Submitted
At the Nov. 8 election, residents of the Hamilton Heights school district will have two candidates from which to choose for the White River Township seat on the school board. Doug Ozolins and Ben Lehman will vie for the White River Township seat on the five-person board.
Ozolins is seeking a third term on the school board and Lehman is looking to be elected to the board for the first time. Julie Davis (Jackson Township) and Arnett Cooper (At-Large) are running unopposed.
In addition, a special forum featuring all the candidates will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20 at the Student Activity Center in Arcadia. The evening will double as Heights’ first HHSC Superintendent Advisory Group (SAG) meeting of the year. The forum, presented by the Hamilton Heights Classroom Teachers Association (HHCTA), is open to the public and will be broadcast live by the Husky Broadcast Network on YouTube.
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CANDIDATE: BENJAMIN G. LEHMAN
City: Noblesville
Spouse’s name: Audrey Fisher Lehman
Number of children: 2
Profession: Certified Public Accountant
Ben Lehman is a lifelong resident of Hamilton County and a 2003 graduate of Hamilton Heights.
Shortly after graduating from Purdue in 2008 with his accounting degree, he married his high school sweetheart, Audrey (Fisher) Lehman. She is a 2005 graduate of Hamilton Heights and is a scientist at Corteva Agriscience. They have two amazing and active children, Faith (Hamilton Heights class of 2030) and Caleb (Hamilton Heights class of 2033).
Lehman worked for Crowe Horwath for two years before joining the Lehman and Company CPA firm, founded by his parents Kevin and Donna (Flanders) Lehman. He was blessed with the opportunity to become a part owner in the practice in 2016. He has always had a heart for serving, for his family, for his church, for his community and his clients. He is the treasurer for Victory Chapel Community Church and the 50 Club of Hamilton County and is a board member of Hamilton County Extension Board as well as the co-commissioner for the Hamilton Heights Youth Football League. Ben has served as a 4-H volunteer for 17 years, while serving as Swine Barn superintendent for eight years giving back after his 10-year 4-H career. He has been a baseball, basketball, soccer, and football coach for Faith and Caleb’s teams the past few years and has loved every minute of spending that time with his kids and helping their peers learn and grow.
Lehman would like the opportunity to serve on the school board taking his career knowledge, volunteer experience and service-oriented heart to make our school the best it can be.
Q: Why do you want to serve Hamilton Heights as a member of the School Board?
A: I want to be an advocate for the kids, parents, teachers and property owners of this great community.
Q: What specialized skills/background do you bring with you that would make you an asset to the Hamilton Heights School Board?
A: I am a Certified Public Accountant; therefore, I help my clients with making financial business and personal decisions every day. This background has allowed me to look through the lens of many different businesses and situations while trying to have an open mind for what decisions will create the best outcome.
Q: What experience do you have with complex budgets?
A: My work as a CPA has provided me the opportunity to help clients create and review budgets. In addition to dealing with numbers daily for work, I am also the treasurer of Victory Chapel Community Church and the Fifty Club of Hamilton County. These individuals and organizations have entrusted me with making financial decisions and these roles have taught me to treat their money as I would treat my own.
Q: What is the district’s greatest capital needs right now? How do you think those needs should be addressed?
A: I believe the district’s greatest capital need right now is preparing for potential growth. I believe with kids transferring into the school system and the potential for more subdivisions being built calls us to be prepared for this potential influx of students. I believe our school did a good job initially preparing for the increase by remodeling, but at some point, we will need to review logistics and determine how to adjust for this new climate.
Q: What do you see as the opportunities and challenges in this district?
A: Our school’s greatest opportunity is the small-town feel, with booming potential. We have created an atmosphere that promotes family and being civic minded. Our challenge is to maintain our core values as transfers and new families move into our school system. We have to embrace the fact that why people are coming here is because of our core values.
Q: What are the significant issues that matter most to you? How will you be accountable for them as a School Board member?
A: The most significant issue for me is transparency. If I am elected, I will be working for those that entrusted me to do what I say. I want my constituents to know as much as I can possibly provide. I will do this by working to inform people on what is planned and listening to their concerns.
Q: What are the factors on which you will base your decisions as a School Board member?
A: I will base my decisions as a School Board member on my faith and the past opportunities I’ve had to learn from members of our community. I am simply a vessel trying to make the best better for our kids, our parents, our teachers and staff, and our community.
Q: How will you build consensus and support in the community around the decisions of the school district? Who do you bring with you to the table?
A: I will listen. I will insist on input from the community. If the school board assumes they know what’s best without input from the community, it will completely discount those around us and the wisdom they have developed over the years. My job will be to use discernment as I bring the needs and concerns of the kids, parents, teachers, and property taxpayers to the table to help make Hamilton Heights the best it can be.
