John Hagan and Robert Fulton seek Ohio Board of Education's District 9 seat

The two candidates seeking to represent Stark County voters on education matters at the state level say they want to get beyond the culture wars and focus on student academics.

John P. Hagan of Marlboro Township and Robert R. Fulton of Streetsboro are seeking to represent residents in District 9 on the State Board of Education, which appoints and evaluates the state superintendent, makes legislative recommendations to state legislators and sets educational performance goals.

Due to the redistricting that took effect in January, the majority of Stark County is now part of District 9 with Portage, Trumbull, Ashtabula and Lake counties and a portion of Geauga County. The southwest part of Stark County, including Breach City, Brewster, East Sparta and Navarre, remain in District 8, which now includes 17 other counties that mostly sweep down along the eastern state boundary.

The District 9 race is one of five, four-year terms up for election for the 19-seat state board, which is comprised of 11 elected members and eight appointed by the governor. Each candidate is considered nonpartisan.

District 8's representative Michelle Newman will be up for re-election next year.

Board members receive $32 an hour for the time they spend attending meetings and tending to state business. On average, a board member earned $6,400 last year, according to state data.

Meet State Board of Education candidate John Hagan

Hagan, 67, owner of Hagan Heating and Plumbing, a former Marlboro Township trustee and former state legislator, was elected to the state education board in 2018.

“I’d like to keep my seat to continue to push forward the idea that education needs to focus on academics first and put a lot of the other things in the background,” said Hagan, a 1973 Marlington graduate who attended Kent State University. “I’m opposed to those taking the place of academics.”

He wants the board to revisit and retool Ohio’s five-year strategic plan for education that began in 2019 that emphasized addressing the whole child and broadened a school’s focus beyond academics to include meeting students’ social, emotional, physical and safety needs.

“I think they had good intentions, but as it’s developing and being applied, it’s not having the right outcome,” Hagan said. “… The term ‘whole child’ sounds wonderful until you realize it’s becoming a nanny state. It’s becoming a situation where they are not just trying to address the whole child, they are trying to take over the whole child. I’m sure that’s not what was intended.”

Meet State Board of Education candidate Robert Fulton

Fulton, 75, who was elected in November to the Streetsboro City school board, said he is seeking the state post because he wants to provide voters with a choice of candidates. He believes his roughly 30 years of experience in education, mostly as an elementary principal, would be an asset to the board.

Fulton, a Wickliffe High School graduate and Vietnam veteran who received a master’s degree in education from Lake Erie College and has completed roughly 200 hours of post-graduate studies, has worked in a variety of public school districts: Union Local in Belmont County, Logan Elm Local in Pickaway County, Hillsdale Local in Ashland County, South Central Local in Huron County, Crestview Local in Columbiana County and Bedford City Schools in Cuyahoga County.

If elected, he would advocate for less standardized testing, more control given to local districts and for the state to fully fund special education because local school districts can’t afford to do an effective job.

“I just want to help students,” said Fulton, who maintains his superintendent’s license. “I see too much nonsense coming down.”

Election comes amid disputes over racism, gender identity in schools

The election comes at a time when what should be taught in the classroom has pitted parents against school board members in several districts. Most of the debate has centered around social issues, such as racism and gender identity.

The state education board has debated the issue of gender identity in schools when it discusseda resolution that opposes proposed Title IX changes that call for expanding the federal law’s definition of discrimination to protect LGBTQ+ children and could require schools to permit transgender student access to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams or face a loss of federal funds. The resolution also asks state lawmakers to pass legislation that would require schools to notify parents if a student "questions their gender identity" or "requests alternative names or pronouns."

Hagan said his support of the resolution is based on the belief that parents know what is best for their children.

“The idea of hiding things happening at school is belying to any normal person,” Hagan said. “Parents should have every right to know what’s going on with their child. It’s ridiculous to think the government should take control of your child and hide what’s happening with your child.”

When asked whether he would have supported the resolution as a board member, Fulton said he believes schools shouldn’t shield information from parents.

“I believe parents are the people who are in charge of their children,” said Fulton, who said years ago he even would call parents before disciplining a child and give them the option of in-school paddling or out-of-school suspension.

What qualities do they want in the next state superintendent?

One of the first tasks facing the winning state school board candidate will be the hiring of a new state superintendent to oversee the education of 1.7 million children in Ohio’s public schools.

Ohio has been without a permanent chief of K-12 public education since September 2021 when Paolo DeMaria retired.

State school board members had hired their former colleague Steve Dackin for the job in May, but he resigned less than two weeks later amid ethics questions of whether he could take a position that he had been leading the search for. Stephanie Siddens, a 16-year Ohio Department of Education veteran, continues to serve as interim state superintendent.

Fulton said he would use his years of experience in school administrative positions to help him identify a good state leader. He would prefer a candidate who is ethical, lives in Ohio and is not burdened by too many political connections.

“I want an ethical person, that is No. 1,” Fulton said. “I want a person who tells the truth at all times. It’s hard to find honest people because we have a society that likes to attack people constantly.”

Hagan, who was fined by the state ethics commission in 2020 for work his company did for Marlboro Township that he approved while a trustee five years ago, had opposed Dackin’s appointment. He said his preferred candidate would value putting parents first and would prioritize academic subject matters over social issues. He doesn’t believe Siddens should be promoted to the permanent role because she has been with the Ohio Department of Education for so long.

“It’s hard to change directions if you are part of the direction that you have been going,” he said.

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

On Twitter: @kweirREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: John Hagan, Robert Fulton via for State Board of Education in election