On Nov. 3, Beachwood voters will select from three candidates for two open seats on the Beachwood Board of Education.

Dawann Gray is looking to win a seat, while incumbents Joshua Mintz and Steve Rosen are seeking re-election.

Gray and Mintz are both members the BHS Class of 1993.

Jennifer Tramer, a board member from 2007-2011, noted that it takes a great deal of energy to run a campaign.

“You need to be able to raise funds in order to communicate with the community,” she wrote in an email.

“During a campaign, it is good to have ideas of what you would like to accomplish as a board member and to articulate those ideas clearly,” Tramer continued.

The three candidates come from a variety of professional backgrounds.

Gray owns a property restoration company, while Mintz owns and operates commercial real estate. Rosen owns a company that sells “hold” music and messages to businesses.

All three candidates have published statements in the October issue of the Beachwood Buzz, stating their respective campaign platform.

One important campaign issue is athletic facilities. Both Gray and Rosen said they feel it is time to make improvements.

“Our fields have been deemed unsafe, and soccer games have been cancelled because of this,” Gray wrote in an email. “[In addition,] more leg and ankle injuries have occurred on our field as opposed to when we play away games.”

Gray compared the recent $35.6-million BHS renovation project to remodeling a house.

“Look at the … renovation to our high school with no attention to the exterior,” he wrote. “This is akin to building a new home and not putting any landscaping in.”

In his statement to the Buzz, Mintz wrote that he feels the Board does not rest on its laurels.

“[I am] proud to serve on a board that doesn’t focus on just [our] accomplishments,” he wrote.

Rosen agreed, adding that there are multiple projects he wants to see to the end.

“[One of these projects is] consolidation and/or repairing our elementary schools,” he said in an interview. “I want to have lights in our football stadium [and] new field surfaces with better water management systems.”

All three candidates are proud that Beachwood City Schools is one of the top-rated school districts in Ohio.

Mintz feels that the district’s success depends on team work.

“It is a number of things from the opportunities that we provide our children, the support we give them as a community, but most importantly the team from our administration down to the staff,” he wrote in an email. “They go above and beyond every day for all of our children.”

“Our schools have never been better [than they have] over the last four years,” Rosen said. “We’ve done things like starting a medical academy, Hilltop [Elementary] is a blue ribbon school [and] the high school is one of the best schools in the Midwest.”

The BHS Medical Academy began in August 2014, in partnership with University Hospitals, for students wishing to pursue a career in the medical field. Hilltop, as Rosen noted, was named a National Blue Ribbon School earlier this year. In 2014, the school district ranked eighth out of the state’s 611 school districts, meeting all 24 standards and receiving seven As and two Bs.

While Gray is largely in agreement, he said he feels the success of students should not solely be measured in grades.

However, as a member of the football team coaching staff Gray has implemented a “study table,” which provides time to work on homework for those who have athletic practice after school.

Gray commented that he feels many people lack the willpower to follow through on their ideas.

“I have seen too many instances where people have ideas, and they waste time studying the idea and the efficacy of the idea, instead of running with it and owning the idea,” Gray wrote.