Lakewood Voters Choose Key Education Board Members: Meet the 4 Candidates

On Tuesday, Lakewood voters will have the opportunity to decide on two open seats for the Lakewood City Schools Board of Education. Among the four candidates are incumbents Nora Katzenberger and Betsy Bergen Shaughnessy, as well as challengers Monica Bruaw and Katie Slife Rustad.

The campaign has largely revolved around the district’s recent decision to repurpose Lincoln Elementary into a centralized early learning center. 3News' Candice Hare had the chance to sit down with all four candidates and here are their responses to some of the most pressing topics in the community.

What Makes You the Best Candidate?

Monica Bruaw

"I have three young children that are in the elementary school. I've got a 4-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 9-year-old. So, I'm invested in the district. I want to make sure it succeeds and gives all students an opportunity to succeed and thrive. But I also bring over 25 years of experience in the construction industry as an education planner, so things that the school district has done this past year in planning and looking at their long-term goals of how they're going to use their schools is something that I do with school districts around the state. So, I've got relationships with superintendents, board members, and other folks in the industry, and can rely on them for information, and I stay on top of different trends and needs, and so I can bring that back to the district. So, I think that's an important piece that we don't have on our board right now.

And then my values—really, I certainly want to see all students succeed regardless of their background and where they come from, because those are things that were given to me as a student. I went to Lakewood High, I'm a graduate from Lakewood High, and I want to give back to the district in that way."

Nora Katzenberger

"I think this is a time when experience really matters on the Board of Education. I'm coming to the end of my first term, so I've gained a lot of knowledge over the last four years, and with everything going on in public education right now, it's really under assault at the federal and state level, we really need people such as myself and my fellow incumbent Betsy Shaughnessy to guide our district through these waters right now.

I bring the values of really championing public education. I really love our schools. I love our kids. I love our teachers, and I really want to make sure that we protect and preserve what we have here in our district. We have so many wonderful things going on in our schools. We have amazing music programs. We're constantly developing our career tech programs. We have excellent mental health support. We have just so many things that we're doing for our students and our teachers in our community that I wanna keep developing and growing."

Katie Slife Rustad

"So, my values were formed within this district, and that's why they're completely aligned with the values of this district. I believe that this community values a strong, high-quality public education, and at this time, I'm concerned by the lack of strategic thought leadership on the board. I've spent my career for the past 20 years in business, working at American Greetings in various roles, but I've been really focused in every role on data. Data is the lifeblood of any organization, and I think it's very important to make fact-based decisions and for everyone to understand the facts and agree on the facts in order to come to the best solution to any challenge. We're facing a lot of challenges right now, and I don't see that strategic thought process. It seems that we're choosing solutions and then trying to find data and problems to justify those, and that's no way to run a successful organization."

Betsy Bergen Shaughnessy

"I've been on the board 32 years, and we have gone through good times and bad times and survived by keeping the interests of our students and our community in our minds when we do this. Lakewood is a diverse, welcoming community, and our school values of recognizing and valuing diversity, of resiliency, of those sorts of things, I think, are in absolute alignment with our community as a whole. And so we want to fight for those, and I think that I have the experience. I work on a great board now, but the most experienced person has been on, this is his 5th year. So I can bring not ‘this is how we used to do it,’ but context for all the things that we've done. I remember when levies failed, and I remember when the trust of the community had to be rebuilt. It was a long time ago. I think some people are taking for granted that you never fail a levy. But with the Republican legislature in Ohio trying to cut public school funding, trying to limit parental rights for some parents, trying to have reading lists of acceptable reading, with all that going on, I think my perspective helps my fellow board members in looking only forward."

The Biggest Issue in the District

Monica Bruaw

"Well, obviously, what is going on right now about the future of our seven elementary schools is the biggest topic, and it seems to be dividing our community. We have tried to talk to our superintendent and board in the past year. We knew this would happen, we knew that there would be a division, and the district is planning for an operating levy in May. So, we really need folks to get back together and kind of go in the same direction. And that's a big issue I see right now, that if we are going to be repurposing a school or closing a school, that may jeopardize this operating levy."

