The Davis Vanguard and Davis Media Access (DMA) will co-host a candidate’s forum for the Davis Joint Unified School Board election. The forum will take place at the Davis Community Church Fellowship Hall, 421 D Street, on Wednesday, September 17. The forum begins at 6:30 PM and runs until 8:30 PM.
The election features seven candidates for three-four year seats and Alan Fernandes is running unopposed for the two-year seat after being appointed by the school board to fill a vacancy in May. That vacancy was created when a sitting board member resigned in March following a lengthy controversy.
“We are collaborating with Davis Media Access and they will record and air the forum at a later date so the public has an opportunity to learn more about the candidates and where they stand on issues. The community needs to be vigilant in scrutinizing this year’s crop of very qualified candidates,” said David Greenwald, Executive Director of the Davis Vanguard. “The budget situation has improved for the district, but there are a number of critical issues that the school board will be asked to tackle in the next two to four years. With three vacancies on the school board, this is an opportunity for the community to select who will lead this district into the future.”
All eight candidates have agreed to participate in the candidates’ forum that will include four questions selected by the moderator that were submitted by the candidates and a number of audience questions.
“We say this every year, but this is a crucial election for education in Davis – not only do we have 8 candidates running to serve on the school board, but we have 8 candidates with a broad range of ideas on how to improve our education system in the wake of a consistent and persistent budget crisis,” added Greenwald.
Do I understand this correctly – that the candidates submitted the questions that the moderator will then ask?
That is correct. Normally we like the format of the candidates asking their own questions, but with eight candidates that was not feasible.
Will there be other questions or will you have time for that? Questions about the achievement gap, zero tolerance policies and practices, suspension rates and practices, expulsion rates and practices, oversight of the Superintendent?
There will be 40 minutes for community questions.
In past forums we have allotted 40 minutes for audience questions. Given the large number of candidates we will have to manage the amount of time for each candidate answer (maybe 1.5 minutes rather than 2 minutes each) so that we can get to most, if not all, of the audience submitted questions.