Three open seats, five candidates in Wadsworth board of education race

WADSWORTH — A trio of incumbent Wadsworth City Schools board of education members will try to hold off two challengers in Tuesday's General Election. Gary McComas Age: 57 Education: Bachelor's of science in manufacturing technology from Kent State University Family: Wife of 29 years, Jody, and four children Job history: Current area sales manager for Miller and Company supplying to the foundry and steel industry across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the northeast U.S., held positions as plant manager and operations Manager for Soprema, Tarkett, and Alfe Heat Treating over the last 15 years Amanda Gordon Age: 56 Education: Bachelor's of Science degree in business administration/finance from the University of Akron, juris doctorate degree from Case Western Reserve School of Law Family: Two children Job history: Practicing attorney for the past 31 years in the area of public law, public finance, and school law Website: shorturl.at/horET Julie Batey Age: 55 Education: Bachelor's degree in mass media communications and Associate degree in community services from the University of Akron Family: Husband Bruce and two children Job history: Former human resource manager Website: facebook.com/julie.gravesbatey Dave Bartiromo Age: 49 Education: Bachelor's degree in communications from Rowan University, associate's degree in computer information systems from the University of Akron Family: Wife of 22 years; Angela and two children Job history: Long-time digital marketing consultant with prior work in modular home sales Website: facebook.com/DaveBartiromoForWadsworthCitySchoolBoard Kathleen Wiley Age: 74 Education: Bachelor's degree in sociology and associate's degree in criminal justice from the University of Akron Family: Husband of 53 years; David, four children and 10 grandchildren Job history: Retired from work as an administrative assistant at the Medina County Public Defender's Office, previously served as a criminal defense investigator for Stark County, three years of U.S. Army service, past work for Wolff Bros. Supply, Inc. What makes you the best candidate for the position? McComas: My track record over the past four years is a good indicator that I have done well on the board. I believe the focus is the education of our children, proper curriculum, and support of the staff, with fiscal responsibility to the community. I have over 33 years of business experience in managing production plants, problem solving, and dealing with employees and issues. I believe that my experience gives me the ability to work through situations and issues with even keel and calmness to get solutions accomplished that always stems back to the board's focus, what is best for the education of the students. Gordon: Having had eight years of service already, I have extensive experience and knowledge of all of the intricacies of every aspect of how our district runs, what it's needs are, and its challenges. My professional legal experience gives me unique qualifications and insight to help run our district and move it forward. Batey: To continue to provide a quality education for all of our students, I need to listen, work alongside our outstanding and dedicated administrators, teachers, students and families, be involved in the community, and collaborate with all parties to develop solutions. I've demonstrated that I possess all of these qualities over my last two terms on the Wadsworth Board of Education. I will continue to use these skills, plus the experience I've gained over the past eight years, to provide the best possible educational experience for every Wadsworth student over the next four years. Bartiromo: I know, as a board member, that I would bring a new perspective. I would challenge and I would ask questions and I would be happy to work with people. If we keep doing the same thing over and over again it's hard to make progress because people become so complacent. If we bring in new perspectives and new understanding, that's how progress gets made. That's important to me and a lot of members of this district, that we keep critical race theory and these harmful ideologies out of our schools. Wiley: I care about the future, the future of the kids and the future of Wadsworth. I want to make sure the kids get the best education they can. By that I mean learning the stuff that's important so they have a good background on choices. I don't believe in critical race theory. It's bad. Critical race theory's heritage, I guess you could say, was taught in Germany and believed in Germany by Hitler. It teaches kids to hate each other and that's not good. What's the biggest problem facing Wadsworth Schools and how do you plan to address it? McComas: Since the inception of the pandemic in March 2019, the Wadsworth School District Administration and the school board have worked diligently to maneuver the ever changing rules and orders that have governed the schools of Ohio through this pandemic. Our current state of affairs is not going away anytime soon, even though we are making some strides in the quarantine process we have a long way to go, the process of change takes time! I know that it takes commitment, an open minded thought process, and unity of a community through team work. I am not saying that things have been great, but Wadsworth district has done a very good job of managing the process, keeping our students in person learning, and keeping the district in compliance. Gordon: Our district faces a myriad of challenges on a daily basis and those challenges are constantly changing. Any of these issues can have a significant impact on educating our kids. In addressing these issues, my primary goal will be as it has always been, to keep the best interests of our kids first and foremost in every decision I make and to continue building on the strong foundation we have in Wadsworth to assure strong educational opportunities inside and outside the classroom for each and every child in our Grizzly community. Batey: I'm concerned about the mental, emotional, and economic toll that the pandemic has taken on many of our students. I will continue to address these issues through work being done in the district's Mental Health Committee. I'm an active member of the committee and look forward to continuing our discussions and listening to and collaborating with teachers, school counselors, and mental health experts to help develop solutions and provide support to our students and families. Bartiromo: I don't think there's one biggest challenge. I think there's a lot of challenges that school boards have never had to deal with before, or at least not on the level we have to deal with them now. Those are things like critical race theory and comprehensive sex education. I want a back to basics education. We need to get back to a point where we're teaching reading, writing, math, science, all from a foundation of truth. We have to let kids be kids and to stop everything from these harsh COVID restrictions and can't put everything through a prism of race. We can teach children about racism without teaching them that they're racist. Wiley: Diversity and inclusion are some other things that aren't all that great for kids. The teachers talk about it a lot. They think it's good to teach these kids diversity and inclusion but I don't believe that it's best for the kids. I think the way it's taught is not right. It's just a feeling that I have. We also need to worry about the budget and choices in school classes. I wonder if any books are chosen are inappropriate for the kids to read like about sex education, but not sex education in the right way. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.