Almost 40 days after Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey gave a 100-day deadline for commissioners and school officials to develop a plan to prepare students for coming jobs such as those at the new VW plant, officials have yet to meet.

But they said there’s no need to worry.

“We’re certainly going to meet the challenge,” said Commission Chairman Jim Coppinger.

The Hamilton County Board of Education and County Commission were set to meet Sept. 8 to start work on the new plan, but Commissioner Warren Mackey, who oversees the commission’s Education Committee, said that meeting got too big with city officials and other parties involved.

Dr. Mackey said he and school board Chairman Kenny Smith are planning a smaller meeting. No date has been set, but officials plan to announce one soon, both said.

“Let’s just have a face-to-face with our partner,” Dr. Mackey said.

He said a main goal of the meeting would be determining what skills students need to learn to be best suited for jobs such as those at the VW plant. Existing research may give officials a good idea of which skills to promote, Dr. Mackey said.

“We’re not going to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Mr. Smith said another goal would be figuring out how to “ramp up” vocational education.

“I feel very strongly about it,” he said.

After the commission and school board meet, Mr. Smith said, officials are going to try to get local business leaders involved, too.

“Let them tell us what their businesses need,” he said.

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