Adria Catanese (Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, At-large, Ohio, candidate 2025)
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Adria Catanese ran for election to the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, At-large in Ohio. Catanese was on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Catanese completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Adria Catanese provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 22, 2025:
- High school: Parma Senior High School
- Bachelor's: University of Toledo, 1990
- Graduate: Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management, 1995
- Profession: Engineer
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
General election for Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, At-large (2 seats)
Noel Abou-Mitri, Adria Catanese, Brad Chase, and Tish Kwiatkowski ran in the general election for Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, At-large on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Noel Abou-Mitri (Nonpartisan) | ||
Adria Catanese (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Brad Chase (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Tish Kwiatkowski (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Catanese received the following endorsements.
- Broadview Heights Mayor Sam Alai
- North Shore Federation of Labor AFL-CIO
- Red Wine and Blue
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Adria Catanese completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Catanese's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am the proud mother of 2 BBH daughters - one graduate and one high school senior. We moved to Brecksville for the sole purpose of enrolling my daughters in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District for their entire student careers, as the reputation of excellence in education was a top priority. We have never been disappointed with that choice.
I hold an MBA from The CWRU Weatherhead School of Management and have 35 years' experience as a degreed Industrial Engineer. Throughout my career, I have held positions in Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations and Continuous Improvement. In these positions, I have been responsible for overseeing employees, leading teams, managing large-scale projects and complex budgets. In my current position, I facilitate team problem-solving and collaborate with multiple departments and cross-functional teams.
In my free time, I love hiking in the Metro Parks, meeting friends to work out at OrangeTheory, reading and community events. But my favorite past-time has been attending my daughters' school events including BBH theater productions, choir concerts and watching my youngest in the Bees Marching Band!- I will listen to parents, families, teachers and students so that I can provide the best guidance for each and every one of our students through my leadership responsibilities on the board. The BBHCSD reputation is phenomenal. We need to continue to build upon that reputation by being agile and flexible to make improvements where needed. I believe this is done by setting aside personal politics and agendas. Our students and families are our customers and we need to continually work to serve them to the very best of our ability. Being "future ready" means that they have not only received an excellent education, but they have had no limitations for extracurricular activities, friendships and cultural experiences.
- I will assist in creating an environment that readies our kids for their next chapter whether it's higher education, trade school, military or the workplace. I strongly believe that ensuring our students acquire problem-solving skills and the ability to function as positive team members is critical. While college is not the path for every student, ensuring that they can solve complex problems, understand the world around them, and act with kindness and compassion for others is a sure path to success. Being emotionally prepared means they have learned character-building and respect for everyone's differences.
- I will create an environment where our kids feel safe, heard, valued, respected and cared for. As a board member, I want to ensure that we have a robust safety plan and stay up to date on best practices so that our kids feel - and are - safe from the time they enter the building until the time they leave. Our policies and offerings that support the emotional well being of each child ensure that they can develop the confidence to become self-reliant. I believe that we must provide any mental health support when needed to safeguard not only the student but potentially the entire school. Children cannot learn, grow and become self-reliant if we do not provide save and nurturing environments.
Having attended public schools myself and my children as well, I have a lifelong passion around public school funding. Rising home values, slow economic growth and years of tax policy changes have amplified public school funding challenges. Ohio's method of funding public schools had been declared unconstitutional in 1997 and until 2016, nothing had been done to rectify that. The Fair School Funding Plan was a bipartisan effort to correct the funding problem. However, this last budget bill in Ohio did not adequately fund public schools. Additionally, more money was given to private schools and the voucher program than even previously. As a school board member, I will continue to contact our legislature and fight for public school funding.
Under the laws of the state of Ohio, the board acts as the governing body of the district, hires the superintendent and treasurer, adopts and maintains policies and informs the public and weighs public opinion. Some policies will be state mandated but some will be district created. I also believe that my job will be to work collaboratively and actively listen to the needs of families, students and the community while working as a leader and a teammate.
