ESC Region 12 Celebrates Building Dedication & 40th Year Anniversary
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WACO--Education Service Center (ESC) Region 12 celebrated its 40th year anniversary and recent building expansion with a dedication ceremony and luncheon, Wed., May 21 at 2101 W. Loop 340 in Waco, Texas. The new building was dedicated to the three former executive directors of ESC Region 12, all of whom were present for the event.

Senator Kip Averitt and Ray Glenn, Deputy Commissioner for School District Leadership and Educator Quality with the Texas Education Agency will delivered the keynote address. Board President Joe Pirtle provided the dedication to the former directors:

Mack W. Mullins 1967-1983
Otto Mills 1983-1989
Dr. Harry J. Beavers 1990-1998

Building tours and a ribbon cutting will be held in addition to the luncheon.

“We are excited to celebrate our building expansion that will enable us to offer more training opportunities to area educators, and to also commemorate our 40 years of service, Tom Norris, ESC Region 12 executive director said.”

Originally authorized by Senate Bill 408 in 1965, the centers provided school districts with better purchasing power and distribution of educational materials. In addition, a lending library service was set up to provide all schools with educational motion pictures films, film strips, recordings, tapes, programmed instructional and materials. The centers offered duplicating services for some of the resources, and provided professional consultation for effective and efficient use of them.

While technology has changed and budget cuts have occurred in recent years, ESC Region 12 strives to continue providing these services and many others as the needs of the regional schools it serves grow. Today, it also offers an array of quality educational support services in the form of conferences and training in educational technology, curriculum, instruction and assessment, special education services and school support programs, as well as alternative teacher and principal certification and award-winning videoconference and distance learning services.

ESC Region 12 employs 146 full and part-time employees committed to continuous quality improvement and the enhancement of the programs they provide to the educators, parents and students in the 77 school districts, 11 charter schools and 12 counties they serve; Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Falls, Freestone, Hamilton, Hill, Lampasas, Limestone, Mills, McLennan and Navarro. ESC Region 12 also is ISO 9001:2000 certified. The certification is an internationally recognized quality management system standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Since moving to its current location in 1994, ESC Region 12 has opened five satellite offices in Central Texas to provide convenient locations for professional development throughout the region. To keep up with the needs of its school districts, the main office at Highway 6 and Bagby Ave. was recently expanded by 20,000 feet.

The expansion provides eight meeting rooms, four of which can be combined into one large room to accommodate up to 400 people. One room is a large computer lab and another is devoted to the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN), where many educators meet to attend statewide and regional events made available through videoconferencing technologies. The center’s human resources department, business office and alternative teacher certification programs are located in the new building.

On any given week, the center holds dozens of trainings which attract hundreds and sometimes thousands of area educators to the center. In the last year alone, the center trained or delivered services to more than 35,000 educators, parents and students. In addition to the building expansion, a new parking lot was built behind the service center to accommodate the increased parking needs.