Your Voice
on the Lake School Board

JEFF FINEFROCK

VOTE FOR
Early and absentee voting starts October 7. Do your part and vote.
Click here for Early and absentee voting information
Notes from the trail: Great opportunity to share my vision for Lake Schools at the Uniontown Lions Club candidate forum tonight. Thank you to all who attended.

Ensure Safety through Better Policies and Procedures to end bullying and harassment - All children at Lake schools need to be safe and bullying needs to be stopped through improved policies, procedures and enforcement. We can only be "Great at Lake" if we stop Lake students bullying other Lake students. Or anyone else. To achieve this, it is imperative to:

  • Clearly define and enforce policies in the student handbook and school policies to prevent all forms of bullying, intimidation and hate speech

  • Ensure our Personal Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) Program regains state compliance. According to the current State of Ohio school report card, Lake's PBIS program is marked as not in compliance for the second straight year - click here to view.

  • Implement the safety and anti-bullying program I have developed

  • Create clearer paths to report and enforce verbal, physical and online bullying for students, parents and faculty with clear and immediate action

  • Ensure the safest possible environment in the school and its events

  • Develop preemptive emergency communication plans

  • Hold each other accountable as a collective Lake community

  • Explore resources to ensure online school computer safety

  • Enable reporting of cyber-bullying

  • Provide students meal and afterschool assistance where needed

  • Encourage parents to model the behavior their children should follow

  • Use community volunteer programs and mentoring groups as alternatives to disciplinary actions in certain cases.

Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency at Lake Local Schools. I have the unique corporate background in long term planning and forecasting to ensure your tax dollars are invested for the maximum return on investment in our schools. I know how to do more with less and to optimize existing resources. Our most substantial resource is enrollment and it is down, yet Lake has 8% additional capacity for 300 more students.

  • Pursue open enrollment to offset shrinking enrollment at Lake and shrinking student aged population in Lake Township.

  • Charge enrollment for all existing out of district students.

  • Pursue grants to offset potential reductions in state funding.

  • Ensure Excellence in Learning and Safety are top fiscal priorities.

  • Ensure that detailed 1, 3 and 5 year plans and all expenses are published and tracked

  • Forecast and monitor the growing community's development

  • Facility planning ,classroom size, and school budgeting need to be in lock step with community growth planning and development

  • Have transparent, open communication about the budget priorities

  • In a community in which 23.6% of students are economically disadvantaged (up 1%) , Lake will prioritize this in its resource planning.

  • Ensure effective coordination with other Lake governing groups

  • Substantiate investments with a path to produce measurable results.

  • Athletic programs should develop Student athletes. I will ask the Lake Athletic Booster Club contribute funds toward academic programs.

Reflect the Voice of the Community on the Lake Local School Board by:

  • Ensuring more timely, open, and clear communication about school priorities

  • Live streaming all school board meetings with public commentary capability to ensure active two way communication and accountability

  • Visiting hundreds of your homes on this campaign to listen to you and reflecting the voice of the community to the Lake Local School Board to ensure the school serves its citizens and their priorities

  • Coordinating communications between the school, parents, local government and local businesses.

  • Working to creatively engaging citizens in their school governance through re-implementing community round tables and holding board meetings online

  • Ensuring school board meetings are at times when parents and students can attend and accommodating citizen input at all meetings

  • Advocating student input at school board meetings. No one better understands the student experience than our children.

Qualifications

Personal Background

  • Resident of Lake Township for 18 years

  • All 8 of my children have attended Lake Local Schools

  • 4 of my children are graduates of Lake High School

  • Substitute taught at Lake Middle School and Lake High School

  • Coached in the Lake Select Soccer Club for 3 years

  • Active in local church and volunteer activities

  • Supporter of Lake arts programs with children in orchestra, band, choir, Reflections, theater programs (acting and stage hands), photography, and painting.

  • Active in Habitat for Humanity in Stark County and Guatemala

  • Member of Lake Athletic Booster Club

  • Member of Hartville Lions Club

Skills

  • Executive business leadership

  • Building campaign finance planning

  • Strategic and financial planning across large and multifaceted organizations

  • Results oriented leader with fiscal and objective goal tracking

  • Strong written, digital and verbal communicator

  • Human resources background to hire and manage staffs

  • Teacher

  • Coach

  • Parent

  • Listener

  • Advocate

  • Team builder

Campaign Update

With the new Ohio school report card out, Lake has again been marked as not in compliance with its PBIS program. Safety and behavioral standards are critical components of my platform, but more importantly, vital to the students. I will work to focus on this program attaining compliance with the Ohio Revised Code standards if elected.

Further, in the past year, our star rating from the Ohio School Report card went down from 5 stars to 4.5 stars. While still an excellent score, I believe Lake can not only aspire to a 5 star state score, but to prepare our students to be competitive not just at a state or national level, but with the skills and experience to compete on a global level. Again, my unique experience in pairing academics with industry in my career equip me to serve the students to prepare for a global marketplace.

Thanks again for your support.

Endorsements

  • Votes For Women

  • Hartville Mayor Cindy Billings

Professional Background

  • Former CEO and and current Chief Revenue Officer of MilitaryHire, connecting US Veterans and Veteran Spouses and companies for employment

  • Led revenue generation for an entire company

  • Strategy and Innovation leader for business, process and efficiency improvement at Goodyear, Timken and Lubrizol (Berkshire Hathaway)

  • Financial management and investment background

  • Directed building fund campaigns

  • Developed work partnerships between industry and universities

  • Former board member of Wooster Christian School

  • Former board member of Wooster Nazarene Church

  • Former board member of the Refuge of Hope

  • Led collaborations between corporate industry and academia at Lubrizol with academic institutions including The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, Rutgers University and others

  • Human resources and training background leading MilitaryHire

  • Contributing author to the book, "The Transitioning Service Member's Guide To a Lucrative & Rewarding Post Military Career""

  • Graduate of Heritage Christian School and Malone University

Excellence in Learning should be prioritized above all other school functions ensuring all students' receive the best chance of success in their academic journey. Effective learning involves more than academics. Lake needs to equip students with the tools and behaviors to effectively solve problems, develop appropriate social and self-advocacy skills and enable effective decision making in all areas of their lives. I plan to:

  • Work for Lake to regain its 5 Star status on its Ohio School Report card (dropped from 5 star to 4.5 star in the past school year)

  • Further connect learning and work study programs with surrounding businesses for applied learning opportunities for students

  • Work to ensure Individual Education Plans, 504's and Written Education Plans are well defined, well executed, well funded and followed through until completion

  • Encourage looking beyond our local environment to find models of advanced learning so our children are competitive at a global - not just local - level

  • Ensure that the over 11% of Lake students with disabilities are prioritized to get the resources they need in school planning.

  • Promote, inform and facilitate college credit plus as well as career tracks is critical in serving the learning needs of our kids.

Platform

For more Information

Meet the Candidate

- Uniontown Lions Candidate Forum- The event went great!! Please email me if you would like to get a transcript of my policy comments.

- Lake School Board Candidate Forum hosted by the Lake Chamber of Commerce - October 15 at 6:30 p,m. (Comfort Suites; 953 Edison St. NW; Hartville)

Paid for by Finefrock For Lake School Board