Nora Katzenberger

"This is a time when it's really important to build community. We have had a variety of issues that have been difficult for our community to process and have raised a lot of difficult conversations. We, as the board, this part of the job is making tough decisions that are important and good for all of our students across the district now and into the future.

We, as a board, have to think about what is coming down the road and make those hard decisions. And now, I think it's important to have people who are bringing a lot of positive energy and looking to build up our district and bring everybody together, and that's something I feel I have a talent for and I'm really good at. And that's the kind of energy I have brought to this job over the last four years, and that's what I want to continue to do."

Katie Slife Rustad

"First and foremost, we need to halt this elementary school consolidation plan and focus on the levy. We have been talking about consolidating elementary schools for the past 18 months publicly. There’s been very little discussion of the merits and the facts behind the reasons to take this path by the board in public.

And meanwhile, we have to pass a levy regardless of what we do with elementary schools, and it needs to increase. The levy needs to go up because of inflation, and closing an elementary school and repurposing it to a pre-K will not save money. Based on the plan that was approved, it's actually going to end up costing us money because there are all sorts of other ancillary moves that are also being made, with playground upgrades and moving gifted programs and special ed programs that are going to cause changes to classrooms.

So, we've been talking about all of these. We've been talking about this as an administrative problem, but then there are board members that think it's a financial problem, and there are board members that think it's an educational problem. The board hasn't agreed on why we're doing this. In the meantime, we should have been talking with the community about passing the next levy. It's going to cause an increase regardless of what changes are made, and the community has lost trust in the board and the leadership of the district, and I think we need to address that immediately."

Betsy Bergen Shaughnessy

"There are so many things that are important to public schools now. Clearly, the need from an educational standpoint and from a financial standpoint, and for looking forward, is repurposing a school. And so, we're all delighted that we had seven elementary schools. We had closed five early in the 2000s because the enrollment was already going down, so this decline in enrollment has been ongoing. Housing prices have gone up, but enrollment's gone down, and I think that that's fairly common when you build new buildings. The discussion started as we saw enrollment going down and we saw the impact it has on education. They were moving 14 teachers in one year to a different school or a different grade, or both, in order to accommodate. One year, let's say Lincoln had 30 first graders, another school had 12 and so, what other schools have been able to do, that bus is set up either one huge elementary school or segmented by K through 2, and then your kids go there. So they're changing schools, but the bus facilitates that. We can't do that. So, our effort is to improve the equitability of classroom sizes, because in a given year we could have 13 kids in a first-grade class or 25, and it's not fair to kids in different parts of Lakewood. We’re one school system. We have the same great teachers. We have the same program, but it does impact it.

The other thing is that the state legislature is whittling away at funding for public schools and increasing it for private schools. I'm not arguing with people taking money that they can for private school. I'm arguing with the fact that the legislature has decided to lower the income tax rate, which just makes it easy for them to say, ‘you know what, this is the money you can get.’ I don't think people know that in Lakewood now, because of changes in Columbus, our taxpayers are taking 60% of the burden. From my experience, I know that we have to do everything we can to lower the amount that we're gonna ask in a levy, because we have to go for a levy, it'll probably be in May, to show that we recognize the wonderful support we get, but we have to be reasonable and thoughtful. It's about a million dollars a year if we consolidate to six, and so that’s one thing, that was our big issue.

We had been talking about increasing early childhood education. All the literature, everything, says that's what kids need, but it needs to be affordable. It needs to address the needs of working parents, and so that's been the background for us. We've done what we could do by spreading it out through schools, setting up full-time classes at Taft, and we can't expand it to before and after care, or even year-round, the way it's set up now. So, when it became apparent that if we consolidate, we would have a wonderful building, it's still an education building, it's going to be an early childhood education building. At the last meeting, people brought up good points about pockets in Lakewood that may need it, something that will all be addressed. We know that it's at the top of our priority list, but we’re not closing Lincoln so we can make it into something else. We’re taking advantage of it while we're protecting taxpayers, and our kids will have more equitable services."

Uniting Everyone for the Levy

Monica Bruaw

"I think that the information that the superintendent has used is not conclusive. I think that there is some information that needs to be addressed if you are going to close a school or repurpose a school, something like a site plan, looking at how cars would stack up during drop-off and pick-up, looking at rooms and how rooms will be utilized. So, I think there's a lot of information that we need to gain, and I don't think that's worth the battle right now.

