Room to be named after local educator

By Harold Gwin

The MCCTC board member had no idea she was to be honored for her service.

CANFIELD — Joyce E. Brooks didn’t expect to see her husband, Loran, at a Mahoning County Career & Technical Center Governing Board meeting Monday.

“You’re supposed to be in Columbus,” she said to him as he entered the board meeting room.

It turns out that he had delayed his trip long enough to see the board honor his wife by passing a resolution naming the school’s new conference center now being built the Joyce E. Brooks Conference Center.

She didn’t know the honor was coming.

“Joyce is speechless. I am so honored and totally surprised,” she said as the resolution was introduced.

The conference center is part of a new wing being built to replace a portion of the school destroyed in a fire in spring 2007.

Superintendent Roan Craig said the wing should be operational in the spring.

Brooks is “really, truly a local legend,” said Richard Scarsella, board president. She’s been a member of the MCCTC board since 1997, he said, adding that she’s spent more than 40 years in education as a teacher, administrator and a mentor to countless teachers and administrators.

She’s been a tireless advocate for children and school districts, Scarsella said, adding that he can’t think of anyone more deserving of the honor.

This school is so important, Brooks said, noting that she goes back to the time when MCCTC was just an idea.

The board presented her with a pair of plaques, one of them hammered aluminum featuring a one-room schoolhouse.

“It’s such an honor. There’s nothing more wonderful than being an educator. It’s all about the kids,” she said.

Brooks began her teaching carer as an 18-year-old just one year out of high school. She taught third grade, she said, recalling that it was a time when a teaching degree wasn’t required. She later earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Youngstown State University.

“Thank you so much,” she told the board.

“My own room,” she mused. “I just may move in.”

The honor was just the latest in a long series of recognitions she has received for her work in education, which included stints in the Greenford, Canfield and Youngstown city schools as well as the Mahoning County Office of Education and Youngstown State University.

She also served as the first coordinator of the Mahoning Valley Vision for Education and a founding board member of the Mahoning Valley Opportunity Center.

Among her other honors are recognition of her service on the MCCTC board by the Industrial Information Institute for Education in 2007, the Community Service Award from the Youngstown Area Federation of Women’s Clubs in 2005, and the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Ohio Educational Service Center Association in 2004.

The Brookses have a son and two daughters and marked their 50th wedding anniversary in June of this year.

gwin@vindy.com