Each and every one of our community members is a constituent but especially the parents and children of our district.
I would ensure that our current and future policies include all students equally in their learning adventure. Programs for gifted, IEPs and special education would be supported. Professional development would continue to be offered for teachers and I would listen to their requests for new enrichment and development. I believe that teaching students about empathy and kindness should be emphasized. I pledge to ensure that staff and community voices are heard in either board meetings or community events.
Ensuring that I am available to my community is key. Attending communication events sponsored by our school district and keeping the community informed is critical. Following up on concerns by parents and students is also important to build community trust. First and foremost, our parents and students need to be supported. They are direct customers of any school district. Teachers also play a critical role in the district and I would keep lines of communication open with them to understand any issues that are existing that may need addressed.
Good teaching encompasses many facets. First, the teacher needs to create an environment where the students feel safe to ask questions, ask for additional help or other resources when they don't understand something. The teacher needs to have a deep content understanding where they can offer alternate explanations for students who need a different response. They need to recognize when a student may be struggling but is too shy to ask for help.
One standard way to measure this is with student formative and summative assessments. Unfortunately, not all students are good test takers - they might understand the topic but just not test well. Classroom observations can be utilized and quantified and feedback surveys from students can be insightful.
Given the current situation in school funding in Ohio, having a constant line of communication with our legislators and our community is critical. The legislature continues to need to hear from the school districts of the ramifications of reduced school funding. The community needs to understand how the schools are being funded, what role they play and the importance of the legislators hearing directly from the community. I have stated that I am glad the district joined the voucher lawsuit. Vouchers are proven to hurt public education. I will work collaboratively with my fellow board members to be a good steward of our district funds.
Students' safety will always be a top priority. Parents send their children to school to learn - not ever thinking that they may not return home. I cannot imagine the pain and anguish of losing a child. So having the most up-to-date technologies in safety is critical. Having occasional professional assessments completed to understand and correct shortcomings is important. Both parents and children should feel that they are in the safest environment they can be in.
Ensuring we have the necessary resources such as school psychologists, counselors and mental health resources is critical to our success and safety. Additionally, I would welcome any new recommendations for offering supportive services in these areas.
I would like to delve more into the topic of bullying and look to create a parent/student/community task force to understand the causes of it and how to reduce/eliminate it.
Broadview Heights Mayor Sam Alai
My ideal learning environment is one where the students feel safe, are encouraged to learn from their mistakes, an environment that is respectful for all students regardless of ability, and can offer hands on or experiential learning. Each student learns differently - some learn through lecture, some through hands-on experience and some need both. The ideal environment recognizes how the students learn and adapt to what they need.
Having two children attend the BBH school district for their entire student careers, I have a strong understanding of our district and where there could be shortfalls. I would build upon this knowledge by being accessible to parents for any type of conversation they may need. Attending school-sponsored events is important to provide them access to me.
If possible, having other teachers or administrators make recommendations would be my first source. People tend to make solid recommendations when they know that their reputation is on the line for who they recommend. Another option is recruiting at colleges and lastly, advertising on-line.
BBHCSD has partnered with the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center to provide expanded offerings to students to prepare them for various adventures whether it's preparing to attend college, obtaining skills to enter the workforce, entering into the skilled trades or entering the military. AI is rapidly expanding and any courses that help students understand AI as well as the strong points and pitfalls would be great additions to our curriculum along with courses in sustainability and computer science.
This might sound cliche, but as a mother, my children are my greatest accomplishment. My oldest is now graduated from college and working as a registered nurse. She is smart, strong, kind and a fierce advocate for her patients. I am amazed at her strength and resiliency. My younger daughter has grown in so many ways. She also is smart, strong, kind and loyal. I know that whatever path she chooses in life, she also be successful. And I would like to think I had a bit of influence on all this.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
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Candidate Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, At-large |
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Footnotes
