The Lima City Schools Aspire (GED) program has been awarded the First Annual Chancellor’s Award for Innovative Programming recognizing new initiatives to help adults become more employable.

Along with helping adults better their educational skills and obtain their High School Equivalent Diploma (GED), the Aspire program has added five Integrating Education with Technology (IET) mini-courses with an industry-recognized certification to help students gain employment.

Serv SafeManager and Microsoft Office Suite Certifications are both offered to people housed at the WORTH Center.

Customer Service (with a sewing component) will start in a fewweeks. The class is a combination of offering outstanding customer service and looking at the textile industry. With the proximity of the Wilson Football Factory and Airstream, this is a great introductionto those industries. There are still spotsavailable.

Introductionto the Trades looks at the various skills that are vital to the manufacturingindustry. This class is scheduled to take place in the spring.

Computer Programming/E-sports is geared toward students with special needs like learning disorders, ADHD and sensory issues.

To sign up for any of these programs or to learn more about other Aspire (GED) programming, call 419-223-0252.

Additional information about its services can be found at www.limaliteracy.net. The Aspire GED program is housed at 563 W Spring St.

Lima Senior High School’s DECA program recently inducted new members and installed this year’s officers at its annual breakfast.

The event included Lima Senior Marketing and Audio Engineering DECA students.

The school has a strong DECA tradition, with students doing a number of projects and competing at the national/international level each year.

The new officers are below.

Senior Officers

President: Chase Hipsher

Vice President: Ariana Custer

Secretary: Ellie Warnement

Treasurer: Dalton Chiles

CEO Spartan Spirit Shack: Gabby Avalos

CEO Spartan Higher Grounds: Kaitlyn Thompson

Policy Advocate Officer: Victoria Holbrook-Phillips

Public Relations Officers: Nicholas Fosnaugh and Aliyana Coppler

Vice President of Finance: Kansas Mayes

Vice President of Marketing: Zaveon Garner

Junior Officers (there are two chapters)

President: Davyon Williamson and Christian Ackerman

Vice President: Skylar Slaise and Jaclyn Kohlhofer

Secretary: Marisol Gonzalez and Alexis Lopez

Treasurer: Makayla Redd and Jaeda Gaddy

Lima Senior High School will kick off a busy Homecoming Weekend with a parade through downtown Lima and a bonfire Thursday, Sept. 21.

There are currently more than 30 entries in the parade, including the Spartan Marching Pride, Lima Senior Cheerleaders, Homecoming Court, classes, student clubs, athletes and more.

Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith will serve as Grand Marshall.

The parade will begin at 6 p.m. at Fifth Third Bank, 225 N. West St. The route will travel east on High Street and onto Spartan Way. The route will then travel through the parking lot and around the school via North Street and finish at the shot/discus area on High Street across from Spartan Stadium.

The bonfire will begin at 7 p.m. at the shot/discus area on High Street and last about 45 minutes.

The community is encouraged to line up around the parade route and come to the bonfire.

The Spartans take on Woodward at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, at Spartan Stadium. The Homecoming Court will be recognized and King and Queen crowned before the game at 6:30 p.m.

The Homecoming dance is from 8 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at Lima Senior.

The Lima City Schools held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Ag and Outdoor Occupations and Engineering Technology Campus Monday, Aug. 28.

The campus will be located at the former Emerson Elementary School site, 650 E. Edwards St.

Two buildings will be constructed on the site to house each of the programs. Both of these growing programs are in need of more space than is currently available at the high school. The new campus will allow space for both programs to grow and to provide students with the equipment and experiences they need to be successful.

The Engineering building will allow more space for things like robotics, 3D printing and CNC machines. It will allow the program to delve into the many disciplines of engineering and job opportunities. The building will include classroom and open spaces, as well as a conference room.

The Ag building will provide much needed space to bring in equipment and for students to learn welding, wood working and other skills. There will also be a greenhouse with hydroponics on the site as well as outside space for planting and working with large farm equipment.

The campus is expected to be ready for the 2024-25 school year. The project is being paid for with federal CARES Act funds.

Superintendent Jill Ackerman was joined at the groundbreaking by Lima Senior Principal Tyler Turner, Career Tech Director Frank Kohlhofer, teachers and students from the two programs, and representatives from Charles Construction Services and Core Consulting.