Seven of the eleven candidates running for the four seats open on the District 428 Board of Education attended the League of Women Voters (unaffiliated) Candidate Forum at the Cortland Lions Club shelter. Gracie Mott counted 98 people in attendance near the event’s beginning. School board candidates spoke first.
But the format was a bit different from the forum held at the DeKalb Area Women’s Center. The seven candidates were divided into two groups and each group was asked different questions.
The first group consisted of Holly Wallace, Nina Fontana, Tom Matya and Cohen Barnes. Kay Shelton, the moderator and organizer of the forum asked the group to give their thoughts on potential conflicts of interest due to spouses or family members who work for the school district.
None of the four thought that a board member having a relative employed by the district posed a significant problem for the board. Barnes and Fontana have family members working for the school district. Both indicated they would recuse themselves from any action that might have a conflict of interest and suggested that having family members employed by the district would be an asset since they would hear more perspectives.
Recusal refers to the act of abstaining from participation in an official action due to a conflict of interest of the administrative officer.
The second group consisted of James Mitchell, Tracy Williams and Tia Robinson. Shelton asked this group how they would deal with a projected $1.4 million budget deficit.
Mitchell suggested that the board could begin dealing with the deficit at its next meeting. He mentioned increasing class sizes and cutting all extra curricular activities before suggesting that the time has come to begin discussing an operations referendum.
Williams believes cutting $1.4 million out of a $65 million budget can be done through due diligence and line item by line item review.
Robinson concurred with Williams stating the $1.4 million deficit is something the board has faced before in her tenure.
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