STEWART, Ohio — Candidates in the 2025 general election for mayor of Coolville and seats on the Federal Hocking board of education discussed their platforms with the public at a League of Women Voters of Athens County candidate night Oct. 8 at Federal Hocking High School.
Coolville Mayor
Two candidates are running for an unexpired term for Coolville mayor: current village council members Tiffany E. Rife Oman and Curtis Mark Rood. Both attended the candidate forum and did meet-and-greets with attendees after opening statements.
Tiffany E. Rife Oman
In her opening statement, Rife Oman said she works as an assistant principal at Meigs Intermediate School. She also serves on the village council. Her father is from Ohio, while she moved here four years ago from Delaware.
“My slogan so far is, ‘We’re gonna make Coolville cool again,’” she said.
The Independent is awaiting response from Rife Oman for additional comment.
Curtis Mark Rood
Rood said he has lived near Coolville all his life and has experience serving on council.
“I know what the needs of Coolville is,” he said. “I’m willing to go out there and work my tail-end off to see if we can get some grants, and get everything we can, to fix Coolville up as quick as we can, and make it look pretty like it once was.”
During a brief meet-and-greet, Rood told the Independent he works as a forklift operator and is a U.S. Army Reserves veteran.
As for why he’s running “I think I can better our community,” Rood said. He said he would like to see the village use grant money to fund its projects, and hopes not to increase water and sewer rates for residents.
“Our sewer rates are so high, and it’s got everybody all upset,” he said. Sewer rates have increased annually, he said. “I’m gonna see if that doesn’t happen this year.” He added that he’s concerned that residents’ income does not increase annually like the village’s sewer rates.
School board
During the candidate roundtable discussions, each candidate for the Federal Hocking Local Schools board visited tables where members of the public sat. Each candidate spoke with attendees for about 10 minutes. All candidates gave opening statements prior to the roundtables.
Eight people are running for four spots on the Federal Hocking Local School Board of Education. Three of the five seats expire at the end of this year, with an unexpired term also on the ballot.
The election comes at a critical time for the district, as it lacks a permanent superintendent following the resignation of controversial former superintendent Jason Spencer. The district is also facing a financial squeeze.
Of the three terms expiring Dec. 31, only incumbent Sara Brumfield is on this year’s ballot. She faces challengers Ronda Clark, Jeremy Miller, Mary Mitchell, Gem S. Stone, and Angela R. Williams.
Board president Kerry Sheridan-Boyd did not file for re-election. The third expiring term was the seat held by the late Lester Green; Aaron Tate was appointed to fill that vacancy in January.
However, Tate is running for a different position — a term expiring in 2027 that was held by Dan Torrence until he moved out of the district late last year. Mike Lucas, who was appointed to Torrence’s seat, did not file to run for the permanent position. Tate faces Kizzi Elmore-Clark for the seat.
Sara Brumfield (incumbent)
In her opening statement, Brumfield said she is seeking reelection to her third consecutive term. She has lived in the district since 2013; her daughter grew up a district student. She is originally from Belpre and worked as a reporter at the Athens Messenger, where she covered school board meetings.
At the roundtable, Brumfield said she works as a children’s librarian at the Athens Public Library. Brumfield said she sees declining enrollment as one of the district’s biggest issues. Brumfield said perhaps expanded programming for students could maintain enrollment in the district.
Ronda Clark
In her opening statement, Clark said she is the mother of three district graduates. Her platform focuses on establishing a Federal Hocking Textbook Foundation, like the one that supports the Trimble Local School District.
The foundation would help save the district money because it would purchase textbooks and support classrooms by way of community donations, Clark said.
“It’d be nice if the community could pick up some things like that and do yearly fundraisers,” Clark said. “That takes a while to create that, but it would just be like, raise money, buy books.”
She also said she’d like to improve food security in the district.
Clark is a community health worker at Hocking Athens Perry Community Action, she said in her statement. She is the owner of Blackberry Sage Farm and served on the Athens Farmers Market board for a dozen years.
Clark also mentioned concerns of declining enrollment.
“I just feel like the academic standard in the district has to be brought up,” she said. “I feel that’s why we’re losing [students].” She said other schools are drawing away students because of expanded course offerings, including online options and College Credit Plus.
Gem Stone
In her opening statement, Stone said she has two elementary-aged children in the district and moved to the area eight years ago. She works at Ohio University as a construction project manager, a field she’s worked in for 20 years.
Given her background in design and construction management, Stone said her “skill set is in budget and schedule management.” She started attending school board meetings in 2022, she said, when the district first announced that it would be facing a deficit. She said she’s been frustrated over the lack of action by the board and previous superintendents about the impending deficit.
“I was just really frustrated to see that,” Stone said. But she’s thinking bigger than the district.
