Van Buren Local Schools

My name is Zachary Goodspeed! I just recently graduated from BGSU last spring and I am the new elementary intervention specialist. While I am not here at school, I enjoy spending time with my family, especially my wife. I enjoy anything to do with sports. I was part of the junior high Black Knight football coaching staff this past season and I am currently the 8th grade head boys' basketball coach. I am so excited to be teaching and coaching here at Van Buren! #BeABlackKnight #TeamTuesday

And the Musical is… MAMMA MIA! This Spring Van Buren will put on a wonderful musical! #BeABlackKnight #Musical

The latest episode of the Joust About Careers podcast features a conversation with Matt Mutchler, a 2002 Van Buren High School graduate who is now an architect with the architecture firm F5 Design. Matt shares about what he does as an architect, how many people who graduate with architecture degrees don’t become licensed architects, how he focuses on creating buildings that use as little energy as possible, and much more. Anyone interested in an architecture career will find information related to getting started down that path in this episode, so feel free to share it. To watch on YouTube, visit bit.ly/JoustAboutCareers. To listen on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other platforms, simply search "Joust About Careers" to find the podcast and listen to this episode and others. Have a great week!

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving/Holiday with family and friends! #BeABlackKnight

For this Team Tuesday, please enjoy hearing about Mr. Marshall! He teaches many classes, such as Social Studies and A&R. He is known as Van Buren's unofficial historian. He has been teaching for 25 years with 23 of them being at Van Buren. He is a hardworking teacher who has always cared for his students. VBMS is very thankful to have him as one of our teachers! #BeABlackKnight

Van Buren Middle School was recently recognized as a 2022 Ohio School to Watch by the Ohio Middle Level Association. VBMS met the four criteria for high-performing schools: academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and organizational structures and processes. Karen Dishong accepted the award on the school's behalf. #BeABlackKnight #VBPROUD

After last years Students of the Year Program through The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and all the great support that was received from the Local Communities, Co Candidates McKenna Morey and Lainey Bahn decided to run again this year while also adding Brooke Ingwersen to the team! They are looking for team members of any age, adults too! They are also looking for “grade” team leaders from grades 5-10! To get more information on the fundraiser and being a team member, Fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/MSM6FVsz69RJHDxA7 Join Knights Against Cancer to win this fight! #BeABlackKnight #LLS #KnightsAgainstCancer

Congratulations to our Respectful, Responsible, and Resilient Black Knights! #BeABlackKnight

This week's episode of the Joust About Careers podcast features the 10-minute highlights of the interview with Ryan Brauneller, a 2013 Van Buren High School graduate who is now an Environmental, Health, and Safety Manager for ICU Medical. The highlights include what an EHS manager does, the personal characteristics which make EHS managers successful, opportunities to move into an EHS career without a four-year degree, and much more. If these highlights make you want to learn more about Ryan's career journey, you can always check out the full interview. To watch full interviews and highlights on YouTube, visit bit.ly/JoustAboutCareers. To listen to full interviews on your favorite podcast platform, simply search "Joust About Careers" to listen to this episode and others. Have a great week!

Van Buren Schools would like to send some good luck to our winter sports this season! Coach Roman Williams, as the new wrestling head coach. Coach Mark Bunn, as the new boy’s basketball head coach. Coach Jaden Tabler, as the new girl’s basketball head coach!

Congrats to our Positive Behavior Referrals and K students with their alphabet parade today! #BeABlackKnight

Look at this Thanksgiving Feast going on in Ms. Homan’s room! We love the Holiday Season! #BeABlackKnight #WeAreVB #Thanksgiving

In the spirit of basketball season starting back up, take a glance of the Junior High Basketball Team of 1994 for this #ThrowbackThursday! #BeABlackKnight

Students in Señora Leddy's Spanish II classes acted as meteorologists and shared information about the climate and weekly forecast for various cities in Spanish-speaking countries. #BeABlackKnight

Thanks to Keith Krantz for coming in today to talk about his welding, pipefitting, and plumbing career that started with an apprenticeship at the Piping Industry Training Center of Northwest Ohio. Mr. Krantz is now the lead supervisor and planner for winterization projects at the BP Refinery near Toledo. Over 80 students were able to hear his story today as he spoke to all of the English 10 classes and juniors and seniors interested in learning about his career. This is one of many careers available to our students who will be graduating in the near future (apprentice pay starts at $25/hr.), so if you know of anyone interested in learning more, please have them connect with VB career advisor Brian Bratt (bbratt@vbschools.net or bit.ly/VBCareerAdvising).

Congrats to our Respectful, Responsible, & Resilient Black Knights! #BeABlackKnight

Congrats to Cohen and Mrs. O'Toole's class for their Positive Behavior Referrals! #BeABlackKnight

Mrs. Heitkamp's science classes had the opportunity to work with electrical circuits this week! #BeABlackKnight

We would like to welcome our new additional Agriculture teacher back to the VB family, Hailey Cunningham! She is a former student of Van Buren and has taught in the surrounding area for 4 years. Now, she is back and ready to keep Van Buren’s Agriculture classes growing! #VB1Team

Yesterday, middle school students participated in the Mr. Yunker Day of Service by raking leaves in the Van Buren community. Thanks to Mr. Greer and his fellow teachers for organizing this project! #BeABlackKnight