SHADYSIDE — Visions of Shadyside held a meet the candidates event in order for residents to become familiar with who will be on the ballot this coming November, and candidates for both Shadyside School Board and the Mead Township Board of Trustees both addressed those in attendance.

School board members Michael Derosa and Joel Traylor are seeking re-election while newcomer Shannan Hildebrand is looking to become a first-time board member.

Mead Township Trustees Paul Merryman and Clyde Hammond also are seeking re-election, while David Albright Jr. is seeking to be elected for the first time.

Two out of the three for both the school board and board of trustees will be voted in.

Village resident Jay Morgan mediated the event and asked the candidates various questions that were outsourced by the community via the Visions of Shadyside’s Facebook page.

The school board candidates went first.

Morgan asked Derosa if re-elected what he could do as a school board member to reverse enrollment decline.

Derosa said that, to increase enrollment, a school must have programs that parents want to bring their kids to through either open enrollment or new people moving into the area.

“People move to an area when there’s great businesses, there’s great opportunity. Those are the key things that build a community, in my opinion. And so if we do those things, we could stop that decline,” Derosa said.

Morgan then asked Hildebrand how she would measure if the school is successful or not.

“We have lost so many different things over the past, since I’ve been in school, so since 2003, clubs have been abolished in schools,” Hildebrand said. “I would love to bring those clubs back. Art club, Spanish club, things that make these kids successful and want to be there.”

She added that she would love to start a gardening club, where kids can come after school during the summer and water the plants throughout Shadyside and earn community service credits. She then suggested kids could earn physical education credits by mowing elderly people’s lawns.

“We’ve got to look into working with the community,” Hildebrand said.

Traylor was then asked what he believed the board could do to stop enrollment decline.

He replied that he believes schools should conduct exit interviews with students and parents who are leaving to see if theycan address and adjust any issues that are causing the students to leave.

“One of the things that we actually have in place is anti-bullying. The principals and teachers are really proactive toward this, and they meet individually with the families and spend time working through the issue,” he said.

Albright was then asked what he believes needs to be done in the township in the next five years. He replied that the roads are in terrible shape and need to be paved.

Albright said that the streets need to stop being patched and to be completely repaved.

“Paving them would last seven to eight years; patching them doesn’t do anything,” he said.

Hammond was then asked what his vision for the township would be for the next five years.

He replied that the township is working on plans to build a new township building.

“We got [$75,000 from [former U.S. Senator] [Sherrod] Brown. We got $300,000 from [Ohio State] Sen. [Brian] Chavez,” he said.

He added that the township has been in talks with Congressman Mike Rulli’s office to receive $1.2 million.

“Hopefully this will come true, and within the next year or so, we’ll have a new township building to store all of our trucks,” Hammond said.

Lastly Merryman was asked what his vision for township is in the next five years.

“We’re going to continue to leverage grant funds,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work with the state. We’re going to continue to work with the county. We’re going to continue to apply for Ohio Public Works Commission funds and just try to get things done.”