{"id":800606,"date":"2019-10-22T18:54:19","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T00:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=373368"},"modified":"2019-10-22T18:54:19","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T00:54:19","slug":"lauren-gearhart-a-commitment-to-listening-to-diverse-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/lauren-gearhart-a-commitment-to-listening-to-diverse-perspectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Gearhart: A commitment to listening to diverse perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-gearhart-sdn-102319-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-gearhart-sdn-102319-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-gearhart-sdn-102319-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-gearhart-sdn-102319-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Lauren Gearhart<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Occupation: Summit County government Mountain Mentors coordinator<\/li>\n<li>Hometown: Bowling Green, Ohio<\/li>\n<li>Years in Summit County: 10<\/li>\n<li>Civic involvement: Healthy Futures Initiative coalition member, Communities that Care coalition member, Positive Youth Development trainer, Mountain Mentors volunteer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am running for the Summit School District Board of<br \/>\nEducation in order to support our young people reach their full potential. I<br \/>\nwant to provide experiential learning opportunities with room for failure. Whose<br \/>\nmost memorable lessons didn\u2019t come from our biggest failures? I want to foster<br \/>\nauthentic relationships peer to peer as well as connect youths to positive<br \/>\nadult role models. Most of all, I want our youths to enjoy life. Academic<br \/>\nachievement can\u2019t happen if basic needs aren\u2019t met. Along with safety and sense<br \/>\nof belonging, mental health support is also a basic need.<\/p>\n<p>I have been teaching, mentoring and coaching Summit County<br \/>\nyouths for the past 10 years. I started out by coaching gymnastics and<br \/>\nfreestyle sports. Moving on to work for the School Based Health Center at<br \/>\nSummit High School, I had the opportunity to present on various health topics<br \/>\nin multiple classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>With Summit County Youth and Family Services, I have been<br \/>\ngiven the opportunity to teach classes at Summit Middle School and Summit High<br \/>\nSchool focusing on health and peer-to-peer relationships. Outside of the<br \/>\nclassroom, I also spend time with students at the Summit County Teen Center,<br \/>\nThe Drop. In addition, I sit on the youth involvement committee through the Communities<br \/>\nthat Care coalition. I also have the privilege of facilitating Positive Youth<br \/>\nDevelopment trainings along with students from the Youth Empowerment Society of<br \/>\nSummit. I have presented at various parent education seminars at the middle and<br \/>\nhigh school focusing on health and communication.<\/p>\n<p>I earned my master\u2019s degree in public health from University<br \/>\nof Toledo with a focus in education. I take pride in role modeling healthy<br \/>\nlifestyle behaviors throughout the community by prioritizing outdoor recreation<br \/>\nand meaningful social engagement. My main reasons for running for school board are<br \/>\nincreasing teacher wages, improving social and emotional therapy and learning,<br \/>\nand increasing community connectedness.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>My first priority is to increase teacher wages.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our teachers are not only responsible for lesson planning<br \/>\nand implementation, often times their scope of work is much further reaching \u2014<br \/>\nsocial workers, mentors, advocates, this list goes on and on. So do the hours,<br \/>\nmany unfortunately without compensation. It is time we acknowledge everything<br \/>\nthat teachers do for our students, our communities and our futures by paying<br \/>\nthem competitive wages to be able to live in Summit County. I support ballot<br \/>\nMeasure 4A and Proposition CC to ensure increasing teacher wages is a top<br \/>\ndistrict priority.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My second priority is increasing access to mental health care.&nbsp; <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Increasing capacity for therapeutic intervention as well as<br \/>\nteaching our students to be caring learners is paramount in reducing bullying,<br \/>\nlow self-esteem and suicidal ideation. Support for social and emotional growth<br \/>\nearly on will allow our students to express compassion and empathy toward a<br \/>\ndiverse student body. Once young minds are clear of stress, conflict and<br \/>\ntrauma, they can then focus on academic achievement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My third priority is to build community connectedness.&nbsp; <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For such a small community, there are large distances<br \/>\nbetween neighborhoods and families. Summit School District can bridge these<br \/>\ngaps and create a greater sense of community attachment by providing more<br \/>\nparent and family events and trainings.&nbsp;<br \/>\nCommunication must be comprehensive and accurate in all languages and<br \/>\ncultures represented in the schools. This means increasing translation and<br \/>\ninterpretation services. Partnering with local employers and industries to<br \/>\nteach tech and trade courses can also bridge classroom learning to local<br \/>\nemployment opportunities while reducing the strain of our low unemployment<br \/>\nrate.<\/p>\n<p>In order to accomplish these priorities, I promise to listen. There are many things I don\u2019t know about Summit School District. I have worked with teachers, support staff, administration, coaches, board members, parents and student, but I have not heard every voice. There are many things I have yet to learn. I promise to use my critical thinking skills after hearing diverse perspectives in order to inform the decision-making process. I do not have the perspective of raising my own children, only my experiences engaging with our children, as this takes a village.<\/p>\n<p><em>Find more election coverage at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/election\/\">SummitDaily.com\/election<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/lauren-gearhart-a-commitment-to-listening-to-diverse-perspectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lauren GearhartCourtesy photo Occupation: Summit County government Mountain Mentors coordinator Hometown: Bowling Green, Ohio Years in Summit County: 10 Civic involvement: Healthy Futures Initiative coalition member, Communities that Care coalition member, Positive Youth Development trainer, Mountain Mentors volunteer I am running for the Summit School District Board of Education in order to support our young [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 10:40:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}