'Janelle is the type of teacher I loved when I went to school.' Marlington teacher lauded

As the daughter of two teachers, Janelle Hart said the path to education seemed natural.

"I would always play classroom with my sister and I would always be the teacher," said Hart, whose mother taught at Marlington Local Schools and whose father taught at Louisville City Schools.

But when the 1999 Marlington High graduate earned her early education degree from Malone in 2003, local job openings for beginning classroom teachers were scarce.

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Hart was undeterred. She became a reading specialist and tutor where she helped struggling students in small group settings for a dozen years. Hart, who had worked in Northwest Local and Louisville City school districts, got her chance to become a classroom teacher in 2015 when Washington Elementary had an influx of first graders and needed to add a third first-grade teacher.

She is now the 2022 Stark County Teacher of the Year.

"God had it planned out perfectly because I was able to get my master's, start my family, and begin my actual classroom teaching career with a great group of kids," Hart said.

Hart, who moved up to second grade, third grade and fourth grade with that same class, moved to Marlboro Elementary last school year. She now works as a fourth grade math and science teacher at Marlboro.

"I love teaching in the same building at which I attended for elementary school," said Hart, who lives in Lake Township with husband, Rich, daughters Heidi, a fifth grader at Lake Elementary, and Hannah, a third grader at Portage Collaborative Montessori School. "My classroom was actually the music room when I was at Marlboro."

Hart has invested herself in her former elementary school, leading many activities such as: Student announcements, the school's recycling program and afternoon dismissal. She's also the treasurer of the staff "Fun Club," and serves on the district leadership team, building leadership team, school safety team and technology governance committee.

She has led an after-school girls running club and started a prayer group this year for staff members who meet before school once a week.

Hart was chosen for the Teacher of the Year award from among the 27 teachers nominated by the Stark County Educational Service Center, its 23 member school districts, the Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities and parochial schools.

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Marlington Superintendent Mike Shreffler said Hart is an asset not only to Marlboro Elementary but to the entire Marlington Local School District.

"Janelle is the type of teacher I loved when I went to school," he said. "Her classroom is always active with discussion and activity. Students have fun while learning. Most of all, I think students appreciate the fact that Mrs. Hart cares deeply about them as young people. Mrs. Hart is also a leader among our teachers. Her dedication to the teaching field is fantastic!"

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Janelle Hart is optimistic about the state of education

Hart believes education has improved since she was a student. While state mandates and restrictions can prove challenging, she believes that how educators teach in classrooms today has changed for the better.

"I remember sitting at my desk doing worksheets and/or listening to my teacher lecture the majority of my educational experience," Hart said. "However, education has now become more focused on hands-on learning where students can learn from actually doing and not just through visual or auditory activities."

Hart said education also has become more personalized, allowing all students to learn in the same environment as their peers compared to the old days when students with special needs were placed in a separate classroom for most, and sometimes all, of the school day. And today's teaching gets to the reasoning behind complicated concepts, such as math, rather than asking students to memorize facts and algorithms.

"No one knew why 8 x 5 = 40, it just 'was,'" Hart said. "Luckily, today's education helps students understand the reasons behind the facts. This enables them to transfer that number sense to use in other mathematical situations."

She often has lunch visitors. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Hart spends her 20-minute lunch period eating with a few of her students and talking about their lives outside of school.

"There were more kids (this school year) that I thought would benefit from some one-on-one or focused time, and then I thought I might as well open it up to all the kids," Hart said. "Even if they aren't struggling at school, that doesn't mean they don't need a positive adult role model."

She started with a simple signup sheet, but so many students were rushing to be the first to sign up that she began picking names from a hat. The student whose name is picked gets to choose a friend or two to join them for lunch.

Hart said she enjoys sharing stories from her life outside of school with her students.

"So they know that I don't live at the school," she said.

On Wednesdays, Hart hosts a Homework Club during her planning time to give students a chance to have some extra help and time on their homework.

Hart has a talent for singing

She is a member of "The Vintage Carolers," which is a quartet of former Marlington choir members who dress in costumes representing the 1900s and sings classic carols at events around the Christmas holiday. The group has been hired for private company parties, to entertain guests at Gervasi Vineyard and to even stroll and sing around Belden Village Mall.

