Sandra Caramela-Miller Candidate Questionnaire

Motivation stems from thoughts that we can do better in the local rankings for educational success. The Nordonia Hills School District needs to place higher than these data driven rankings (Niche – https://www.niche.com/k12/d/nordonia-hills-city-
school-district-oh/#rankings):

5th position in Summit County School Districts – within this number are 4 school districts in Summit County which outrank Nordonia…there was anticipation at worst, this rank would be third as the top two districts are easily named consistently.

64th out of 607 in Ohio – other side of this number is 63 districts in Ohio outrank Nordonia… anticipated at worst, this ranking would have been 9th.

75th out of 607 best places to teach in Ohio – other side of this number is 74 school districts are better places to teach than at Nordonia Hills. This is an incredible realization.

92nd out of 607 best teachers in Ohio – other side of this number is 91 other school districts have better teachers than those teachers who currently teach at Nordonia. A difficult thought to even process.

There was a prediction before researching these data that the rankings would be single digits across the board. Single digits are what describes the educational experience I was a part of from 1962 to 1975.

Community Drives:
There are motivations which stem from the community to school dynamic. While there are families who have built a long-term home here for 3 generations (many of whom are my former classmates and friends), young graduates are not remaining in this community in large numbers, post the high school experience. The dynamic community-to-school and school-to-community connections in the Nordonia Hills School District can benefit from improving these aspects.

I have attended only one school board meeting, in June of 2025. The only purpose was to see if candidacy pursuit was important enough to this fine community, where my heart and mind have actively and happily resided for the majority of my lifetime (46 years; 68%). Only one community member had placed themselves on the agenda and gave voice to an issue about the leaking ceilings and water spilling through being collected in containers. The citizen was respectful and graciously mentioned only two of the five school board members had responded to the inquiry. The problem presented, addressed a quandary many have expressed in the community, how it is even possible that the school planners and administrators over the lifetime of the buildings did not
predict the roof or multiple roofs would need replaced and have line items in the budget awaiting such a time.

No school board member responded officially to the issues this member of the community asked in the timed five minutes allotted for inquiry. The clocked simply painfully clicked loudly until the five minutes elapsed. No students were visibly at the meeting, no parents were actively participating at the meeting. I am not a parent of a Nordonia student, merely a grandparent of a third generation scholar who will graduate
in 2027. There were no recognized businesses represented at this particular meeting, resulting in only educators, administrators, and the school board members (it can be assumed these folks might also be parents).

My recall is that the remainder of the meeting was about many additions to special education programs, educators who received accolades for esteemed and important achievements and actions, and two newly hired teachers were introduced. The new hires were a bit surprising to this citizen, me, given so many teachers were encouraged to leave their employment. I have heard from community members as I sought out support to be placed on the ballot for a school board seat, that these were great teachers. An across the board 2% increase in income for teachers was announced, and I applaud that the educators gained from the levy pass. I do not recall whether that included administrators and staff. I had no opinion of course to what was presented as I was there to simply observe. I did conclude after attending that my candidacy can bring analysis and actions for improving the community to school interactions and the school to community interactions.

I do look forward to working with grace, integrity, and determination alongside the other members on the school board. The proximal goal I bring to the board is to give back by strengthening this school community, ensuring the education better intersects with the student, parent, teacher, and administrative communities leading to improved outcomes and future goal development.

Overlapping Professional and Personal Drives::
Of course, I have observed, noticed, and even had significant opportunities to achieve positive changes in how learning happens over my professional career. Motivations are omnipresent through my various contributing faculty member roles, teaching and leading the brightest minds.

I simply love teaching and continue to teach and mentor undergraduate, graduate, and continuing professional educational teenage and adult learners. When my public practice ended at the Coroner’s Office and the Major Trial Unit in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, I decided to return to only teaching with the goal of growing scholars. Motivations are prolific in my professional life that cannot be disentangled from personal drives.

The drive that emanates and stands out is to strengthen our educational community, through analytical oversight and professional integrity. The motivational drive runs unbridled and parallel to my love for this community and the children who will go onto make positive changes in the world as well. Giving back all that I can professionally and personally is an important part of this candidacy to benefit the childrens’ tomorrows. Yes, it is always about the children and the family and community connections they directly rely upon in parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, administrators, employers, et cetera. Their education has to be well organized to grow their abilities, as we are in great need of scholars inside this community and outside this community.

The service users in the forefront of educational settings are and always have been, the children. Any educator has awareness that we grow knowledge through our students. In primary and secondary educational settings, it is first and foremost, for the children. The structure of public school systems is built upon great traditions, and along the way, progress has changed much of how the education is managed. Building the best programs for their acceleration and achievements is key to the future of this community. The school board oversees policy to ensure the students are provided a stimulating and invigorating environment with opportunities for learning experiences designed to promote individual academic achievement, personal growth, and self-worth. All others in
that primary group are connected through the children, the administrators, the teachers, the staff, the parents, the citizens, the employers, the financial foundations, and the taxpayers.

