The Observation Deck

I'd like to thank the Lakewood Early Childhood PTA for the School Board Candidate Forum they held tonight.

I thought it was great. The questions were good, the total time was about an hour. I appreciate the candidates participating in the process. I think we got a good look at 4 of the 5 candidates for school board.

Thank you Lakewood Early Childhood PTA and all your members for sponsoring the School Board Candidate Forum. The questions were thought provoking and Stan Austin was an excellent moderator.

If any of your questions went unanswered, please feel free to send me an email at markling@marklingforlakewood.com and I will post a response on the Candidate Forum.

Again, thank you.

Diane,
For those of us who missed can you give any overview???

Sure. The format was interesting. Each candidate received the opportunity to offer an opening statement. The time limit was 1 minute - which seemed a bit short. So not much was learned there.

However, after that, there was a round of questions that each candidate had the chance to answer. The next round was one question per candidate - in other words, one candidate was asked a question and when they were done, a new question was asked of the next in line. With this line, we didn't get to hear them all answer the same question. However, throughout the questioning, it was easy to discern where each candidate was coming from.

Each gave us insight into what they saw as the issues facing the Lakewood Schools, how they would tackle the declining enrollment issue, questions about schools closing - ie:Franklin, why they are running, what their goals are if elected, the possibility of a levy in the future, where the schools stand in regards to NCLB, safety, conduct, obesity.

If I were to share how I saw their responses it would simply be my opinion. I believe each person in attendance had the opportunity to draw their own conclusions and probably have a firmer idea of who they will vote for.

Stan Austin was the moderator and did a great job. The event was nicely attended and each candidate kept their answers within the time allotted. Linda Beebe was not present due to a previous engagement. Colleen Wing kept time for each question/answer.

The candidates stayed around after the formal proceedings to talk with the attendees and answer any questions they did not have a chance to answer.

Hope that gives you a better picture. I'm refraining from sharing their answers because as I said, my sharing would be peppered with my perception - not terribly objective and therefore, I believe, unfair to all in attendance.