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Two members of South Range school board are in their 20s
By Billy Ludt
NORTH LIMA
In January, Taylor Christian will become the youngest elected member of the South Range Board of Education at 21 years old.
But he isn’t the sole member in his 20s. Christian will join current board member 27-year-old Corey Yoakam.
“Being young really isn’t a liability,” Christian said. “It’s what you make of it.”
Christian, double majoring in geography and political science at Youngstown State University, graduated from South Range High School as valedictorian in 2014, and quickly became involved in the next year’s election.
As spokesman of the political organization ACT Now, Christian pushed for a performance audit on the school district, and was against an operating levy that made its way onto the 2015 election ballot. He also ran for a board of education seat.
“I was against the levy, because I wanted to see where the money was going,” he said. “I wanted to see where the current money they already have is going.”
Yoakam and Christian ran on the same ballot that year. With both young candidates running, Yoakam said, voters often confused one for the other.
Of the two, Yoakam was ultimately elected.
Christian vied for one of three open seats in this year’s election, taking 16 percent of the vote in South Range’s voting precincts. Incumbent Ralph Wince was re-elected and newcomer Terri Lally, who also ran for South Range school board in 2015, was elected.
“As a young person, you could run solely on energy,” Christian said. “Where older candidates run on experience.”
Christian’s one warning for younger candidates is that a person’s social media presence can make or break an election, or tarnish a school district’s reputation. Sharing the wrong post, he said, could be damaging.
“I figured a fresh set of eyes could help to give a student’s perspective,” Christian said. “I thought in general, things could be more transparent.”
He continued that his perspective, not too far removed from high school, could be valuable when it comes to issues such as mandatory state testing for students, because both he and Yoakam have taken those tests.
The operating levy for South Range schools failed in 2015 and was preceded by levy failures in 2013 and 2014. As a result, two full-time teachers and one part-time teacher’s contract was suspended, eliminating the elementary school’s music program.
One of Yoakam’s goals when elected in 2015 was bringing the elementary school’s music program back, which he said the board accomplished early on in his term. Yoakam is a special-education director at Summit Academy, and has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. He also attended South Range from kindergarten to fifth grade and graduated from Crestview High School.
“Between the both of us, I think we can really bring the focus back to the kids by meeting all the needs of the students,” Yoakam said.
He continued: “The focus was on the adults in the room and not on the kids and their education.”
That is what drove Yoakam to run for a seat on South Range’s board.
When asked what he would say to younger people eligible and interested in running for office, Yoakam said to not wait.
“I say run now. I think that we need some younger voices,” Yoakam said. “Oftentimes, younger people have fresher ideas and they’d be willing to try new things.”