"It's really cool because it's not something you'd normally see walking through the mall or at your work's Christmas party," said Hart, whose parents were singers. "… It just seems to add a lot to the Christmas fun."

Hart, who sings with the worship team at RiverTree Lake, also has won some karaoke contests and has held karaoke parties to celebrate her birthday. Her favorite genre to sing is country music.

She's giving students a chance to shine

Hart has resurrected Marlboro's student talent show. The show, which will be held on May 20, will feature roughly 15 different acts by students in third, fourth and fifth grades that feature music, dancing, gymnastics, comedy and magic.

"I know I really appreciated having that opportunity to get up and perform in front of people," said Hart, who also started an elementary talent show while working at Northwest Local, "and performing like that (in front of an audience) was such a huge life skill. It's important to offer that to the kids."

She doesn’t just teach kids

Hart is an NRA certified pistol instructor and range safety officer. Her experience includes training in home defense tactics, building clearing, close quarters battle and low-light weapons tactics.

For nearly the past five years, she's been helping her husband, a U.S. Marine Corps. veteran, former Canton police officer and former member of the county SWAT team, provide various personal readiness classes and women’s shooting programs at his firearms training and consulting business, Lampas Security Consulting.

“I would say I still prefer the little kids,” Hart said. “… But I think that (teaching adults) has even helped me in my classroom. It has made me every more well-rounded.”

Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @kweirREP

Meet the Teaching Teams

Here are the teachers from each school district that were named to the All-County Teaching Team (listed first) and All-County Rookie Team. Rookies are educators with fewer than three years of experience.

Alliance: Derrick Showell; Eric Peters

Brown: Michelle Cunningham; Renee Congo

Canton City: Allan Brown; Taylor Bryan

Canton Local: Aimee Salapack; Alexandra (Ali) Fell

Carrollton: Denise Hutson; Kelsey Raines

Dalton: Laura Grimm; Sarah Emert

Fairless: Nick Valentino; Logan Bing

Green: Amanda Fledderjohann; Tiron Jester

Jackson: Jordan Parks; Austin Szink

Lake: Luisa Gunther; Madisson Geddes

Louisville: Jill Strohl; Michaela Mushett

Marlington: Janelle Hart; Grace Flores

Massillon: Jamie Ruffner; Alexandra Klein

Minerva Local: Debbie Imler; Brooke VanVoorhis

North Canton: Mia Thomas; Olivia Hauritz

Northwest: Jenn Barnett; Stephen Imler

Osnaburg: Craig Linerode; Adrienne Sarbaugh

Parochial East: Erica Hicks; Meghan Brickner

Parochial West: Amy Pariano; Evan Matthews

Perry: Robyn Peterson; Brittney Foraker

Plain: Amanda Arway; Megan Rea

R. G. Drage Career Technical Center: Clay Breedlove; Alex Ballentine

Sandy Valley: Jann Coates; Ashley Debelius

Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities: Elizabeth Shisler; Abigail Dietry

Stark County Educational Service Center: Susan Hanna; Aimee Cox

Strasburg: Frank Kruger; Lacey Kinsey

Tuslaw: Elizabeth Sirgo; John Warner

Lifetime Educator Award

Longtime educator and coach Jim Nicodemo received the Lifetime Educator Award for his influence on generations of educators and students.

Nicodemo, who started his career in education in 1977 as a social studies teacher, served as Woodridge Middle School principal, Marlington High School principal and then became Marlington's superintendent in 2007, a position he held for five years. After his retirement from Marlington, he became assistant superintendent for the Stark County Educational Service Center, where he twice filled in as superintendent for districts whose superintendents left on short notice. He left the educational service center last July.

During his career, Nicodemo also coached three sports — golf, basketball and football — and became one of the most well-known coaches in GlenOak High School history with multiple coaching honors.

"There are very few people I can think of that have had a bigger impact on the children of Stark County than Mr. Jim Nicodemo," said Joe Chaddock, superintendent of the Stark County Educational Service Center, who presented the lifetime achievement award.

Nicodemo, who is working as a substitute principal at Alliance Middle School because the school's principal went on emergency leave, lives in Lake with his wife Wrenn. They have two sons, A.J., a financial adviser, and Luke, an education student at Ohio University.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Marlington's Janelle Hart is Stark County's Teacher of the Year