Once sworn in after Jan. 1, Lawson will be part of a five-member board that has seen in the last year an Ohio Supreme Court ruling against Madison’s previous process for allowing volunteer staffers to train and have access to a firearm during the school day.
And in July a federal appeals court ruled the Madison school board violated a grandfather’s free speech rights during the debates over its gun policy and an attorney said the penalty could be “in the six figures.”
The 1,400-student district, which covers Madison Twp., also hired a new superintendent – Jeff Staggs, who took over the top job in August.
According to late Tuesday evening results Lawson was the top vote-getter among the three candidates with 39% of the vote. Jennewine garnered 33% of the vote and Brandi Crim won 28% with 100% of votes unofficially tallied.
Jennewine was first elected to the school board in 2013, and subsequently re-elected in 2017. Both times he was the top vote-getter.
A fourth name appeared on the ballots, but Norman Trenum had withdrawn after ballots were made.
Lawson said last month in a candidate forum: “transparency is key for the district.”
“We must be advocates for our students and community (and) ... we should have the approachability and the transparency skills that are vital to be successful,” he said.
Lawson said as a small community, he doesn’t want to see Madison Local “be consumed into a bigger district” and believes that “a strong community with strong relationships” needs to be built.
“With an open dialogue and a transparent board, we can work together to serve the needs of the students in the community,” he said.
Like most other Ohio public schools, Madison saw a decrease in its performance index ― a measure of achievement of a district’s students ― on the state report card. On the 2018-19 report card, the district had a 76.7% performance index. Two years later (there wasn’t a report card in 2019-2020), it dropped to 68.4%.
Being in the 60th percentile is “absolutely not acceptable,” said Jennewine last month.
He said when he first got onto the school board, Madison Local had a reputation of being “good enough for our kids. That is not acceptable to me. Good enough is never good enough.”
(Staff Writer Michael D. Pitman contributed to this story.)
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