Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) has selected Eastern Greene Schools and Washington Community Schools for participation in the fifth cohort of its Ready Schools initiative. Through this keystone ROI program, each school district will receive a development grant to participate during the 2026-27 school year.
“I am incredibly excited about what this partnership means for Eastern Greene Schools,” said Doug Lewis, superintendent of Eastern Greene Schools. “This is about much more than preparing students for a job after graduation. It is about creating a seamless Pre-K through Grade 12 experience where students develop a sense of purpose, discover opportunities available to them, and graduate with a clear plan for their future. By working alongside families, local stakeholders, and regional experts, we can create meaningful learning experiences that connect the classroom to the real world and prepare every Eastern Greene student to contribute to their community and Indiana’s Uplands region.”
“Washington Community Schools is excited to be selected for the Ready Schools Initiative,” said Kevin Frank, superintendent of Washington Community Schools. “While we already have many strong programs and opportunities in place, this initiative will allow us to take a thoughtful, comprehensive look at how we can build on those strengths and better prepare every student for success after high school. We look forward to bringing together educators, students, families, community partners, and local employers to strengthen pathways that connect classroom learning to college, careers, and meaningful opportunities in our region.”
The Ready Schools framework is an immersive design thinking process that provides school districts with support and funding to reimagine and realign PK-12 curricular and programmatic offerings to meet the specific educational and workforce needs of employers in the Indiana Uplands region. The goal of this initiative is to enable school districts to engage business leaders, community stakeholders, parents, and students in meaningful dialogue about what success means within their community and to develop a strategic plan to obtain that success. The result is a collaborative approach and a comprehensive planning process designed to support students in achieving their academic and career goals through alignment with workforce opportunities in the Indiana Uplands.
Once school districts complete the first four Ready Schools phases (Discovery, Synthesis, Ideation, and Refinement), they are eligible to apply for implementation funding to activate comprehensive strategic plans.
“Through Ready Schools, districts take an active role in strengthening the region’s future by connecting student learning to the current and future workforce opportunities in the Indiana Uplands,” said ROI President and CEO Tina Peterson. “By engaging educators, employers, families, and community partners, this process helps school districts design strategies that better prepare students from their earliest years through graduation for meaningful careers close to home.”
An important component of the Ready Schools initiative is its emphasis on the workforce needs of the region’s leading industry sectors, helping schools and students develop pathways into high-opportunity jobs in the Indiana Uplands. ROI’s Occupational Needs Assessments, which analyze workforce trends and in-demand jobs, regularly identify three highly specialized industry sectors as drivers of the region’s economy: advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and national security and defense. All three sectors are seeing recent pronounced growth in physical presence, creating an even greater need to develop a pipeline of talent to support regional employers.
Indiana Uplands Industry Sector Employment & Workforce Demand
Source: ROI Occupational Needs Assessment 2026
- Advanced Manufacturing: With more than 14,000 jobs, the Uplands region is a leader in advanced manufacturing, with outsized concentrations in furniture, food, and automotive/heavy equipment manufacturing. Across advanced manufacturing occupations, there is a projected need to fill 1,449 new roles annually over the next decade, with an additional need to reskill or upskill 603 professionals annually. In-demand roles include machine operators, assemblers, fabricators, engineers, machinists, welders, technologists, automation, and robotics specialists.
- Life Sciences: With 8,900 jobs and a focus in both medical device and pharmaceutical production, the Indiana Uplands life sciences sector is concentrated in manufacturing and production. Across life science occupations, there is a projected need to fill 968 new roles annually over the next decade, with an additional need to reskill or upskill 379 professionals annually. In-demand roles include industrial engineers, bio- and biomedical engineers, chemical engineers, scientists, fabricators, packaging and filling machine operators, and chemical equipment operators.
- National Security and Defense: Anchored by Naval Weapons Station Crane (NWS Crane), the world’s third-largest naval installation, and a robust network of defense contractors, this sector includes 8,300 federal and private jobs. Across civilian defense support occupations, there is a projected need to fill 216 new roles annually over the next decade, with an additional need to reskill or upskill 100 professionals annually. In-demand roles include civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic, and electrical engineers; logisticians; IT, computer, and software developers; surveyors; technical writers; and project managers.
Since 2017, ROI has awarded Ready Schools grants to 20 school districts in the Indiana Uplands. School districts from previous Ready Schools cohorts have implemented a wide array of new, innovative, hands-on, and career-connected learning opportunities, including student-run businesses, digital fabrication labs, career awareness programming, aligned career pathways, work-based learning, project-based learning, and STEM curricula. One example of an impactful outcome of the Ready Schools process has been Dubois County’s Hub 19. Hub 19 serves as a countywide workforce readiness organization and is a collaboration of employers, the four school districts, the Patoka Valley Career and Technical Education Cooperative, and Vincennes University. Ready Schools also provided seed funding for Brown County’s Eagle Manufacturing student-run business that creates real-world business and manufacturing applications for students on school campuses and has grown to be a model for others.
“As Eastern Greene and Washington Community Schools join Ready Schools, ROI’s signature education and workforce initiative will have impacted more than 35,000 PK-12 students throughout the Uplands region,” added Peterson. “We are inspired by the commitment of each participating district and by the lasting difference this work is making as students prepare for success in the classroom, in their careers, and beyond.”
| Ready Schools Cohort I (2017) |
| Brown County Schools |
| Dubois County Collaboration: Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools, Northeast Dubois County School Corporation, Southwest Dubois County School Corporation, & Southeast Dubois County School Corporation |
| Loogootee Community Schools |
| Ready Schools Cohort II (2018) |
| Bloomfield School District |
| Monroe County Community School Corporation |
| Spencer-Owen Community Schools |
| Collaboration of Shoals, Mitchell, & Orleans Schools (COSMOS): Mitchell Community Schools, Orleans Community Schools & Shoals Community School Corporation |
| Ready Schools Cohort III (2019) |
| Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation |
| Linton-Stockton School Corporation |
| White River Valley School District |
| Ready Schools Cohort IV (2023) |
| Barr-Reeve Community Schools |
| Crawford County Community School Corporation |
| East Washington School Corporation |
| Ready Schools Cohort V (2026) |
| Eastern Greene Schools |
| Washington Community Schools |
For a complete description of activities at each Ready Schools phase, go to: https://regionalopportunityinc.org/details-of-the-ready-schools-initiative/
ROI’s Ready Schools Initiative is one program in a broader portfolio of education and workforce efforts designed to build a more connected and responsive system—one that supports students, meets employer needs, and expands opportunity across the Indiana Uplands. ROI’s current programs also include UpSkill Work & Learn youth apprenticeships, the Uplands Made Student-Run Business Network, the STEM Fellowship, the Career Coaching Fellowship, the UpLabs Digital Fabrication Network, and MOMENTUM Microelectronics Workforce Development.
About Regional Opportunity Initiatives:
Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advance economic and community prosperity in the 11 counties of the Indiana Uplands (Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen, and Washington counties). ROI is growing potential and possibility through a focus on advanced industry sectors, regionalism, transformative school and workforce redesign, and placemaking strategies.