Saturday, October 24, 2015
By Sarah Lehr
GIRARD
Voters will see several familiar faces in the race for the Girard Board of Education. All five candidates, who are competing for two seats, have either served in or run for local public office in the past.
Girard City Schools have received clean audits from the state. Academically, the Ohio Department of Education gives the school a “B” ranking based on how many students passed the state test and an “A” based on how well students did on that test.
Incumbent Richard Rees has served eight years on the board and is its president. Rees, who is now retired, characterized the district’s financial standing as “very strong” and said his 28 years of employment for Charter One Bank qualify him to make sure they remain that way.
“I have the time. I have the ability, and I have the experience,” he said of his reason for seeking re-election.
He says his main objective is to “keep Girard among the top schools in [Trumbull] county and even the tri-county area” in terms of academics, and he cited Girard’s robotic program and its STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education as strengths.
Rees added he works well with the rest of the board.
Another incumbent, Peter Cardiero, is finishing his first term on the board. In addition to being vice president, he is the board’s facilities chairman and said brick-and-mortar issues, such as building a new auditorium and putting in sidewalks, are at the top of his agenda, along with security.
“Safety is more important than anything else to me,” he said, adding that additional lights and cameras around the football stadium are an important step.
He also is campaigning for a stricter drug policy and favors instituting hair-follicle testing in addition to urine testing for drugs. The board approved a drug policy in 2014, which includes scheduled urine testing for student athletes, but Cardiero said he believes there are too many ways to get around a urine test.
He touted the district’s strong financial standing and referred to open enrollment as a “necessary evil” due to Girard’s dwindling population and the state money granted per open-enrollment pupil. Girard currently accepts open-enrollment students with a cap on the number of nonresident students per grade level.
The third and final incumbent, Diane Alejars, echoed this sentiment. She said she supports the district’s policy for practical reasons of financial necessity, but said she believed public schools should serve their residents.
Alejars, who retired after more than 40 years as a teacher and now teaches part time at ETI Technical College of Niles, said she’s pleased with the district’s academic performance, though “there’s always room for improvement.” She says she’s also proud of programs such as the robotics team and the new American Sign Language offerings, but is dismayed by the level of testing now required by state and federal government.
“My grandson, who was only in the third grade [at Girard Elementary School], was stressed about testing, worrying that he wasn’t going to pass to move on the fourth grade, and that really upset me,” she said. “I’m not sure if any of these politicians have ever been in a classroom.”
Alejars says she has faith in both the superintendent and the treasurer, but that she still asks questions and reads the fine print.
“I’m not a ‘yes’ person,” she said. “I will vote ‘no,’ and I have.”
Challenger Mark Zuppo, an account manager for Smith’s Medical, hopes to return to the school board after serving two terms in the past. Zuppo was elected as a write-in for treasurer to the city of Girard in 2014 and is set to serve through 2017.
If elected to the school board, he says he plans to stay on as treasurer, which is a part-time position. Zuppo also is a former Girard councilman and the former head of the city’s parks and recreation department.
“I care more about children in Girard than anything else,” said Zuppo, a longtime announcer for Girard High School football and a youth baseball and basketball coach. “I like having an impact on kids’ lives. I probably should have gone into teaching.”
Zuppo cites a record of achievements from his time on the school board, where he also served as president, including helping to develop the district’s standing open-enrollment policy – which he says allowed the district to be financially competitive while keeping student-teacher ratios down – and hiring the current superintendent, David Cappuzzello.
Girard’s transient population and its “ever-changing demographics” present a challenge, Zuppo said, but he said Girard educators have responded well and have been able to adapt to shifting state testing requirements.
Sue Ellen H. Davis, another challenger, retired as a Girard High School teacher after 38 years, and was involved with music and theater as well as guidance counseling.
She says she’s running, in part, to carry on the legacy of her late mother, Jane Harris, who served on the school board for more than 20 years.
Davis says the district could do a better job of keeping the community informed about positive events at the schools. She also said she’d like to expand Girard’s alumni programming and focus on anti-drug education.
The district’s finances are strong, Davis said, though she noted school officials will have to keep close watch on its coffers, given the threat of job loss in the community and hits to the manufacturing industry. Davis ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 2013.