LEXINGTON, Ohio — Five candidates are vying for two open seats on the Lexington Board of Education in the Nov. 3 general election.
Here’s a little information about each candidate:
Justin Billotte
Justin Billotte works as a psychology professor for Hondros Nursing College and as an adjunct professor for Central Ohio Technical College.
“I think that we should all give back to our community any way we can, and because of my experience in education–within these colleges I’ve served on boards for policy and curriculum change–I just feel that I’d be best-suited to help our k-12 schools.
“As an online professor I have a lot more time where I can actually visit the schools and the teachers every week and listen to what’s going on inside the school walls. My main goal would be to strengthen the relationship between the community and faculty and staff with the school board.”
Loren Blackstone
The owner of Blackstone Insurance Agency, Loren Blackstone has served on Lexington school board since 2008.
“I ran for school board because I felt in my community it was the highest level of service I could be involved in,” he said. “I’ve been in business for nearly 40 years and have dealt with thousands of people in the process. I’m well in-tune with our community.
“We’re trying to move forward on new facilities and I’d like to keep that moving forward. That initiative is not always easy to do, but if we can get the community’s support, I think we’ll maybe see some new school buildings some day in the future.”
Eric Lehnhart
Eric Lehnhart works at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and at Tiffin University as an adjunct professor in the Criminal Justice Program. He worked as a Lexington village councilman for three years.
“I believe that there should be somebody on the board of education that has active children in the system,” said Lehnhart, who has two children who attend Lexington schools.
“I could see us building a new elementary school and merging two schools, which would merge busing transportation and a lot of other expenses,” he said, adding he would like to enhance technology at the schools, too.
Rob Schuster
Rob Schuster, who works as a pharmacist, says he has a desire to serve the community through work on the school board.
“I see some things going on in the schools that I don’t necessarily agree with 100 percent and think could use a little bit of fine-tuning. And I’ve had many, many discussions with my family, and I thought I could sit around and talk about it with them, or I could try to make a difference and do something,” he said.
“The biggest thing that people are discussing right now is the need for the new buildings–that’s going to be a giant undertaking for the entire community and I’d love to be a part of it.”
Keith Stoner
Nearing the end of his third term on Lexington school board, Keith Stoner works as the director of marketing and public relations at North Central State College.
“There’s still some things that I’m hoping we can move forward on and accomplish,” the Lexington graduate said. “I want to help continue to provide that to kids throughout Lexington for generations.
“We have to ask for a renewal of a levy next year … our discussion has been to look longer term, to try to get a 10-year renewal instead of a five-year renewal. My goal is to get us into a position so that we can at least ask our voters to consider new facilities for Lexington schools. But to do that, we have to take care of the day-to-day financial requirements of the district before we go ask for anything further.”
