Voter Guide: 3 candidates seeking seat on State Board of Education for Akron area
Welcome to the 2022 Voter Guide produced by the League of Women Voters and Akron Beacon Journal with funding from the Knight Foundation.
Three candidates are running for the State Board of Education in the 10th District on the Nov. 8 ballot. The district includes Summit, eastern Cuyahoga and southwestern Geauga counties.
The State Board of Education is made up of 19 members — 11 who are elected and eight who are appointed by the governor. Members are paid $125 per meeting.
Responses are not edited, vetted or corrected by the League of Women Voters or Beacon Journal to allow candidates to speak in their own words.
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2022 Election: Summit County Voter Guide
Tom Jackson
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tomforohio
Website: www.tomjacksonforohio.com
Education: State University of New York, Oswego, NY Bachelors degree in Education
Biography: Tom Jackson currently serves on the Solon City Schools Strategic Planning Team and is the Chairman of the Board of the Solon Chamber of Commerce. He was the Democratic candidate for the Ohio Senate from Cuyahoga County in 2020. Tom is running for the State Board of Education to take politics out of the classroom and allow students to learn and teachers to teach. Before entering the private sector, Tom graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Education and spent 4 years at a nonprofit education foundation as an Instructor and Administrator. Tom, his wife Jodi and their 2 children are all graduates of public schools. Tom and Jodi will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary on the day before Election Day.
Instagram: tomjacksonforohio
Training/Experience: Bachelors degree in Education, licensed Insurance Agent in state of Ohio, Board Chair, Solon Chamber of Commerce
Current Occupation: He is a risk advisor and insurance agent with the Leverity Insurance Group in Beachwood, Ohio.
Given our experience with Covid-19, what role can the state board play in helping school districts protect the health and well-being of citizens while providing for the education of our children? The spread of the disease is a developing situation, constantly evolving, and contradictory at times. Public health authorities are the experts in keeping our communities safe and we should follow their guidance. Rumors and misinformation can distract from the facts while transparency builds trust. Our goal should be to provide clear and factual information while maintaining a sense of calm.
What do you understand to be the role of a member of the state board of education? State Boards along with governors, legislatures, and state education agencies are integral components of the state education policy system. The Board oversees the education policy and offers guidance to pre-K -12 schools. The Board is the governing body of the Ohio Department of Education and establishes the learning standards of what students should know and be able to do. The Board employs the Superintendent of Public Instruction (currently held by interim superintendent).
What is the primary purpose of public education? Education is vital to a civil society and public schools are primarily accountable for creating, tracking and delivering education outcomes. Public schools are much more than job incubators; they are our best hope for developing future leaders and unlocking the potential in all young people.
What challenges to our system of public schools do you hope to address? In Ohio, politics are encroaching on the classroom and interfering with students learning and teacher’s ability to teach. We should embrace the honest telling of history, provide programs that address students social and emotional health and look at the whole child and their needs to improve student outcomes. We should move beyond the misinformation and hate speech aimed at marginalized groups, embrace our obvious diversity, address the teacher shortage. Decades after the Supreme Court ruled the school funding formula unconstitutional, it’s finally time to permanently fix the school funding system. I will work for fair school funding, ensure every child receives an excellent education, that we invest in preK-12 public schools, and demand accountability for all schools receiving public funds and vouchers. We must stop the detrimental siphoning of tax-payer dollars from public schools to private schools and demand accountability now.
What informs your understanding of how to support successful public schools? My first political experience had to do with school funding. There was a group of parents that convinced the school board budget to pass an austerity budget. I was young enough that I didn’t understand what a budget was but it was then that I learned what austerity meant. To me and my friends, it meant we got to ride our bikes to school. Lots of kids got to ride their bikes too because busing got cut. It also cut sports but I was too young to notice but I did notice all the bikes outside the school and how much fun it was to ride in packs of kids to and from school. That was, until we had some cold and rainy weather. Then I didn’t like it so much and neither did anyone else. I now know what it takes to activate voters, to organize people, to demand and drive change. But then, all I remember was that there was a vote and the austerity budget was replaced with the first budget. Which meant we got to ride to bus again and there were cheerleaders and Friday night football again
How will you deal with violence in our schools? All students have the right to learn in a safe and secure learning environment. School is simply a location, not a type of violence. Preventing school violence means addressing the factors that put students at risk. Prevention efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and even students can reduce violence and improve the school environment. Our focus must be on closing the performance gap, develop thriving and engaged students, and build safer communities.
Tim Miller
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheKidsCandidate
Website: www.TheKidsCandidate.com
Education: Degree from the University of Akron College of Business Administration, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Finance. Graduate, Akron Firestone High School
2022 General Election Bio: Tim was appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor DeWine on Jan. 8, 2021, to complete the last two years of a four-year term. Tim currently serves as Vice Chair of the Emerging Issues and Operational Standards Committee, is a member of the Budget Committee, a member of the Teaching Leading and Learning Committee, a member of the EMIS Committee, and is part of the Business Partnership Strategies workgroup.