So, I think we really need to table this, and I think we need to come back to it later but focus together on this operating levy. So, go back to really what our roots are. We are all one Lakewood, we are all the Rangers, and how we can work together towards that."

Nora Katzenberger

"I know that the community has been through a difficult conversation, especially over the last year and definitely over the last few weeks. With the levy coming up, it's a really important time for all of us to come together and join together as a community to pass the levy that's coming up this spring. We need to continue to fund our schools and build for the future.

When we make this transition into six elementary schools and create this new early learning center, there's going to be a lot of wonderful things happening in our district, and I think it's really important to work together to make this happen. Passing the levy in the spring is a really important part of that."

Katie Slife Rustad

"I think we need to stop. There is no emergency. There's no reason to do this right now. Take a step back and create a strong strategic plan. The strategic plan that was put in place in 2022, I believe, expires this year, and nowhere in that strategic plan did it say anything about elementary school consolidation. We need to come together as a community to clearly define who we are, where we want to go, and then create a strategic plan that says how do we get there. I understand that there are threats coming from the state and the federal government that may threaten our funding or our operations, and I think it is absolutely appropriate to have in-depth conversations and create contingency plans to address those problems as they arise. But I do not believe that Lakewood needs to conform to some ex-urban bussing model in order to ward off some unknown future threat that hasn't been clearly defined with benchmarks and timetables. I think it's inappropriate."

Betsy Bergen Shaughnessy

"I understand fully people being very mad or very upset and worried about this. My kids went to Lincoln. I was president of Lincoln PTA. I love that school. My job as a board member is to look to the greater good and the sustainability of the kinds of programs that we have. So, I think we respect what they're saying, we listen to it, we involve them in transition, we continue to listen even if it's difficult sometimes, and to move on.

We've had other schools close in Lakewood. We've had strong feelings. The COVID years were very difficult because some wanted kids in school, period. Others did not want us to have in-person; they wanted all virtual. Some people said masks were unfair to their kids. We traversed that rocky road, and when we came out of it, we reestablished relationships. We understood what to do if this should happen again, and you learn from it. But the fact is that all the kids in Lakewood, whether they're going to seven schools or six schools, are going to have the same services, the same excellent teachers, the same mental health support, the same—to have STEM. We started digital literacy classes once a week. It's also library time, but it's critical, and it starts with kindergarten because kindergartners have phones, and they need to be able to differentiate between accuracy and not.

Now AI is a big issue. Attendance is a huge issue since COVID. All schools are having trouble with that. So, I believe we'll come together, we'll address those issues, and we'll move forward."

Leadership to Withstand Turbulent Times

Monica Bruaw

"I think our leadership needs to be very clear in their communication, maybe having more frequent, what I would call, huddles: conversations where we are sharing information and also hearing from the residents, and not only just the residents, the taxpayers, but also the parents that have their students go to school. So, communication certainly is important. I think also staying on top of what’s going on in Columbus and really being able to advocate for that is an important piece."

Nora Katzenberger

"I believe that local boards of education are the last line of defense for public schools. I think that right now, with the dismantling of the state board of education and the Department of Education at the federal level, there are many issues at the state level and measures at the federal level that are trying to defund public schools, bring measures and religious instruction into schools, or take kids out of school for religious instruction, and measures that take away the rights of LGBTQ+ students. We really need, as board of education members, to protect our students, to protect our teachers, and give them the freedom to teach children real history, real subjects without restrictions. We need to protect our immigrant students in our schools. We really need to have the freedom to function as a school district without these kinds of intrusions. And so, I think that we need board members who are prepared to fight for these protections, to protect our schools, and to work together as a team.

One of the most important parts of serving on the board of education is this is a team effort, we function as a unit, and you have to come into this job knowing that you have to work together, bringing that energy of working as a team. I'm very fortunate that, for the most part, right now that is how our board functions, and I hope that we have a board that functions that way in the future."

