Berrien RESA launches radio show, unveils new logo, refreshed mission and upgraded website

Berrien RESA is offering a new radio show designed to inform the community about what is happening in Berrien County’s schools. The district has also made the move to update its logo, refresh its mission statement and upgrade its website.

Starting the Thursday after Labor Day (September 7), Berrien RESA will officially launch its community-focused radio show, “Always Learning with Berrien RESA”. The show will air on WSJM every Thursday at 7 a.m. and will feature guests from Berrien RESA, area school districts and education associations to talk about what is happening in Berrien County’s classrooms.

“I often get asked, ‘What is Berrien RESA? What do you do?’” said Eric Hoppstock,
Superintendent of Berrien RESA. “The answer is complex because we do so many things to support the education of all students in our area. From offering special education services and running center-based programs to providing professional development to educators to coordinating shared payroll services and overseeing Career & Technical Education, we do a little bit of everything! We recognized that we needed a mechanism to help the community understand all that we do as a service agency, but also have a means to highlight the incredible education opportunities being offered in our community by our public schools. We thought a radio show would be a great way to deliver that information to the region.”

Always Learning with Berrien RESA, co-hosted by Superintendent Hoppstock and Jonny
Reinhardt, will do just that - share the stories about learning, growth and academic success happening in classrooms in Berrien County everyday.

“The morning show provides an avenue to help our community connect with our school
districts,” said Hoppstock. “It provides a window into the learning that is taking place, explains why we as educators approach the work in the way that they do, and provides a platform to highlight the great work of our school personnel.”

The show will also be shared after it airs on the district’s website and social media pages.

Berrien RESA is also excited to announce that its branding has been refreshed to match its updated mission statement, “Optimizing student outcomes through collaboration and transformation.” The new logo, a tri-colored pinwheel, serves as a fresh and modern reminder of the three pillars of the new mission - outcomes, collaboration and transformation. It replaces the former logo which was a circle with an outline of Berrien County in the middle. The old logo included 18 lines of various widths within the circle to highlight Lake Michigan, with each line representing the size of a school building or school district in the area.

“The previous logo was outdated,” said Eric Hoppstock, Superintendent of Berrien RESA. “Most community members did not appreciate the symbolism of the old image, especially since the logo represented school districts that are no longer in existence. Additionally, each line drawn in the logo represented the number of students enrolled at each district. The student population has changed over the years, making the logo inaccurate and out-of-date.”

Berrien RESA has been slowly transitioning to its new branded identity over the past year. Letterhead, envelopes and other printed materials were exhausted before new materials were printed. The next phase of transition will focus on signage.

“We have issued a request for bids for new electronic signage in front of our main campus in Berrien Springs and in front of Lighthouse Education Center on Glenlord Road in St. Joseph, as well as standard signage for buildings in Niles and other locations throughout Berrien County,” said Hoppstock. “We built the branding changes into our budget projections as part of our anticipated signage maintenance expenses. Most of our signs are over 20 years old and are in need of repair. It made sense to also transition to our new logo as part of this work, allowing us to make the branding change with little impact to our budget.”

In addition to branding and signage upgrades to complement the new mission statement,
Berrien RESA also updated its website. At the end of last school year, the district was awarded an American Rescue Plan Funding Resources for Schools grant. Included in the grant was a request to support a website upgrade so that families could enjoy improved access to education resources. The upgrade will also better serve online visitors seeking job opportunities, program information and resources to help their students be successful. The site, www.berrienresa.org, went live earlier this summer with new content being added daily.

Entities wishing to submit bid proposals may do so by visiting www.berrienresa.org. Always Learning with Berrien RESA airs on Thursdays during The Morning Show on WSJM at 7 a.m.