Nordonia High School was presented with the Purple Star Award because of the outstanding commitment to serving military students and families in the school.
“Nordonia High School is very thankful for all our service men and women do for our country. Our mission here at Nordonia is to treat every student like they are our own children. By providing this program for our military families, this is just another way we fulfill this mission.” – Casey G. Wright
Associate Principal Jessy Archer and teacher Heather Eckenrode head up this program.
In order to qualify for the Purple Heart Designation, we had to first identify our military connected families, which we did through our social studies classes. We added a military filter in our student system so that teachers can now easily identify our military connected families and meet their specific needs as they live through deployment, relocation, and the other challenges military families may face. Myself and Intervention Specialist, Heather Eckenrode both took a course through the Ohio Dept of Education entitled “Supporting Ohio’s Military Families’. We processed that information and then created a professional development opportunity for our staff members. All of our staff members were trained in September. We created a transition team to help serve our military families through relocation and/deployment, which includes myself, our guidance team, Heather Eckenrode, and teacher/wrestling coach Jason Lara, who is a former Marine. While we currently do not have any new military families, we are well-prepared to welcome them to our school and community. Because both the middle and high schools were pursuing this designation, we added a section for military families to our district website, which provides a plethora of district, state, and national resources. Throughout the year, we have school-wide programming to highlight our military ranging from our very special Veteran’s Day program to our 9/11 lesson, to military appreciation nights at sporting events.
“We have more military connected families than we originally thought at Nordonia HS and I am excited to recognize the service and sacrifice of these students. It feels good to do what we can to help them because they have given so much to our country. I hope the designation also brings publicity to the amazing opportunities for both colleges and career the military can give all of our students.” Jessy Archer – Associate Principal
“The Purple Star program is near and dear to my heart. My brother-in-law is a recently retired Lt. Col. and my sister and nieces have relocated multiple times for his military career. With each change, my nieces went to new schools. I know firsthand how important it is for military families to have a strong school and community network and they will receive both at Nordonia High School.” Heather Eckenrode – Teacher