There can be more voice provided to and from the various members in the community. The community members have to feel welcomed and their concerns addressed in the school board meetings. Data are how all decisions should be driven, not through emotions. Increased information will lead to more informed decisions. I invite questions from the public to a personal email, dr.sandra.caramela@gmail.com. Transparency is needed through an ongoing, interactive, machine platform. Truncating community voice to a board meeting item with a five minute statement seems outdated in these times of
improved and instantaneous communications. Preliminary and in-time responses should be given. Open highways of communications should be established over and above telephonic and electronic email communications. I will be at the Nordonia Hills Library on September 25th from 4 pm to 7 pm and on October 28th from 4 pm to 7 pm, with hopes to meet and answer any questions from the community members. I do not have all the answers and emphasize the importance of knowing there are problems, what those problems seem to be, and where solutions might be found, is not lost on me. The room has limits for how many can be there at a specific time. I am open to ideas for additional places to meet and would appear to represent my candidacy at any forum when invited.

ask, you might receive an answer. An improved process would be to simply have the
information posted as it becomes known, disseminated to the public, perhaps through
an online weekly or biweekly report that does not simply reside on a platform for
someone to find.

Something I find interesting on the “pay to play” issue here at Nordonia Hills is that all
voting citizens were asked to vote yes on the levy, and special note was made that pay
to play reductions would occur. History tells us the levy was passed and the reductions
that resulted are not to all students who pay to play. The reductions are pointed toward
those who “have the most need.”

The resulting formula is the first two children in a family who participates will still pay for
play at the usual amount, the third child will pay one half. The fourth child will be free,
the fifth child will be free, and so on. The families who benefit from this formula are
those with large families, assuming large families are more in need. That is an
assumption that does not necessarily play out in the Nordonia Hills School District
or any school district. Many families who have more children do so simply because they
can. I came from a family of six girls, we were not in the most need, as food was always
plentiful, we had new cars when first driving, a 1969 Firebird in 1969, a 1970 LeMans in
1970, a used 1970 Torino in 1973 (that was mine), amazing wardrobes, and lived in a
new house we built here in 1960. Our mother only worked part time at J.C. Penney’s for
more than 30 years. I knew many large families here who were not in need. Many of
those families are still here, flourishing! The same is still true as even one child families
can be more in need, than a large family. This is not simply true here, data are
everywhere which demonstrate large families are not necessarily in greater need.

I am more concerned the pay to play misses the one income family with one or two
children where that one income is not enough for paying to play for even one child.

This digression is required to simply say, there is always a better way to be forthcoming
with the information for the taxpayers. Prominent, important, decision-making questions
were on my mind, but spontaneous questions and opinions were not part of the process
during that school meeting in June.

Can we restate to the taxpayers what the costs are for the first player who pays $280?

Are any of those costs for the first player subsumed in the second player from the same
family household, and would that incur a reduction?

Have we simply added onto a number each time the monies were availed?

What re-examination of the $280 took place?

How does the $140 factor in for the third player?

How much are we simply absorbing due to number of players in the same household,
and is that affordable and sustainable?

Sustainable for how long?

It seems to me, with all the fantastic advances in technologies and innovations today,
some price had to change, perhaps not, the taxpayers might want to know.

I also had ideas that would have determined these numbers. There are other formulas I
thought of during that meeting, which had promise but would not be heard as I was not
on the agenda.

administrators, teachers, staff, volunteer staff, students, parents, and the community at
large members.

Then, a reach out should be made to school districts who have a master facility plan in
places with similar seasons and weather incidents.

Area businesses who have a stake in the process of maintaining and fixing facilities
beyond what the everyday maintenance requires, should participate in the planning.

The legal and financial entities who are attached to the school district need to be part of
the planning process.

These important persons might not be part of the entire process, but should be weaved
in as required to complete a plan that covers the facilities operations.

see that in sporting activities, in dance, in gymnastics. There is genius in those who
have higher levels of musical intelligence, we see that in bands, in choir, and in those
who develop video games. We have known there are many intelligences for a long time.

All extra-curricular traditions are equally important to me. The academic opportunities,
the sporting activities, the musically related activities, and any other event, are important
to providing opportunities or those students who participate, to the teachers and
coaches who lead, and to those who partake as the community of parents, families,
neighborhoods, and businesses.

If I had only one favorite learning tradition to name, it is the spelling bee…not sure why
those are called bees as I write this, but I will investigate.

I love spelling! Cuyahoga Community College holds a fundraiser – the annual spelling
bee as part of an important Literacy Project Initiative. There were challenging
requirements to win a few qualifying bees in order to win a seat on the panel. I
participated as a faculty member and elevated to a charter participant in the first spelling
bee…we proudly came in second against area businesses and other universities!