7 Edison candidates speak on issues

MILAN — Ahead of the Nov. 4 election, seven Edison school board candidates gathered Sunday night in Milan Town Hall to answer the community's most pressing questions. In front of about 100 local residents and Edison High School students on the Berlin Heights Kiwanis Club's speech and debate team, incumbents and newcomers debated a variety of issues for about 90 minutes. The debate was recorded and is available for on-demand viewing at the Register's YouTube channel and at sanduskyregister.com. This year's debate series is, once again, sponsored by the Greater Sandusky Partnership. The board's race has seven contestants: • Incumbents Stephen Berry and James Mark Suhanic • Incumbent Samantha Limberios, who was recently appointed to fill a vacant board seat and is now running to retain that seat • Challengers Laura Dunn, Mark Harrington, William Muthig and Jacqui Rockwell Students from Edison High School's speech and debate team powered the debate. They were responsible for writing and asking candidates questions on topics important to them and the other district stakeholders. A variety of topics were addressed, including district staffing, transparency, a one-campus facility, levy approvals, candidates' reasons for running and qualifications and community relations. Transparency and relationships President of the speech and debate team, Ilah Reyonds, was responsible for asking the candidates about keeping positive relations with the district stakeholders. Her question stated, "Board of education members have to maintain a positive relationship with the district voters as well as parents in order to keep the school system running smoothly and efficiently. How will you nurture or continue to nurture that relationship if you are elected?" Here's how the candidates responded in the order of when each spoke: • Suhanic: If anybody knows me, I'm very well-connected in the community. I know a lot of people. There's nobody that I won't talk to. I answer a lot of questions. I'm always available because I'm self-employed. We also hired Allerton Hill Communications at the school to push out some of this stuff so that we keep the public more informed. We, as board members, we're the liaison for the community. So, we need to talk to the community a lot • Berry: Like Mark said, we engaged Allerton Hill, which is a social media or just a communications entity. So they put out all of our social media and engagement to the community. I'm sure you've seen the increased activity on our pages. We have so many engagements that they're actually using our school as a case study because our community is so active on social media and so interested in the day-to-day activities of our students. • Dunn: I think the community outreach events, attending, offering some sort of town hall or monthly coffee with the superintendent, or, I mean, whatever time that they would have time to do things like that. I think giving significant one-on-one time for open communication is important. Popping in your kids' classroom, emailing your teacher. I would say not only as a parent, but as a prospective true board member, it would be just great communication. • Harrington: The electronic media is good, but it doesn't replace eye-to-eye and handshake contact with the person. I'm retired. I would plan on being at the schools, being in the schools, engaged with parents, engaged with staff, engaged with the other people of our community so that we can go forward in a positive manner. • Limberios: I like to make myself available. I do work a full-time job. I'm very flexible. If I'm not at work, you can find me at any of my kids' events. My email is available, my phone number is available, so I work with your schedule, but I'm always open and welcome your communication, your questions, your comments • Muthig: I certainly would be available to community members who want to address issues that are facing the schools, and I would invite, going back to what I was saying earlier about messaging communication, I would invite the public to come to school board meetings. We have public comment sessions at the beginning of these meetings, and you can address all of the board members with your concerns and we can react to what is on your mind. • Rockwell: As I noted in my opening lines, I have spent countless hours volunteering for our schools and cheering on various sporting events. I have nieces and nephews who have come through, so I've been at the high school for years with them with the various things that they've done. I think for me, personally, if I were going to do it, I would just continue doing just that. You can find me at the concession stand at the next home football game. I've already been asked to help with that. I pop into the elementary school library and hang out with the littles there and help them with their reading. I just get involved in any sort of event that I can and make myself available. This question followed one in three parts about transparency, asked by Jaylah Weaver, the debate team's captain. Weaver's question read: "How transparent should a school board member be with the community? Can you commit to being totally transparent with the voters in the Edison school district when events that threaten school safety occur? How will you enact that transparency?" As a follow-up, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they believed district transparency was a problem or needed improvement. Dunn, Harrington, Limberios and Rockwell raised their hands to say improvement was needed while Berry, Muthig and Suhanic kept their hands down. Debate series continues This was the first debate in the Register's in-schools debate series for 2025. The Register's next debate is scheduled for Tuesday at Perkins High School with the Perkins Township trustee candidates. This debate will not be open to the public but will be available to view in its entirety shortly afterward on sanduskyregister.com and the Register's YouTube channel. Like Edison's board candidates, The Register recently published individual question-and-answer news stories on each candidate who shared their reasons for running. Individual candidate stories can be found by clicking on these links: Incumbent Tim Colman Incumbent Jim Lang Challenger Lisa Crescimano Note: Print readers can search for the articles on sanduskyregister.com and norwalkreflector.com.