Training/Experience: 8 years on the Akron Public Schools Board of Education, serving two years as Vice President and seven years as co-chair of the Finance Committee. During that 8 years, College and Career Academies (with more than 300 and counting business partnerships) was created and implemented across all high schools, with every single student participating. The LeBron James Family Foundation’s I Promise School was created and opened, one-to-one technology for students in Akron was implemented, and the district was able to stay off the ballot asking for new levy money dating back to 2012 due in part to his financial stewardship. He is a 30 year member of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), serving on the NFIB State Leadership Council for close to 20 years, giving a unique perspective into small business and workforce development.
Current Occupation: President/Owner/Agent Insurance Service Agency, Inc. a Trusted Choice Independent Insurance Agency
Given our experience with Covid-19, what role can the state board play in helping school districts protect the health and well-being of citizens while providing for the education of our children? The Board can help direct the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) through the Superintendent to look to other school districts for best practices and share with the other 600+ traditional public school districts, charters, non public, and private schools in the state, and encourage those districts to look at those practices to see if they are workable in their individual district. ODE can also look to other government agencies, businesses and stakeholders for expertise, and again share those resources with schools.
What do you understand to be the role of a member of the state board of education? We hire the Superintendent, and provide direction to ODE through our Board Leadership and the Superintendent. Good Leadership typically produces good results. We help staff to shape standards, and create model curriculum for our districts to use if they wish. We also have the task reviewing and approving updates to Ohio Administrative Code. We should be, though it seems we have not been, educational resources and partners with the Legislature. Though we can not craft legislation, we should have input in Educational Bills. Our job is not to micromanage, which all too often derails good people with the best intentions and deep educational knowledge from successfully taking on and completing the task at hand.
What is the primary purpose of public education? The primary purpose of all PreK- 12 education opportunities is to provide an education for our children that is meaningful and leads to an adulthood with a career they enjoy, which in turn provides a comfortable livelihood from a monetary and personal satisfaction standpoint. This starts with Pre-K options for those in need so they are ready for kindergarten, are on their way to grasping all aspects of literacy by third grade, and in turn leads them to find subject matter that is of interest to them (career cruising), leading to a career pathway providing certifications and credentials, a High School Diploma, and possibly college credits for post secondary tech school or college.
What challenges to our system of public schools do you hope to address? I want to continue tackling literacy issues, pandemic learning loss, and workforce development needs. If a child does not have the fundamentals of literacy instilled by third grade, statistically they are not on a path to success. Barriers must be identified and addressed as soon as possible so the child does not fall any further behind, and catches up to their peers. The pandemic has set so many children behind, we need to continue to find avenues for schools to bring more intensive tutoring and more time on task so they do not fall any further behind. Workforce development goes hand in hand with education. Too many employers do not see a high school diploma by itself having much meaning or relevance. Employers want to see certifications and credentials that point to a child's interests which in turn can be a foundational start of a great employee/employer relationship.
What informs your understanding of how to support successful public schools? My 25+ years of volunteering in K-12 education. My advocacy for education started the day my wife Katy and I dropped our now 31 year old daughter off for her first day of Kindergarten. We were invited to a PTA meet and greet that same morning, and no one greeted us. We thought "WE CAN DO BETTER". Since that day we've been involved parents. We've been partners though her service as PTA President in our kids' schools, her Akron Council PTA involvement, my involvement in numerous projects for the PTA from Chairing Career Days, Co-Chairing playground builds, Chairing Reality Check programs, being the Business Manager for the Marching Band boosters, or serving as President of the Friends of the Arts group created for my kids' high school. These all led me to running for the Akron School Board, unsuccessfully at first. That unsuccessful run led to being tapped as Vice-Chair of a Citizens Oversight Committee for Akron Public Schools facilities rebuild, until I was successfully elected.
How will you deal with violence in our schools? It is a problem, not just from a gun standpoint, but mental health standpoint. We have to help our local school districts deal with potential violence in the manner the local community wishes to deal with it. We've all heard the many different ways schools and districts are dealing with violence, and there are some I personally agree with and others I don't, but if a local school board wants a certain safeguard, then we as a State Board of Education have to have standards for this. We should also have open dialog with law enforcement and our mental health community. These issues are not just confined to school buildings.
Cierra Lynch Shehorn
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CierraforOhio
Website: www.cierraforohio.com
2022 General Election Bio: I started off my career as a staff assistant for a Columbus-based government affairs firm, going on to work for the State Medical Board of Ohio and then the Summit County Domestic Relations Court. In 2019, I started my own consulting firm, with clients spanning across two states.
Current Occupation: Consultant
Candidate did not respond to questions.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 2022 election: Meet 10th Dist. State Board of Education candidates
