Kethleen M.Clemons-Keller is one of the three amazing people in our community that is running for one of the two spots in our school board. Kethleen has been in Marion City School for a while she graduated from Marion Harding High school. After high school, she attended Christian University. She graduated with masters in ministry. She also attended Ohio State University and studied for a bachelor 's degree in social science. After college, she worked at Marion Harding High School.
What do you think is the role of a board member in a school system?
She feels her role as a Marion City school board member is to “provide the best education for all the youth that come through the doors of Marion City School.” She thinks that every member of Marion City Schools is supported and heard so we follow the 7 habits. She believes that a board member should have an active presence in Marion City Schools.
What is your agenda once you are elected?
Her agenda is to be proactive like the 1st of the 7 habits. Kathleen doesn’t want to put the blame on anyone, but she wants to move forward in Marion City Schools. She says she wants Marion City Schools to be one of the best school systems across the nation.Habit #5 is ‘’to be an active listener to the needs and concerns of the students and staff a part of Marion City School that the school board is here to support.”
What experiences do you have in the school community that make you a qualified candidate?
She has many experiences working with Marion City Schools. For example she was a substitute for Marion City Schools for a couple years and understood the demographics of Marion and the students that go to Marion City Schools. She coordinated with the gear up while working at Ohio State Marion. She says she wants to run for Marion City Schools Board to help grow and prepare our students for their end goals.
What else would you like the school and your community to know about you and your vision for Marion city schools?
She has always stuck to Marion City Schools through thick and thin. Even when her budget was cut, she still continued substituting for Marion City Schools. Kathleen enjoyed seeing students become their best self that she moved to her second home The University of Ohio State Marion. She wants the students to know that we care about their needs of being physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, and socially stable. She wants the school board to be supportive through the new teachers' first five years. She says “I LOVE MARION CITY SCHOOLS.”
Rocky Ratliff is one of the three people running for the two spots in the board of education. Rocky has been in Marion for a while. He graduated from Harding High School. He studied criminal justice at Tiffin University, and he also studied at Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is an attorney and counselor at law at Ratliff Law Office.
What do you think is the role of a board member in a school system?
He thinks that ”a board member is charged with setting the policies of Marion City School District in conjunction with the community attitudes and goals.”
What is your agenda once you are elected?
His agenda once he is elected is collecting the money owed to the district in the form of back taxes and trimming the needless expenses of the district to give the students more educational opportunities while they are in the Marion City school system.
What experiences do you have in the school community that make you a qualified candidate?
Rocky has many experiences in the Marion City school system. He says he and his whole family graduated from Harding High School. He has coached the sport of wrestling from 2012-2020, and he works in the Marion community. “I believe all of these experiences allow me to be a qualified candidate to create additional educational opportunities for the Marion City School students.”
What else would you like the school and your community to know about you and your vision for Marion city schools?
Rocky has many plans for the Marion City School District and the school community. ”I would like the community to know that this is not a ‘Rocky Ratliff saves the day project.’" He says this is a hands on deck project. He wants to reach out to Marion City schools and discuss his input and his visions into the school for the students, parents, and even staff. He wants the students at Harding to set a good example for the future Harding students. ”The students walking the hallways at Harding High School as I write this will be our community leaders.”
Scott Weibling is one of the three people running for the two spots in the board of education. He went and graduated from boardman high school. He studied at Ohio State University.
What do you think is the role of a board member in a school system?
He thinks the role of a school board member is to shape school policies in a way that reflects the beliefs and ideas of the community he or she represents. His job would be to represent the wishes of the people of Marion in terms of how best to educate Marion's students.
What is your agenda once you are elected?
His agenda once he is elected is to let the teachers do their job and allow them to make the important decisions in the classroom. He also wants to bring back common sense discipline so students can actually learn instead of being distracted by those students who disrupt classrooms on a daily basis. Lastly, he wants to make sure we're spending money on what teachers need to teach and students need to learn.
What experiences do you have in the school community that make you a qualified candidate?
He has many experiences in Marion City Schools. He taught at Harding for 15 years, mostly AP and American Government, and he and his wife still have 3 kids in the district, with another who already graduated. He has strong connections with people all throughout the district which helps him know what's going on behind the scenes.
What else would you like the school and your community to know about you and your vision for Marion city schools?
At the beginning of each day I want students and teachers to be able to look forward to what might happen in their classrooms and to feel good about it. I want students and teachers to feel rewarded at the end of each day as well, to know they actually accomplished something. School will never be fun 100% of the time, but it sure should be a better experience than it's turned into over the past 10 years.
For anyone who is interested in viewing the Candidates Night from Harding High School, here is the YouTube Link.
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