State Board of Education: Amy Zuren hopes to leap from local to state BOE
By Christopher Sivak
It has been three years since her election to the Willoughby-Eastlake Board of Education and Amy Zuren now says she is ready to take her experience down to Columbus.
An open seat on the Ohio State Board of Education for District 11 sparked a race for the seat between four candidates this election season. Three of them (Meryl Johnson, Bill Lavezzi, and Richard T. Montgomery) have 120 combined years of experience in education as teachers and administrators. The other, Amy Zuren, is a drug-and-alcohol counselor, a parent, and a current member of the Willoughby-Eastlake Board of Education.
If elected to the Ohio State Board of Education, it will be Zuren’s first time serving a school board at the state level.
Zuren’s passion for education began, she says, when she was a young child. “I loved school and I want to make those places of learning fun again.”
The passion continued into her adult life. As a mother of three children, Zuren is highly invested in their public education, which inspired her to run for the position on the School Board in Willoughby-Eastlake.
“What gave me rise to do something about education is, when they [her children] were younger, participating in the early childhood PTA. I became a vice president and president… then my kids got too old for that institution,” she said. “So, I said ‘Well, I want to be committed. I want to be driven. I want to help programs go and go.’ So, then the light bulb ticked that maybe running for my local Board of Education would be a good thing.”
Zuren has served on the Willoughby-Eastlake Board of Education since 2013.
Zuren believes her life in District 11 grants her a unique qualification that her opposing candidates lack. “I am a 100-percent native of District 11 — born here, raised here. I went to school here, my kids go to school here, always lived here. Every job I’ve ever had has always been in District 11. So who better than that to champion the schools?”
Zuren currently works as a drug and alcohol counselor. In her job, Zuren sees the detrimental effects of not receiving a quality education.
“I see the travesty when people don’t get educated,” she said, “There are a lot of people who have an educational goal, but they can’t do it in that field due to a charge or a criminal record.” She believes a good quality education is “vital” and “paramount” because of the opportunities it presents to those who have it.
“Any job, any trade, any career field anything requires some level of education.” Education then, according to Zuren, “should be enough choices, and enough systems that people can get the education that they need.”
Some of the choices to which Zuren refers include programs that offer training for specific trades. “I believe that every kid is different. Every kid is not going to go to a John Carroll, or a Tri C, or a Cleveland State,” she said. “My oldest is probably geared more towards the trades. That’s where I believe educational programs need to be broad, so kids have opportunities, so there are futures.”
In addition to her lifetime loyalty to the community of District 11, Zuren’s experience on the Willoughby-Eastlake School Board sets her apart from the other opposing candidates. “I am the only candidate that has that elected board experience at the local level.”
Though Bill Lavezzi, another candidate running for the District 11 position, has served on the board of directors of the Ohio Education Association, Zuren is the only candidate elected to a board position.
Zuren also brought up, in speaking about what sets her apart from the other candidates, her availability as a local official. “If I’m home, I answer every phone call. … I talk to the residents. … I listen, sometimes hours, to what their struggle is.”
“It’s always been my policy if you call me or email me I’ll try to get back to you. That’s just how I am,” she added. “Because that’s the duty I signed on to … to care and be passionate about their concerns.”
In the interview, Zuren also spoke about some important issues in education, including concerns over standardized testing and the inequities of public education.
She presented her concerns over standardized testing and its function in evaluating both student learning and teacher effectiveness. In Zuren’s opinion, further research is necessary to determine the validity of these tests in evaluating both students and teachers. “I would like that all [standardized testing] to be really looked at and figure out if there’s a better way that teachers can be fairly evaluated on the job because I don’t believe that state report cards and standardized tests are really showing what the kids learn.”
Zuren cites her local school district’s report card as an example of the invalidity of standardized tests. “We have 48 AP scholars and our state report card was Cs, Ds, and Fs. … It doesn’t translate to student learning.” She believes the evaluation of students should be based on the gains a child makes throughout the course of their education. “I believe it [the test] needs to show what has the student gained.”
Zuren also discussed the inequities in public education that vary from district to district. In addition to unequal funding between school districts due to property taxes, Zuren also stated that teachers have an effect on inequity as. She suggests that quality teachers may choose to work in affluent communities leaving inexperienced or ineffective teachers to find work in failing school districts, compounding the problems of struggling districts. Zuren acknowledges that this claim is speculative rather than fact based.
“I’m not saying every teacher is going to pick the better school district. I’m just saying that probably does occur in a fair amount of cases.” Zuren followed up saying, “I would like to encourage that quality instruction be shared equally.”
In her campaign pamphlet, Zuren states that she will take her local experience on the Willoughby-Eastlake BOE to Columbus to help all students. She holds that collaboration is one of her core assets and she “will advocate for local interests and concerns, promoting collaboration for educational opportunities, apply educational leadership skills, and put students first!”
Zuren said she looks forward to the election and is hopeful the outcome will be in her favor.
