Loychik looks to cut school board members’ terms | News, Sports, Jobs

Escorted by a Cortland police officer out of a Lakeview school board meeting in September for refusing to wear a mandated face mask, state Rep. Mike Loychik introduced legislation to reduce elected public board of education terms from four to two years.

It’s the second attempt by Loychik, R-Bazetta, to rein in school districts.

The freshman legislator introduced a bill in August, a few weeks before he was kicked out of a Lakeview board meeting, to prohibit schools in Ohio from mandating that students wear masks.

In a Thursday prepared statement, Loychik said he’s heard from numerous constituents about a lack of accountability among those who serve on school boards — even though they face election every four years.

“Voters should have the chance to hold reckless school board members accountable more frequently and the best way to do that is limit their term from four years to two years,” he said. “The community will have the opportunity to make their voice heard at the ballot box, and my hope is that this will produce better candidates, who overall make important decisions regarding our children in their day-to-day life while attending schools.”

Attempts Thursday to reach Loychik for further comment were unsuccessful.

Since his November 2020 election to the House, Loychik has spoken only once to reporters from this newspaper despite numerous efforts to contact him.

That one time was in person at an anti-mask mandate rally in Cortland on Aug. 15, 2021, in which he said: “The masks are detrimental to their health” and it was “an overreach by the school board and the superintendent.”

He said at the rally that he planned to show up at the Sept. 13 school board meeting.

But Loychik was escorted by a police officer out of that Lakeview school board meeting before it started because he refused to wear a mask in violation of the district’s policy.

On a social media post after, Loychik called the superintendent and school board members “cowardly” and that he would “never bow down to their ridiculous mandates.”

Like a number of Loychik’s bills, the proposal to prohibit schools from mandating that students wear masks went nowhere.

Other stalled Loychik proposals during his 13 months in elected office include trying to declare Ohio a Second Amendment sanctuary state, renaming Mosquito Lake State Park after former President Donald Trump and not requiring members of the Ohio National Guard to get COVID-19 vaccinations.