ASHLAND — Ashland’s Heartland Home closed its doors in 2009, but soon the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center will pay homage to the former residential facility.
Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, the career center will be known as Heartland Technical Education Center. The adult education center will also be absorbed as part of the Heartland Technical Education Center, according to its director, Nancy Hall.
“We think that the rebrand helps with the whole package, so that we’re reiterating that this is beyond high school,” Hall said.
The career center first undertook planning for a rebranding effort in 2018, according to Supt. Rod Cheyney.
Since then, the joint vocational school district broke ground on a $44 million building expansion in May of 2024; its enrollment has trended upwards; and most recently, the board approved the name change for the center at its Jan. 16 meeting.
Cheyney noted the rebrand also helps with stigma, which previously came with career tech education.
Now, career tech serves as one of many options for Ashland County students, and Cheyney said around 40% of the career center’s students attend college after they finish their studies. Others leave with well-paying jobs.
Cheyney said the name change will come with an application fee of between $300 and $500 paid to the district’s accrediting body. But, the district decided on the name change early enough that it won’t affect any previously-ordered signage for the building.
“It’s a relatively small cost for a project like this,” Cheyney said.
How’d the name get decided?
Career center leadership decided on the rebrand following several rounds of surveys. Rachel Bixler, the career center’s marketing and public relations coordinator, said the first round of surveys went to advisory committees to gauge interest in a name change. They were also asked to offer suggestions.
Then, career center leadership met and narrowed down the suggestions they’d received to determine what names might be available.
Bixler said they researched other schools in the area, website URLs and eventually narrowed to four options. The options included keeping the same name, the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.
After that, Bixler said a survey went to advisory committees and students to determine their thoughts. She said the majority of respondents wanted change.
“So then it became what is that change?” Bixler said.
That’s when the board got to weigh in. Joint vocational school district board members sitting on Hillsdale Local Schools’ board of education and Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village Schools’ board of education provided updates to their respective boards about the possibility of a name change throughout the fall.
The name change fully takes effect July 1.