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ST. MARYS - St. Marys City Schools district voters are set to choose three school board members from four candidates vying for the seats in next month's general election.
Incumbents Ron Wilker and Karl Dammeyer are up for reelection. They are joined in the race by newcomers Jared Duebler and Cameron Aller.
Wilker, 65, is a retired mechanical detailer and farmer and Memorial High School graduate and has been a school board member for eight years, he said. He and his wife Deb have six children.
Since he started on the school board in 2018, Wilker said the group has come a long way with the district.
"Where we're at now compared to where we were eight years ago when I first ran, we have a school board that is very functional with all five members on board," Wilker said. "If we have disagreements, there's no far left, no far right. We talk about it, and we come up with a solution and everybody gels together. It's been very good, (it's been a) very good experience so far."
He continued that he's running for reelection so he and his fellow board members can continue the good work they've done thus far.
"Being on the board in general has been a great (experience)," he said. "Our superintendent, our treasurer have been, I mean, you can't ask for two better people to work with."
If reelected, Wilker said he plans to continue to address the district's state grade card score. St. Marys state report card, issued annually by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, dipped from three and a half stars last year to three stars in 2025.
Using a rating system ranging from one to five stars in half-star increments, Ohio's school report cards are designed to give communities a clear picture of progress of schools in raising achievement and preparing students for the future.
The overall rating of a school report card is made up of six components - achievement, progress, gap closing, early literacy, graduation, and college, career, workforce and military readiness, per ODEW.
"Celina earned three and a half stars, and St. Mary's, we were down on the bottom, you know, (out of) what was there, seven or eight schools?" Wilker said. "(Superintendent Bill Ruane has) already started with the teachers on their curriculum, what needs to be changed in their curriculum that they're used to, what we have to try to change to get our grades up to get the rating up. (We want to) get into the four stars first, and then we're going to go for five stars."
Dammeyer, 61, is a part-time engineer at Crown Equipment Corp. and farmer. He seconded Wilker's desire to improve on the district's state report card, and also said keeping up on the district finances will be a priority if reelected.
"The grade card is, I wouldn't say troublesome, but I think we've got a good school system, the grade card just has a hard time giving you a good score," Dammeyer said. "It's just convoluted, if you ask me. The main thing is that, school funding is so hard to understand and it changes all the time because every two years, we get the bi-annual budget from the state and they (seem to) want to transfer more of that burden to the local taxpayers.
Dammeyer, a Memorial High School graduate, is in his 12th year on the school board. He and his wife Denise have three children.
He's running for a fourth term, he said, because he loves the district.
"I want to make sure - I've got grandkids that are going to be coming into the system - and want to make sure everything's in good shape," he said.
Aller, 53, is a Spencerville High School graduate who manages several businesses, he said.
Aller continued that he's running for school board because he's been asked several times by people to consider running.
"I just feel like now's probably a good time," he said. "My kids went to St. Marys. I'd just like to give back if I can help out with the school."
He added that he'd like to be a part of the good work he feels the board has been up to recently.
"I think right now the board of education we have has been doing a pretty good job and, the administration, that they have been doing a pretty good job, and I just want to see that continue," he said.
Deubler, 30, and his wife Amanda, are both Memorial High School graduates. They recently welcomed their first child, Nora, which is what motivated him to run for the board.
"She's pretty young now, so I'm not sure when that exactly starts, but I want to ensure that my daughter has the experience that my wife and I had, if not a better experience going through St. Marys," Deubler said. "And because she's so young, I'm really trying to be invested in this for the long term."
He's currently a commodity manager at Crown Equipment Corp., and "used to work for one of the largest companies in the United States," he said, which he feels makes him well equipped for a seat on the school board.
There, he said his role was to negotiate and manage expenses of day-to-day activities. In doing so, he said, he acquired a diverse skillset.
"So in terms of the process of trying to build and understand an issue, I think it's one, what are the needs of my business? And two, how do I weigh those against maybe the needs of a supplier or somebody who's asking us for help?" Deubler said. "Then three, how do I weigh that against my beliefs and what I bring into that situation and understanding what I can do, and then working to understand what are those real needs. How do I size that up against what I can do? And then, effectively negotiate that out. Then, how do I go and communicate what we've done and what's been changed out to my leadership and executive teams?"
Deubler also agreed with Wilker's sentiment about improving the district's state report card grades, specifically in the gap closing and early literacy components, which he feels are very important for any school district.
"I think it's important that it falls to us on the board and also the leadership of the school to understand what this metric is and how we can make sure that we can succeed in this going forward," he said. "And after that, it was early childhood literacy. To me, it's a very critical skill to build early to make sure that you can succeed throughout (the) education (system), and how can we go and address these (metrics) without ballooning budgets or ensuring that we can continue to offer this level of service through the entirety, to not just address it in a short term, but as a long-term fix."