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CANDIDATE: DOUG OZOLINS
Town: Atlanta
Married: Christi (Bryant) Ozolins
Children: 3
Profession: Entrepreneur
Doug Ozolins is a 1985 graduate of Center Grove High School and attended Ball State University. Doug’s wife, Christi Bryant-Ozolins, is a 1984 graduate of Hamilton Heights. Ozolins has lived in the community for more than three decades. The Bryant family has farmed in this community since the mid-1800s.
Ozolins is the owner of Tier2 Group (Construction Supply Wholesale) and Atlas Lifting & Rigging, Inc. (Lifting & Rigging Manufacturer). He is involved in the industries’ leadership and has served in many leadership positions on a national level. He has been married to Christi for 34 years and they are members of Arcadia Christian Church where he has helped lead worship for almost 30 years. Their son Derek is the high school tennis coach at Heights, and Josh is a senior at Heights and is planning to attend Purdue University. Son Nick passed away from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in 2010.
Ozolins has served as the elected school board representative for White River Township for the past eight years. Currently he is serving as a member of the Hamilton Heights School Board facilities and Policy committees. In addition, he among the longest serving members of the Indiana State School Board Association (ISBA) Legislative Committee (since 2019) and the high school Robotics Coach. He is a past member of the Hamilton Heights Educational Foundation, past President of the Husky Champion’s Club, past President of Hamilton Heights Youth Football.
Ozolins would like to be elected to the school board one more term. He wants to finish the construction projects at Heights, hand his son his diploma, and ride off into the sunset knowing he made a difference in his community.
Q: Why do you want to serve Hamilton Heights as a member of the School Board?
A: When discussing this question, the first time I ran, I was told that it was never good to run if you had an agenda to promote. An agenda can blind you to what the best decisions may be. My only reason was to give back to the community that had been so supportive of my family when our oldest son Nick was killed in an auto accident during Christmas break of his freshman year at Purdue.
I want to continue to serve because, simply put, I have work left to do. Completing the building projects that have been started during my tenure is important to me. Also, as one of the most tenured members on the Indiana State School Board Association Legislative Committee, I have a major voice in the legislation that affects not only our school but the whole state. I am in that position to make a difference for our community. I look forward to the next four years.
Q: What specialized skills/background do you bring with you that would make you an asset to the Hamilton Heights School Board?
A: The best skill that any school board member can bring is common sense. What you do for a profession, what boards you have served on, your work in the community or what you have done in the past is important, but what matters the most is the ability to work cohesively and as a team with the other school board members and staff. The ability to listen, communicate with others, listen some more and then make decisions is crucial. I believe I have earned the respect of our community, administration, teachers, students, and current board members.
Q: What experience do you have with complex budgets?
A: I currently own and operate two businesses. As for school finances with their state and federal requirements, a school board’s role is not to manage those finances, but to set a vision for the finance team. I have eight years of dealing directly with our team to keep your tax rates flat while expanding and remodeling our facilities.
No one in our community knows how to run the finances of a school corporation like our Heights financial team. We have hired and continue to maintain a staff that specializes in school finance and sets a vision of conservative financial decisions. Thankfully, I can get out of their way and let them do what they do best.
Q: What is the district’s greatest capital needs right now? How do you think those needs should be addressed?
A: Teacher pay and teacher retention should be everyone’s priority. We now have facilities that are state of the art, but none of this means anything if we don’t have and can’t keep the best staff to teach our kids. One of the agenda items I pushed for in the past on the state legislative committee was a major pay increase for our teachers. If I am re-elected, I will continue at the state level to focus our legislators on the importance of increasing our teacher’s compensation.
Q: What do you see as the opportunities and challenges in this district?
A: Keeping Heights, Heights is a constant challenge. Growth is an issue for many schools. However, I feel that our board has done its due diligence in planning for the future. We invest in detailed population studies that continue to be accurate year after year. I also feel that one of the biggest challenges we may face is the line between being politically correct and what we, as a conservative community, want our children to be taught. I want our kids to be brought up in a community that loves every one of them equally and allows great kids to do great things.
Q: What are the significant issues that matter most to you? How will you be accountable for them as a School Board member?
A: My goal has always been to make Hamilton Heights the best 3A school in the state. We have some of the best facilities, staff, and educational programs in the state. We have one of the best financial ratings of any school corporation in the state. We have the second lowest tax rate in Hamilton County. We have set the standard in the state of Indiana on how to run a fiscally conservative school corporation. We lead the way in the state for career pathways for our students. Our kids are safe and getting an outstanding education. If you feel I haven’t done my job, vote for the other guy.
Q: What are the factors on which you will base your decisions as a School Board member?
A: Always putting the student first and non-emotional, common-sense decision making.
Q: How will you build consensus and support in the community around the decisions of the school district? Who do you bring with you to the table?
A: I believe consensus and community support is earned through transparency (all school board meetings are available to the public and minutes are published unless it is an executive session where confidential personnel or student aspects are involved). I also believe communication, trust, integrity, and common-sense decision making are needed to gain that support. I hope that my 31 years of experience as a parent, years of service as a school board member, coach, and leadership in several Heights organizations has solidified the trust and support of the community.