During this general election, two seats are open on New Philadelphia’s Board of Education.
Four are vying for the four-year term, Jane Bachman, Joe Morris, George Summers, and Andrew Zimmerman.
Bachman says she is very familiar with the school district since she and her husband are from New Philadelphia, and their kids are enrolled.
“I’m a PTO volunteer, a soccer coach so I’m with these kids and teachers regularly. I want to support them. I want to advocate for them. I want New Phila to continue to be a great place to raise a family and a lot of that comes with having safe modern schools and people willing to have hard conversations. My focus would be more on the learning environment, the safety. I’m a coach so I care about all of these kids as if they’re my own and I just want to see them be comfortable in their school, be safe, be happy. I want it to be a good place for people to work.”
Morris also has kids enrolled in the district, and says his background makes him a good candidate.
“I’ve got a finance background. I’ve got a big family. I’m very analytical in how I think. I think like an accountant so I would bring a different perspective than other board members. I think it’s important that you have a diversity of opinion. A diversity of thought. And I think the key to that is on the reading assessments. When you look at what drives success for our students, even in middle school and high school, it’s reading, especially early literacy. So really looking at ways we can enhance our preschool program to set them up for reading success.”
Zimmerman has Quaker kids and feels like he’ll also bring a different perspective to the education board.
“As a business owner, as a parent, as a graduate, and also as a teacher I feel like I’m going to bring a unique side to this that no other candidate is going to. At the end of the day, I want the community, I want the parents, teachers, students to feel like we’ve provided them with the best experience, whether that’s facilities or that’s the daily curriculum. I would like to think that I have no true agenda here other than running a positive campaign that is meant to be just what can we do to make everyone’s experience better at the end of the day. I just want kids coming home feeling like this has been the best day ever.”
Summers was not available for an interview.
Polling locations will open on Tuesday, November 4th from 6:30am to 7:30pm.
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