Students wishing to earn their GED will now work with a new provider at a new location.
The new GED center for Henderson County is located in Community Baptist Church, and the instruction is provided by West Kentucky Educational Cooperative.
“I want the community to know where we are,” said Daisy Eckels, a teacher for WKEC who has also served as its liaison moving into the new space and now getting the word out. Eckels recently contacted the Hendersonian because she wants to get the word out.
For years, GED instruction had occurred at Henderson Community College, but HCC wasn’t awarded the grant to host the program last spring. At that time, the bid was re-opened and WKEC wrote for the grant and ultimately was awarded it, said Eckels.
Though the program will no longer be at HCC, the college will partner with the local adult education program and support GED completers who desire to continue their education at HCC, said Michelle Dixon, the marketing and media manager at HCC.
Eckels, a Henderson resident, had been working with WKEC in Union County when she learned that the grant had gone to WKEC. She asked to be moved to Henderson and with limited time before the funding started, she helped secure a location and begin setting up the rooms.
She found Community Baptist Church after learning from a friend and member of the church that space was available there. The GED program is hosted in upstairs rooms surrounding the church’s gym that had once been filled by the Boys & Girls Club but had been vacant since that organization moved into its new Elm Street location, Eckels said.
Since mid-July, Eckels has been in the new location, and she has been joined by her son, Ryan, who had been teaching GED classes at the Henderson County Detention Center when the program was with HCC and soon applied for and got the job with WKEC for a position, Daisy Eckels said.
WKEC, which has centers in 15 western Kentucky counties, will run the program locally, though statewide it is overseen by the Kentucky Department of Education, which according to Eckels, has set a year-end goal of 33 GEDs received at the center.
A bit more than four months into the fiscal year, the Henderson WKEC center has awarded 20 GEDs. She did say, however, that many of their awardees were working at the HCC location and transferred to the Community Baptist location when the switchover happened. Eckels said she and Ryan have set a goal to reach 50 GEDs by June 30.
In addition to GED prep-work and testing, the new center offers instruction in ELL, workforce skills, college brush-up and classes dedicated to helping employees of different businesses improve their job-related skills, Eckels said. The center also stays open until 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, allowing it to serve students who work during the day, Eckels said, adding she takes appointments for Sunday
Eckels said, in addition to a goal of 50 GEDs, the new center wants to establish regular instruction at the WARM center, recruit enough students for a full ELL class and hire another teacher.
Eckels said she was a nontraditional college student, earning her degree after she’d raised her children. She taught at North Middle School, HCC in the adult education department and now WKEC.
“It’s my passion,” she said. “I love what I do. I love working with the students.”
To get started on a GED, call 270-639-7332. Community Baptist Church is at 1026 Pebble Creek Drive, Henderson, KY 42420.
