Penta Career Center board meeting agenda included gourmet delights prepared by students

Logan Maenle and Becca Brouwer, juniors in the Culinary Arts program at Penta, prepared appetizers for members of the Penta Board of Education prior to the Board's monthly meeting. Logan prepared the carved beef with horseradish sauce and Becca prepared the polenta cakes. PENTA/MONICA DANSACK Enlarge

Members of the Penta Career Center Board of Education attended to such matters as a property easement for sewer work on Bates Road with full bellies Wednesday, thanks to gourmet delights prepared by students.

The culinary arts program offered board members and meeting guests a variety of appetizers, desserts, and drinks, including duck confit, chocolate caramel bacon popcorn, and vanilla balsamic iced tea. A buffet was set up in the Culinary Connection Restaurant on campus.

"Every month we have a special feature program," said Penta spokesman Monica Dansack.

The opportunity to prepare and serve at the board meeting gives students hands-on experience with professional settings, said instructor and Chef Janea Makowski, who is a 2000 graduate of the Penta program.

"It really puts them a step ahead when they go into the industry," she said.

At the board meeting, culinary instructors updated the board on students' competitions and projects, including plans to cater food for the performers and crews of an upcoming Matchbox 20 concert in Toledo as they had for country singer Martina McBride.

"It allows me to do some project-based learning with the students," said Chef Jim Rhegness, also an instructor there.

Student Victor Kern, from the Eastwood Local Schools district, said the 14-hour days of catering concerts were valuable experience.

"It was fun. I learned a lot from it," he said of working at the country concert.

Mr. Rhegness also told the board that students recently had won first and third place in knife skills at a national competition in Indianapolis, and that their gingerbread house creations were on public display at Imagination Station and the Toledo Zoo.

Culinary Connection is open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that school is in session, and special orders can be taken for Christmas cookies and other treats.

Chef Sarah DeLand said sales so far this year put $4,000 back into the culinary arts program.

In other matters, the school board:

-- Granted an easement to the Northwestern Water and Sewer District of Wood County so that a sanitary sewer can be relocated during bridge work on Bates Road. The easement runs 160 feet along the road and 86 feet into the western edge of the school's property, Superintendent Ronald Matter said.

-- Accepted a bid of $75,903 from Cardinal Bus Sales, of Lima, Ohio, for one 48-passenger school bus. Other bids were $74,596 from MVI Group, with various Ohio locations, and $76,152 from Myers Equipment, of Canfield, Ohio. Mr. Matter noted that the lowest bid did not meet the required specifications and thus was not acceptable.

-- Confirmed for the county auditor that its tax levies would remain at 2.2 mills for the school's general fund and 1.0 mill for the permanent improvement fund.

-- Permitted the administration to secure an architect to draw up plans for expanding a pole barn on campus to house landscaping vehicle equipment, estimated to cost about $160,000, and for building a new small storage building for scaffolding and other equipment, estimated at $250,000 for construction.

Annie Rutherford, a senior in the Penta/Perrysburg Marketing Education program, gave a presentation about her recent election as president of Ohio DECA. PENTA/MONICA DANSACK Enlarge

-- Recognized Penta marketing education students Annie Rutherford of Perrysburg and Samantha Durivage of Oak Harbor, who were elected Ohio DECA president and public relations officer, respectively. John Chaney, supervisor of satellite programs, said a Penta student had been the statewide president three of the last four years for the  association of high school and college students and teachers of marketing, management, and entrepreneurship.

Board members shared good wishes for the upcoming holidays and thanked culinary arts students for their gifts of Christmas stockings filled with candy and other treats.

The board next gathers for an organizational meeting slated for 5:15 p.m. Jan. 9, in the board room at Penta Career Center.

Contact Rebecca Conklin Kleiboemer at 419-356-8786, rconklin@theblade.com, or on Twitter @RebeccaConklinK.