COLUMBUS Taft picks Canton man for board of education

Two Mahoning County candidates had wanted the post.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Gov. Bob Taft appointed a Canton businessman Friday to the State Board of Education to fill the unexpired term of Jack Hunter of Youngstown, who died last June.
Taft named James L. Craig of Canton to the seat for a term ending Dec. 31. Craig, a member of the Plain Local Board of Education in Stark County, will have to stand for election for a new four-year term in November, aides to the governor said.
"The governor feels his service on the Plain school board will help him serve on the state board," Orest Holubec, the governor's director of boards and commissions, said. "Having run in elections for that seat, he has campaign experience, which he'll need."
Other hopefuls: Craig surpassed other candidates for the post, including James "Ted" Roberts, a lawyer from Poland in Mahoning County, Richard Wingerter, a retired schoolteacher from Marlington Local School District in Stark County, and Beth Kosar from Boardman, in Mahoning County, the co-founder of the Rich Center for Autism.
The Eighth District, formerly represented by Hunter, is sprawling, covering several counties including Carroll, Columbiana, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Mahoning, Stark, and Tuscarawas, State Board of Education officials have said.
The State Board of Education is a 19-member board, 11 elected from districts and eight appointed by the governor. The board oversees public education in the state, sets policy and directs planning.
Hunter was a former mayor of Youngstown.