Aaron Hare, Medina school-board candidate, stresses fiscal restraint and community input on building needs

At a candidates forum presented by the Greater Medina Chamber of Commerce and Medina TV, Aaron Hare, a candidate for the Medina City School Board of Education, discussed his background, concerns about state school funding and unfunded mandates, and his priorities if elected.

Hare said he has lived in Medina since 2018 and described family ties to the schools: "My wife, Taylor, is actually an educator, at a different school district. She actually works for Akron Public Schools. ... I have a daughter, Brinley, who's actually a senior, here at MHS ... and then a son, Brady, who's a sixth grader at Claget," he said.

The candidate framed the central issue for local schools as funding. "Weve seen the share of funding from the state continually get cut," Hare said. "... unless the state begins to kick in more funding, you know, this is the budget we're going to have to live with." He said residents pushed back on deeper state cuts and that those calls led to a smaller reduction than initially proposed.

On state-imposed requirements that lack dedicated funding, Hare said: "...my thoughts are that that's, for lack of a better term, not right, but it's the reality. And it's it's likely not going to change... pre k is a large, unfunded mandate. But but they're here to stay, and we just have to absorb those into the budget."

Hare described his civic and financial experience as preparation for school-board service. He said he served three years as president of Medina Youth Lacrosse, helped organize an annual tournament that drew about 100 teams, and currently participates on a school finance committee. He also described his work in business: "I have about 25 employees ... I deal with a multimillion dollar budget," and argued that a business perspective would help the district find efficiencies.

On board dynamics, Hare said he welcomes debate: "Actually, I think it's great to disagree. I think that's how you get the best solutions," he said, adding he prefers as much public discussion as possible while acknowledging some issues require closed sessions.

When asked about specific projects, Hare said he would first listen to community priorities but singled out building maintenance and upgrades. "We're not gonna build a new Cliget. The funding's just not there for it. But we do need to do some renovating and updating there, and find the the best cost effective way to do that," he said.

Hare described his measure of success in office as whether residents would ask him to run again: "I think the best determination of success is if there's people asking you to to run again, to stay on the board."

The candidates forum included reminders to register and vote early at the board of elections or in person on Nov. 4.