doors to students in August 2019.
Superintendents and other stakeholders met regularly to draft a new agreement, Ruane said.
"It's been an ongoing process. We've been meeting and discussing it for probably a year, different ways that we can tweak it," Ruane said. "Some of it was brought on just by looking at issues and some changes that were made in 2019 when the buildings consolidated from having locations at St. Marys, Coldwater and Celina just to the new Tri Star building."
Students work on an assignment during a REC Tech class at Tri Star.
Area voters at a special election in August 2016 approved a 15-year, 0.95-mill bond levy to construct the facility. The state agreed to cover $8.31 million of the $25 million project with the levy funding the remaining $17 million.
"As a result of that, the agreement at the time, there were some unintended consequences that came along with it that nobody foresaw when we went from moving three (locations) to one," Ruane continued. "Because of that with the bond that we had for the Tri Star 2.0 building and also talking to the state auditors it was just kind of … encouraged that we go back and look at the agreement and make sure that it reflects the true intent of what the Tri Star Compact was when it was founded and it represents the voice of all nine schools."
Celina, Coldwater and St. Marys school districts formed Tri Star on March 31, 1983. Eventually Fort Recovery, Marion Local, Minster, New Bremen, New Knoxville and St. Henry also joined to make up the nine school districts in Tri Star today.
"So really the big three school districts were a lot of the decision making components and as the years went along all nine school districts have been playing an active role," Celina superintendent Ken Schmiesing said when asked about the new agreement. "I think maybe the biggest change, instead of having the three districts or having Celina making all the decisions, the decisions are going to be spread among all nine school districts which is really how that program is set up and meant to be run."
A 3D printer begins laying down filament during a Tri Star engineering class.
In February 2022, Tri Star Director Tim Buschur told Celina school board members that area school superintendents wanted a governing structure that would ensure equal representation of all compact members and decision making at Tri Star.
Some school officials felt in certain instances they didn't have input because the Celina school board, the fiscal agent, has final say on most decisions, Buschur had said.
The minutes from the December Tri Star Meeting appear to bolster that assessment.
"Based on the auditors' findings, the current Tri Star agreement needs to be adjusted because of bonding concern and one school imposing their will on the other eight schools," the minutes read. "Superintendents have hired legal counsel, an expert bonding agent lawyer, to help with the drafting of a new agreement."
Minutes from a joint meeting of area superintendents and treasurers on Dec. 22 at Tri Star state "the goal is to revise the agreement to reflect better the original agreement when the bonding agent based their decisions to sell bonds."
"Transparency is the number one goal of this revised agreement," another section of meeting minutes read. "Other issues discussed were calendar, staffing for both teachers and administration, and evaluation of staff."
The new agreement before boards of education states that the Tri Star Carer Compact shall be governed by a board of directors made up of superintendents from each school district.
A majority vote of present Tri Star board of directors (area superintendents) is required for any proposal to be recommended to area school boards of education.
A minimum of six affirmative votes among the nine school boards of education is necessary to alter the Tri Star Career Compact programs by adding or deleting a program, conduct a physical expansion of the facility or make an equipment purchase $15,000.
"Although the Board makes recommendations to the Boards of Education for the Tri Star School Districts, except for any decision explicitly mentioned in this Agreement, the Boards of Education have the ultimate authority regarding whether to accept or reject a Board recommendation," the document reads.
Tri Star engineering students draw designs using AutoCAD, a computer-aided design software that is used for 2D and 3D drafting.
