YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown City School District is hosting the Ohio School Boards Association spring conference today at Choffin Career & Technical Center.

District spokeswoman Stacy Quinones said it is the first time the district is hosting the event in many years, and provides district officials with the opportunity to showcase Choffin’s programs to the more than 150 regional education leaders who will be in attendance.

The event required the Youngstown Board of Education at their meeting last week to modify its contract with the Youngstown Education Association to accommodate a “flipped schedule” professional development day to facilitate evening showcase activities, according to a resolution passed by the board. Today also was supposed to be a day off for students and staff according to the school calendar passed at the end of last school year, but it was changed to a regular attendance day.

The resolution also states that the district has reached its limit of inclement weather days because of the severe winter, which is another reason for the calendar change.

Also at last week’s meeting, the board approved an agreement with Kent State University to allow students in Choffin’s surgical technology certificate program to enter an associate’s degree program at KSU by allowing Choffin credits to apply to KSU’s program. The agreement is effective as of June 1 and will run through spring semester 2030, according to the agreement language.

The surgical technology certificate program at Choffin consists of at least 943 hours of classroom and hands-on instruction, which will translate to 30 credit hours at KSU main campus or a satellite campus. Students must submit an official transcript from Choffin to verify their completion of the program and must maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA.

The benefits of the agreement are twofold: It infuses the job market with qualified graduates and motivates students to continue pursuing post-secondary education, according to the agreement’s language.