Katie Slife Rustad

"I think that we need a strong, data-driven, fact-based, and community-led strategic plan that helps guide all the decisions that we make. As these challenges arise, we are going to continue to face threats, and they're going to come in different forms. But if we know who we are, and we agree as a community, and we have the backing of the community, then that's going to give us the strongest position to face these challenges head-on."

Betsy Bergen Shaughnessy

"I think we need leadership to respect what the Lakewood City Schools are doing and what our administrators do every day, and I really truly believe that. The qualities we want Lakewood students to exhibit and to have when they graduate, including resiliency, including learning that you take chances and you fail, and that's how you learn, to have global awareness too. All those things, and it's all within a frame of recognizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

So much of the time, especially at the elementary schools, it is about getting our kids to feel safe and secure. At the high school, our most vulnerable students are the ones really that are suffering from a lot of the legislation that's coming out of the state of Ohio and executive orders. Kids need to be secure where they are, to feel welcome for who they are, and that, I believe, is something that Lakewood has a long history of recognizing.

But we need that support to keep looking at things through the eye, you can say it's lowercase diversity rather than upper. It's not a goal; it's just about treating people fairly, justifiably, giving them what they need to take advantage of the opportunities Lakewood affords them."

Ensuring All Students Feel Represented and Supported

Monica Bruaw

"I think that we want to make sure that we have policy in place and enough folks that will be able to protect all students from all backgrounds race, sex, gender, gender identity, all of that, disability, make sure that there are policies in place to protect them so that they feel safe and heard. I know that there are different groups on campus. In fact, my daughter just joined the No Place for Hate group at Grant Elementary, so making sure that they are teaching that at the early stages, that we want to accept every student and every person, really, because everybody has a right to education, a good education, and to live their life without government overreach."

Nora Katzenberger

"We have so many measures right now that we're fortunate that our superintendent supports. This district has had a district leadership team, but in recent years they've included students in that, so K-12 they have student representatives on the district leadership team so that they can express their own views on how the district should be run, which I certainly appreciate. And the superintendent has her own student advisory council, which I really appreciate too.

At all of our board meetings, we move from building to building throughout the year so that we can hear from building leaders and students. They do presentations so we can hear from them. And we just listen—we receive emails, and people reach out to us all throughout the year with their viewpoints. I just recently did an interview with the student newspaper at the high school about some of what has been discussed with the repurposing project. We just have to listen and engage with them.

I'm also a parent of two Lakewood students, one who graduated this past May, one who's still at the high school, and so the fact that I'm involved in the community in that way means that I engage with a lot of parents and students on a regular basis. I think that helps me be really in constant contact with families and students and hear, on a regular basis, what's going on with them."

Katie Slife Rustad

"I think we do an amazing job of supporting our students. I am a product of the schools. My parents, my in-laws, my husband, and many of our family members are all Lakewood High School graduates and Lakewood City Schools graduates. I have faith in the teachers. I have faith in the community. Our vision of Lakewood is very inclusive and accepting. It's been that way since I was in school, and I think that that's a continuation of our culture.

I do think that I look at things that have happened in Texas, with students' medical records being released. I do think that we need to be proactive about protecting some of our most vulnerable students from potential similar attacks. So, I think those conversations should be had, and policies should be adjusted accordingly. I think we need to be preemptively preparing to protect kids."

Betsy Bergen Shaughnessy

"I know that things we're going to do in the elementary schools include the House System in the elementary school. Roosevelt piloted it, Hayes is doing it, Lincoln is going to it. There are houses with representatives of kids of all ages, and that's their belonging there, and they're getting help from their peers, and there's excitement about learning fostered in those.

I think that we are handling some questions very privately with students and families—how can we support you being you. It's not so we can say something like, ‘Look what we're doing.’ It's slowly providing mental health service. We have a great program at the high school now for kids who have suffered serious mental health issues and maybe been out of school. There is a classroom where those kids can make their first move back into the high school—it's a big high school—until they're comfortable to get back out in the regular schedule. They do their work, they're with the teacher, they're protected. So, I guess you could say that's an extreme example in terms of numbers, but we need all our children to feel safe and protected and recognize that they need to be happy to learn. They need to feel secure to learn. It's why I ran for the board in the first place. The bottom line to me is, does this help our kids? And I’ve campaigned on that the whole time."