Meet the candidates – Lake Orion Review election preview

By Jim Newell
Review Editor
ORION TWP. — There will be at least one new member on the Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education after the Nov. 8 General Election.
There are three seats open for election, those currently held by Steve Drakos, Jake Singer and Jim Weidman, the board’s current longest serving member, who is not seeking re-election.
Drakos and Singer are running for re-election and are challenged by Heather Sinawi, Amie Gamache and Tom Daniels.
The Lake Orion Review recently sent questionnaires to each of the candidates, giving the candidates a chance to introduce themselves to the community and share their views on some of the issues confronting the school district.

Thomas F. Daniels
Occupation: I am a retired teacher, administrator and coach. I taught and coached in both public and private schools. At present, I tutor language arts, reading and standardized tests preparation.
Community/school involvement: I am on the Alumni Board of Directors for the University of Detroit Mercy. I have lived in Orion Township for 20 years.
What do you consider to be the most important issue(s) confronting the school district?
Safety of our children is of utmost importance. Parents should be confident that the children who left them in the morning for school will be coming home.
Also, in the face of Schools of Choice and the hovering of a Voucher System, we do not want families to have any excuse for leaving Lake Orion Community Schools. The entire Lake Orion Community depends on our schools to keep it vibrant with high house values.
Therefore, we must continue to provide excellence in academics, provide programs that include all students and ensure excellence in extra curriculars. We must not allow assumptions that the grass is greener elsewhere.
Community input to the board has increased over the past few years. What will you do to ensure that community concerns are addressed by the board?
These are Lake Orion COMMUNITY Schools. Parents are customers. They are welcome to express their concerns.
I am not only the “Commonsense Communicator”, but I am also a patient listener who is open to all ideas. As a past Dean of Students, I was able to resolve issues big and small by listening and communicating.
Student achievement has been down over the past couple of years and is now rebounding. As a board member, how will you help ensure that student achievement continues to be a priority for the district?
No surprise that academic achievement had fallen off during the Covid epidemic and the district’s response – right or wrong. God forbid we are ever confronted with such devastation again. However, if something like this occurs, we cannot let our response devastate the academic and social progress of our students.
Going forward, LOCS must double down on the basics and leave social issues to the parents where they belong.

Steven Drakos
Steve Drakos did not respond to the questionnaire by the deadline.

Amie Gamache
Occupation: I moved to LO in 1993 where I student-taught at Pine Tree Elementary. For the next 27 years I taught in public and private schools in Michigan, teaching educators technology skills through the Genesee ISD, working as a K-3 classroom teacher as well as pioneering a K-8 STEM program. I facilitated competition teams such as Destination Imagination and school clubs including STEM and Book clubs.
Community/school involvement: I am a big fan of our LO Dragon activities but I have a special place in my heart for the LOHS Water Polo team.
Family: My husband and I have three daughters: Jhenna, LOHS 2018, currently an EE student at MTU, Tia, LOHS & OTech Early Middle College 2022, currently a Business student at OU, and Elle, who longs to follow in her big sister’s footsteps and follow them to LOHS.
What do you consider to be the most important issue(s) confronting the school district?
We live in a challenging time, we not only need to educate our students but to keep them secure.
There is a gap in trust and communication between some in the community and the schools. I would like to see our school district build bridges between the schools and the parents and the community.
We need to support the teachers so they can do their best. We need our schools to demonstrate to parents that they are working with them for their child’s best interests.
And as a district we need to strive for classroom resources, curriculum and best practices that will help our students excel. We need parents to know that LOCS are exceptional and the right choice for their children’s education.
Community input to the board has increased over the past few years. What will you do to ensure that community concerns are addressed by the board?
Once again, building bridges rather than becoming adversaries with the families in our community. We need to listen without a predetermined conclusion, being willing to hear and understand and make efforts to address concerns by working with members of the schools and community.
We need to remember that our students first belong to their families and they are entrusting them to us to educate and educate excellently.
Student achievement has been down over the past couple of years and is now rebounding. As a board member, how will you help ensure that student achievement continues to be a priority for the district?
I would like to retain and attract excellent educators. I would like to give teachers resources and the support to teach and challenge our children to excel. I would like to look at some of the curriculum decisions of the past few years and the impact they have had specifically on our graduates. (Example: middle school and high school science curriculum that changed between 2018-2022).
I would like to see some of the researched best practices tried and given a chance to succeed. I would love to see creativity and out of the box thinking in how to create the best learning strategies and environments for our students.

Heather Sinawi
Occupation: Disability Support Staff
Community/school involvement: Volunteer Coach, OGYSL, PTO Parent, Blanche Sims Elementary & Oakview Middle School
Family: Brooklyn, 10, Blanche Sims Elementary; Issabella, 13 Oakview Middle School
What do you consider to be the most important issue(s) confronting the school district?
Atop of everyone’s mind is safety. As well as the overall mental wellness of the students and retaining quality staff.
Community input to the board has increased over the past few years. What will you do to ensure that community concerns are addressed by the board?
I will ensure community concerns are relayed to the proper channels, express questions at our public meetings and be available to assist with issues whenever possible.
Student achievement has been down over the past couple of years and is now rebounding. As a board member, how will you help ensure that student achievement continues to be a priority for the district?
I will keep up to date on student achievement data, request more information if needed, and work with the rest of the board to ensure the district’s strategic plan goals regarding academics are being implemented.

Jake Singer
Occupation: Business Development Manager for Continental Automotive Systems, one of the largest automotive suppliers in the world.
Community/school involvement: Four years served on LOCS Board of Education. Chair of committee supporting 2018 LOCS bond. Member of 2016 sinking fund and 2013 bond campaign committees. Past chair of Christ the Redeemer Parish Council. 1990 LOHS graduate.
Family: Married to a LOCS learning support interventionist and father to two daughters who graduated from LOHS in 2018 & 2020.
What do you consider to be the most important issue(s) confronting the school district?
LOCS is in a really good position to do great things. After receiving input from almost 1,000 stakeholders earlier this year, a strategic plan was developed, which resulted in the creation of five strategic focus areas.
After establishing those goals, the Board’s role transitions to oversight. The Board needs to ensure the actions being proposed by the administration are in alignment with the goals of the strategic plan.
Community input to the board has increased over the past few years. What will you do to ensure that community concerns are addressed by the board?
The Board must understand the community’s desires to make sure the current strategic plan is still relevant. Public comment gives the community a forum to directly address the Board. Many of the concerns raised during public comments are operational in nature.
While it is good for the Board to have awareness when concerns with operations exist, school boards hire a superintendent to run the operations of the school district. Boards that overstep their roles and have members attempting to interfere with the operating decisions of the superintendent almost always suffer from falling student achievement, so the Board’s role is to focus on evaluating how well the superintendent’s operational decisions meet the goals of the district.
Student achievement has been down over the past couple of years and is now rebounding. As a board member, how will you help ensure that student achievement continues to be a priority for the district?
Organizations tend to perform in ways that relate to how they are measured, so a school board has to work with the superintendent to establish metrics which appropriately monitor student achievement.
The initial metrics for LOCS will be established in the next two months, so Board members elected in November will have to work within the governance team continuing to request data that shows student achievement is being positively impacted by each of the strategic focus areas.
The good news is the strategic plan can be viewed as “aspirational.” The Board specifically did not want to limit the ways the strategic plan could positively impact student achievement, so the possibilities for making that happen are very exciting.