Event highlights progress in Niles

NILES -- Community stakeholders gathered at the Eastwood Mall on Thursday evening to celebrate the city's commercial growth while spotlighting new workforce and financial literacy initiatives aimed at preparing the next generation.

Business leaders, educators, elected officials and community members filled the mock city square of the upcoming JA BizTown and JA Finance Park facility on the mall's second floor for "Good Evening, Niles," a community update presented by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.

Michele Merkel, president of Junior Achievement of Eastern Ohio, the organization behind BizTown, said her organization has 100 offices in the United States, with six in Ohio, adding that they've been focused on focusing on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship programs in classrooms and schools.

Merkel said there are 50 career and experiential learning centers across the state, and it was her dream to bring it to students in eastern Ohio.

Merkel said the location they're at will host two simulations -- JA Biztown and JA Finance Park, expressing gratitude to Huntington Bank Market President Sam Huston for the bank's contribution of their storefront to the program, which exists in two other locations in the country.

The students will complete 12 lessons in the classrooms prior to coming to JA BizTown. They have to do career exploration -- over 120 jobs will be featured," Merkel said. "They then have to apply for the jobs, interview for the jobs, and get the jobs before they come here to BizTown."

Merkel said the students will be there for four to five hours running the city, also taking on the roles of mayors and other elected officials and opening their own checking and savings accounts at the simulation's institutions.

Merkel thanked Cafaro Company Co-President Anthony Cafaro Jr. for believing in the program from Day One, taking the project's contractor and architect to places around the country to see how other BizTowns were set up.

Merkel said the JA Finance Park portion of the program, aimed at students in grades 7-12, will likely be implemented a year later.

The finance park portion will focus on students budgeting their income and expenses, as well as things like transportation, housing, investing and retirement plans.

Merkel said BizTown is on phase two, meaning the storefronts are being constructed for the program's sponsors.

Cafaro said he knew the evening's event was about the city, but BizTown, like the Eastwood Mall, is for the Mahoning Valley and beyond, adding that students and parents from across the area will be coming to the complex -- which is the goal.

Cafaro said the Eastwood Mall has the distinction of being one of the top 10 retail experiences in the country.

"What it means is, whatever you want to do here -- whether it's shopping, dining, entertainment, baseball, hotels, facilities like this -- we have it all," Cafaro said, adding that the mall is a "city within a city."

Cafaro noted businesses such as Toys "R" Us coming to the mall as some of the new arrivals the mall will feature, adding that the Toys "R" Us location will be the only one in the Mahoning Valley.

Niles City Schools Superintendent Ann Marie Thigpen introduced Mary Ann McMahon, a 13-year member of the Niles City Schools Board of Education, noting her history with the district -- teaching for 39 years.

Thigpen said Niles Intermediate School, which teaches third through fifth grade students, was ranked as one of the best elementary schools by the U.S. News and World Report, a distinction the school has received in three consecutive years.

"That same building this past year was only one of two elementary schools in Trumbull County to be awarded the Governor's Science of Reading," Thigpen said. "The governor has a really big initiative about the Science of Reading and how you teach children from preschool to middle school how to read."

Thigpen said all of the district's schools have received Purple Star designation, which recognizes schools that show a major commitment to students and families connected to the nation's military.

"That means a lot because our veterans give so much for us," Thigpen said.