“What are we doing? Can we get grants? What are the things that are available out there to help fund schools?” Stone asked. “Because we all know that at the state and federal level, they are not willing to do it [help] anymore. And so if it’s not here, if it’s not at the school board level, I’m going to go and start hassling people at the legislative and Senate and Congress level — because they’re not doing their jobs. They’re not paying attention to us, people here in rural Ohio.”
Stone said she was also motivated to run by a lack of communication from the board to the public.
“I understand that executive session meetings are supposed to be confidential, but that doesn’t mean that you [the board] cannot at least share, ‘This is something that we are working on,’” she said.
Stone said she would approach the district’s budget with its needs vs. its wants in mind, and a long-term approach, looking at the impacts of decisions five to 10 years out.
Stone also said the way the state funds schools is not fair to rural districts, like FedHock, that rely on property taxes. An earned income tax levy could support the district, she said, and it wouldn’t have to be a tax beyond 1%.
Stone said she is a proponent of public education.
“If we don’t invest in them [schools] now, then what is our expectation of the future?” she asked. “Every child deserves education, and good education, and also the same education.”
Angela Williams
In her opening statement, Williams, known as “Miss Angie,” said that before recently retiring, she served as paraprofessional at the school district for 25 years. She is the parent of district graduates as well.
In speaking during the roundtable, Williams, who worked in special education, emphasized that in order to address behavioral issues, the district needs to improve its process for individualized education plans, or IEPs.
“We do not have a good special ed department,” she said. “We need people who can write these behavior plans the correct way.”
Williams said she hopes expanding professional development opportunities for staff may help improve IEPs and support faculty in handling behavioral issues. Williams also voiced concern for declining enrollment in the district, due to behavioral issues, and the financial impacts declining enrollment has on the district.
“That’s why I want to run,” Williams said. “I have grandkids at Coolville that will be coming on up this way, so my kids got a good education — I want my grandkids to have the same opportunities.”
Kizzi Elmore-Clark (unexpired term)
In her opening statement, Elmore-Clark said she was a teacher for 40 years, 37 of which were in FedHock. She’s a parent of a graduate; her husband and parents also taught at FedHock.
“I hope we can move forward in a positive direction,” she said.
In speaking at the roundtable, Elmore-Clark said her priorities are hiring a permanent superintendent.
“I think the last two superintendents refused to listen to the people who work with kids every day,” she said. “I think we need to appreciate the professionals and the paraprofessionals on the staff who know our kids and understand our kids.”
Elmore-Clark said it’s also important for the board to watch over the superintendent’s spending.
“I’d like to see us look at ways to save money without sacrificing our priority, which is educating our students, our children, in the best way we can,” she said.
Elmore-Clark said she’d also like to do away with the board’s procedure of using a consent agenda.
“I think decisions need to be discussed in public,” she said. “We need to be able to table something if it needs to be looked at further — if we need to do more research in that direction. There needs to be transparency; this district belongs to the community.”
Aaron Tate (unexpired term)
In his opening statement, Tate said he is a 1998 graduate of the district and grew up in the area. He attended Ohio University and has served as an athletic director and coach for the district. He is also the father of district students.
In speaking at the roundtable, Tate said he sees declining enrollment as the district’s biggest issue.
“That’s detrimental to our programs as small schools,” he said. “We need to get them kids back. We’re not going to get those that are going into high school back, but we can start at elementaries and keep our kids.”
He said he has heard from staff that “discipline issues,” including bullying, are a driving factor in declining enrollment. To alleviate behavioral issues, Tate said, “We need to know why it’s happening.”
He takes an empathetic approach.
“You got to be able to help kids,” Tate said. “We got a lot of disadvantaged kids in our school district.” He also said more kids should be enrolled in more programs.
“If we could get every kid an extracurricular activity, we’d be way better,” Tate said.
Mary Mitchell
Mary Mitchell, who retired from teaching at Coolville Elementary in 2020, told the Independent that she’s running to give back to the district that has given to her. Her daughter is a district graduate.
Mitchell said her background working in the district gives her a good understanding of how the district operates. If elected, Mitchell said her top priority as a board member would be to secure a good superintendent, who “has the district at heart.” She said the board serves to support district leadership and is guided by the community.
Mitchell also voiced concerns about district enrollment, which she said has not recovered since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also concerned about the district’s finances. Overall, she’d like to increase morale within the district, and “making FedHock an attractive place for people to go,” that students open-enroll in. She said she’s not sure what the answers are, to improve enrollment; the answers must come from the community.
More information
Early voting is currently underway. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4. Find more information on voting and the election from the Athens County Board of Elections.
Check out the League of Women Voters of Athens County’s voter guide at vote411.org to read more from candidates on the issues.
Note: This article was updated around 5 p.m. Oct. 30 to include comment from Mary Mitchell.
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