Message From The Superintendent - December 2022

Greetings! 

We hope everyone is doing well! We wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season! Here are the updates.  

We had fourteen people test positive for COVID in November. While the strength of the illness seems to have slowed down, we want to remind everyone to stay safe.    

After input from staff, individuals, families, providers, and community partners, Portage DD is close to finishing our 2023 - 2025 Strategic Plan. Once finished, we will put the strategic plan on our website. Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute.

The school year is going by quickly. As usual, the staff, families, and kids continue to be tremendous. The 22-23 school year will be the last at the Happy Day School Services building. However, we plan on providing more services to assist the school districts, students, and families. We have increased our Social Emotional Learning classes in the districts. We have provided more Crisis Prevention Training and expanded our Lending Library. 

We have increased transition services through our Building Independence and Transition Explorers Club. We will assist the schools with transportation to our building next year to utilize the facility. We are expanding our youth respite program to allow families to have the kids spend the night starting next January 2023. We continue to explore other ways to assist in the future.  

On November 3rd, we welcomed the Leadership Portage County program all day for their Human Services training. November 4th, we had our agency in service and acknowledged the excellent staff at Portage DD for their years of service! On November 18th, we had (OACB) the Ohio Association of County Boards do an all-day training. OACB created an (OPOTA) Ohio Police Officer Training Academy-approved course for law enforcement officers that would enable them to increase awareness and safety when interacting with people with developmental disabilities. 

We are glad to have this here in Portage County. We want to do it again next year. 

We are incredibly grateful for all the families, providers, staff, community, and people we serve! Portage DD will continue to strive to meet and exceed your expectations. 

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU.

Sincerely,

John Vennetti