New L’view board member likes challenge

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Mark Zielke has a lot on his plate this year … and he’s really looking forward to it.

Zielke, who just took a new supervisory position at the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Van Wert County garage this past October, will also be sworn in this coming Monday as a member of the Lincolnview Local Board of Education during its organizational meeting. Both positions are challenges, but Zielke said he is excited about doing both jobs.

Zielke said he had been looking for a way to be more involved in the Lincolnview community after moving here from Paulding County 16 years ago.

“As my involvement grew here, I really fell in love with the area, the school district, the ballpark community, and I think that’s when I think I really felt a desire to become involved more deeply,” he said.

A 14-year veteran of ODOT who has worked in a number of areas in the department’s District 1, which encompasses Allen, Defiance, Hancock, Hardin, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, and Wyandot counties, Zielke said he wouldn’t have imagined doing what he’s doing today when he was a student at Wayne Trace High School more than 20 years ago.

“I always thought I would be a farmer,” he said, noting that he grew up on a family grain farm in Paulding County and thought that would be his lifetime vocation.

But then his dad died when he was 17 and Zielke was suddenly thrust into the job of having to manage the family farm largely on his own. Zielke said it was a job he wasn’t prepared for.

“I learned an awful lot of hard lessons about farming,” he said, noting that he finally realized that farming wasn’t his dream job after all.

After settling affairs on the farm Zielke moved to Van Wert County in 2001, eventually got a job with ODOT, met his wife, Missy, got married in 2007, and had two children, Grant, now 9, and Avery, 8. He also has a stepson, Chance, 16, who he said has been a Lincolnview student, but now goes to Parkway because of his interest in football.

Zielke said it’s been a good life, although one he probably couldn’t envision as a kid who was obsessed with farming.

“I just couldn’t be any happier with where I’m at in this world at this time,” Zielke noted.

The new Lincolnview board member said he feels the communication and people skills he has developed over the past 14 years while working for ODOT will also be an asset as a board member. In fact, Zielke said those skills probably played an important part in his being elected to the board.

Noting that he spent a good amount of time traveling throughout the district during the election campaign to talk with residents and get their thoughts on the school district, Zielke said he was pleasantly surprised at how well his efforts were received by local residents. He has also had meetings with Superintendent Jeff Snyder and Treasurer Troy Bowersock, and has talked to Board President Michelle Gorman after he was elected to get a better idea of what they do and how the district operates.

“I think we all have this preconceived notion about how something works,” Zielke said, noting that, while some of his notions were pretty close, he didn’t realize just how much work it took to operate a school district. “I underestimated the amount of business they conduct on a daily basis. Those folks are busy!”

While the talks have given him a newfound, deeper appreciation of what school officials do, Zielke said they have also made him more eager to take on his new responsibility as a board member.

“The more I learn about what goes on and how it works, the business they deal with every day, the more excited I become,” he said.

Communicating with people is something Zielke said he does well, noting that he talks so often with his employees at ODOT that he couldn’t envision a situation where a worker would be dissatisfied without him knowing it.

“I’ll know it at an early enough stage that I’ll constantly be working to avoid it, or repair it,” Zielke said.

It’s an asset he feels he would bring to the Lincolnview school board to help avoid any unresolved issues that might lead to confrontations down the road.

“Sometimes when an issue becomes big enough, finally people converge on a board meeting and usually they’re pretty excited at that point,” he said. “In my opinion, that’s way too late.”

Zielke said he hopes to have an “open door” policy as a board member that will allow district residents to contact him whenever they have a concern or issue.

Noting that he is a “brick and mortar guy”, the new Lincolnview board member said he is looking forward to being involved in the new community center project and would like to attend a construction meeting soon to learn more about the project.

Zielke said he is also excited about the new educational and career programs he sees being offered by Lincolnview and other schools that he feels set kids in a positive direction in life.

“I just want to be a part of furthering that,” he said.