By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

With the Nov. 6 midterm election fast approaching there are several things the public will be voting on. One of these things are members of the Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education candidates.

Candidates for the three open seats are Jake Singer, Steve Drakos and Jim Weidman each running uncontested for a four-year term.

Jake Singer

This is Singer’s first time running for elected office.

Singer is a lifelong Orion area resident who believes that Lake Orion Community Schools are, “the glue that binds the community together.”

He believes that the current board is doing a good job and doing great things for the community and is not running to “fix things.”

His goal is to use his 25 years of finance experience and strategic planning to aid the district in providing an exemplary education and to maintain strong property values.

Singer said the three main issues that the district is facing are all about the proposed school bond on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

“The three key issues are all the story of the November bond proposal. We need to make the schools Safer by modernizing the ways we secure our facilities,” he said.

“We need to make our schools Smarter by providing modern learning spaces for all students and upgrading a computer network that is woefully inadequate to support the delivery of the curriculum.

“We need to make our schools Stronger by creating a long-term plan that manages infrastructure needs like roofs, windows, HVAC and other facility needs.

“Having bond money to do these things will allow us to continue to offer and expand our award winning educational programming.

“The alternative would involve being immediately faced with having to choose which cuts to implement upon taking office in January,” Singer said.

Steve Drakos

Drakos was unable to comment on his candidacy due to his work schedule, but in the Aug. 1 issue of The Lake Orion Review he said that he was born and raised in Lake Orion and graduated from Lake Orion schools.

To date, he has been on the board for eight years and served on the Oxford school board for six years prior to serving on the Lake Orion Board of Education.

“I want to maintain what we’ve accomplished over the last eight years. I consider being a school board member a privilege and an honor. I also consider a school board member to be a nonpartisan, to help everybody in the community – to be available to address the community’s needs and the children’s needs,” said Drakos.

Jim Weidman

Weidman declined to comment when contacted by The Review, but also in our Aug. 1 issue, he stated that upon reelection this would be his 19th year on the school board.

He has four daughters who have graduated from Lake Orion and attributes their success to their education in the district.

“I think with the challenges facing the district right now and the opportunities we have coming up with a potential bond and, looking beyond that with the transition with the superintendent’s role, I thought that I would be a value to the board,” he said.

“Many of the board members haven’t been through either one of those, and I’ve been through multiple ones. I could bring something to the conversation with that process.

“I believe that the schools are the most important part of the community and if the schools are great, so is the community,” Weidman said.

“That’s not to say that a community can’t be great. But the schools are such a key part of that – it’s really the fabric of the community,” he said.

Editor’s Note: In order to be consistent with our election letters policy in the print edition, we will not be allowing any online comments related to the Nov. 6 general election. Per our policy, we did not publish any election-related letters after the Oct. 24 edition. Given this, it would not be fair or ethical to allow people to circumvent this policy by posting election-related comments online. Thank you for understanding.