COMPARE THE CANDIDATES
We talked to all of the candidates for Ohio School Board in our area. Compare them on education plans, comon core and other topics at Vote.daytondailynews.com.
ELECTION PREVIEWS
This week, we will have previews of the three Ohio School Board races in the Dayton area - Districts 3, 4 and 10. Look for those stories this week in the newspaper.
Four candidates are fighting to fill the District 3 state school board post, after the seat sat vacant for seven months earlier this year.
A.J. Wagner, Mary Pritchard, Charlotte McGuire and Sarah Roberts are running for the District 3 seat, which represents more than 1 million residents in Montgomery, Miami, Butler, Preble and southern Darke counties.
The 19-member state school board sets K-12 education policy for Ohio schools. Seven of the 11 elected seats are up for election Nov. 4. Board members serve four-year terms and make an hourly rate of $32.02 when working on board business, which amounted to roughly $10,000 for full-year members in 2013.
The state school board is the group that voted four years ago to adopt Ohio’s new Common Core-tied school standards. This fall, they decided what test scores will be needed to graduate under Ohio’s new system of end-of-course exams.
The state board also makes changes to the school report card system, holds discipline hearings for accused educators and sets proficiency scores on state tests, among other duties.
The seat was vacant after Jeff Mims stepped down to become a Dayton city commissioner earlier this year.
A.J. WAGNER
Wagner, of Dayton, was appointed to the District 3 state school board seat in August by Gov. John Kasich. The former Montgomery County auditor and judge ran for mayor of Dayton in 2013. Wagner has an education degree and was briefly a teacher before becoming an attorney.
An effort by some Republican legislators to repeal Ohio’s Common Core school standards is the state’s hottest education issue. Wagner opposes repeal and said changing the standards now would be detrimental to students. But he emphasized that the legislature, not the state board, will make that decision.
Wagner said the state should revisit its system of charter schools, arguing that too many of those schools are underperforming.
“Charters were designed to create innovation in education, and I think that’s a good thing,” Wagner said. “I wouldn’t want to close charters that are succeeding. But a lot of charters, as I understand, aren’t doing anything really different from what the public schools are doing.”
Wagner said he would push for more early-childhood education programs for those in poverty. He said spending on education in the first years of life pays for itself via reduced welfare and crime decades later.
Wagner said schools should limit student suspensions, and he argued that the state legislature should leave more decisions to the state school board, which he said has more education expertise. He also touted his experience.
“I have been a teacher, but I’ve also been the county auditor, so I understand budgetary concerns,” Wagner said. “I have significant administrative experience for handling staff and employees. And I’ve been a judge, so I understand a lot of the legal issues that can come into play.”
MARY PRITCHARD
Pritchard, of West Chester Twp., has served on the board of the Butler County Educational Service Center for 17 years, 11 of those years as president. In Ohio, ESCs work with local school districts to offer special education programs, staff training, purchasing co-ops and other services.
Pritchard said a good school board member is there to serve, not to dictate, and must listen to all parties, not just those they agree with. But her position on Common Core is firm.
“The first thing I want to do is expose Common Core and get rid of it,” Pritchard said. “Common Core violates the 10th amendment of the United States. It is a national takeover of education.”
Pritchard acknowledged that Ohio’s state school board voted to approve those standards, but reiterated Common Core is still a federal takeover.
The desire for local control runs through many of Pritchard’s positions, as she calls for the state to “get out of the way and let the locals do what they do best.”
Asked whether that decrease in regulation could lead to abuses, she said, “You’re always going to have abuses. But when the public holds people accountable, there tend to be results. When the state holds them accountable, there are abuses from special interest groups.”
Pritchard said public and parent involvement, rather than state oversight, is the key to improving traditional public and charter schools.
“Children are unique creations of God; they are not slabs of human resources to be conformed to the workplace,” Pritchard said. “Education is for the preservation of freedom and the pursuit of happiness.”
CHARLOTTE MCGUIRE
McGuire, of Centerville, spent more than a decade leading Project Impact and Reclaiming Futures, groups that help teenagers dealing with drug, alcohol and criminal behaviors. She also worked 14 years for the city of Dayton, and she remains a national consultant and coach with Reclaiming Futures.
McGuire said she favors repeal of Ohio’s Common Core standards, citing concerns about costs, a lack of proof that the standards will improve outcomes, and concern that the tougher standards could increase the dropout rate.
She says better collaboration is a key to success in most areas, and suggested that the state board could engage all stakeholders in developing new standards to replace Common Core.
“I tend to try to be a unifier, to build consensus around what’s best for the constituents I’m working for,” McGuire said. “If we maintain our strategic focus on our mission, ideologues and political parties and titles fade away.”
McGuire favors keeping Ohio’s current charter school structure, adding that competition can breed excellence. She said of all types of schools, “If they’re broken, we need to fix them, and if they can’t be fixed, we need to get rid of them.”
McGuire thinks Ohio should increase resources for early childhood programs, but said that money would be a local decision from districts or voters.
“I believe in the evidenced truth that all of our children are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. They have the inherent potential to succeed,” McGuire said. “I want to be a voice for opportunity and options, recognizing that no two children are alike and we should address their unique needs, assets and gifts.”
SARAH ROBERTS
Roberts, of Vandalia, is a retired educator. She taught elementary school in Lima, St. Marys and Huber Heights before focusing on gifted education, as gifted services supervisor in Huber Heights and president of the Ohio Association for Gifted Children.
Roberts supports Ohio’s Common Core standards, while emphasizing that local districts must decide the curriculum used to help students reach or exceed those levels. And she said the state must be prepared to adjust on the fly.
“I think anytime you have a changeover, you think you’re ready, but you’re not 100 percent. … There are going to be hiccups,” she said. “I have concerns about testing, because we don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like. … We don’t know the cut scores. There are so many unknowns. So we have to be able to make mid-course corrections.”
Roberts is in favor of increasing the state’s education budget in all areas, paying for it by reversing some state income tax cuts.
She called for charter schools to get the same level of state oversight as public schools, arguing that charters have not achieved the success or innovative approaches that were their original mission.
Roberts said the state board should improve its oversight of the Department of Education, which she said lacks consistent vision and follow-through.
“I think the state board really needs to be a watchdog to make sure that there aren’t abuses,” Roberts said. “We really have to focus on what the best interests of children are. I think the board, the state legislature and ODE lose sight of that sometimes.”
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