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The winning class received a pizza party in exchange for their donations.  The Business Management class took daily tallies of all the programs and posted each program’s standing.  A program would earn 1 point for each penny donated.  The program generated a huge amount of competition and money, because one team could “give” another team negative points.

“This was accomplished”, explains Beth Johnston, ACATEC Business Management Instructor, “Because silver coins and paper dollars were considered “negative points” and if one team donated them, negative points were given to opposing programs, dropping them in the standings. 

The Allegan Area Educational Service Agency (AAESA) and Allegan County Economic Develop Team, in coordination with McKenna Associates and The Consortium for Community Development, held its first workshop to foster growth in the areas of 21st Century Skills and Economic Development. Hosted on April 21, 2009 at The Silo in Allegan, MI, over 70 business leaders and educators came together in two facilitated workshops to uncover crucial areas for expansion and progress throughout Allegan County.

The first workshop focused on what 21st Century Skills the leaders of tomorrow will need to be productive employees in Allegan County and beyond. Skills core to 21st Century Skills are: Life and Career, Learning and Innovation, Core Subjects and Information, Media and Technology.

“The event was an essential stepping stone in creating a smooth transition from being a student to an employee in Allegan County” explains Mark Dobias, AAESA Superintendent. “Equipping students with the skills they need and seeking wisdom from the businesses in the area is a win-win proposition.”

The Allegan AESA is underwriting an exciting initiative in all the area districts we serve. The initiative began this winter in Plainwell and Otsego school districts. The 5 x 5 program was the brainchild of Plainwell Community Schools Superintendent Sue Wakefield. “We wanted to encourage parents to help their children get ready for kindergarten by having these 5 important skills,” Superintendent Wakefield said.

“These skills can all be learned by playing games, singing songs, and working with their children with crayons, pencils, and paper.  The most critical part is that the parents and children are doing activities together,” explained Denny Patzer, Superintendent of the Otsego Public Schools.

The five skills identified for parents to help children acquire by the time they are five years old are:

1. How to say the alphabet
2. How to count objects up to 10
3. How to identify rhyming words
4. How to print their first name
5. Memorize their first and last name, their parents’ names, their address and phone number.

Information about the Five by Five Initiative will be available in all the school districts. Click here to download the flyer. 

To view the flyer you will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.  If you do not have one you can download it for free at Adobe's website.

The Social/Intellectual Committee of the Multi-Agency Collaborative Council (MACC), Allegan County United Way, Allegan Area Educational Service Agency (AAESA), and Martin Resource Center (MRC) are partnering to launch a county transportation pilot. 

The purpose for the pilot is to 1) discover way to effectively identify and tap the current transportation resources in our county and 2) to demonstrate the need to improve the existing transportation system in Allegan County. 

The committee researched how existing vehicles that provide transportation might be able to assist the Allegan County Transportation Service (ACT) in transporting people in need.  They quickly realized that the AAESA and  local school districts have buses on Allegan County roads Monday – Friday, and have “down times” between the delivery and pick up of their students.  Ultimately, working with the AAESA, the county educational agency that coordinates county-wide Special Education student transportation, the pilot project was launched and will offer a pilot transportation service between the MRC and the cities of Plainwell, Otsego, and Allegan.

The Allegan County Area Technical & Educational Center (ACATEC)  Auto Sales/Sales Business will  "open for business"  on March 17th 2008. The ACATEC Auto Sales/Sales business will have two student managers and student sales people and will be selling used cars that have been repaired and detailed by both ACATEC and Hillside students. Further, other student built projects from both the Construction Technology and Welding Classes will also be for sale. 

The mission of the Technical  Education Center is to prepare today’s students to be successful in the workforce of tomorrow. The Auto Sales Center is a great opportunity to prepare students for careers in sales and management. The money earned from all sales will support ACATEC student programs.