The candidates for the District 219 board of education will participate in a forum Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the South Lobby.
Candidates will have three minutes to open and introduce themselves, and following that they will each answer questions asked by student representatives from Niles West News, Student Government, and Debate. Questions will not be proposed to the candidates until the night of the forum, and afterwards each candidate will have one minute to make a closing statement.
“The goal of the forum is to give the constituency of School District 219 the opportunity to see the Board of Education candidates and hear their stance on issues in the District. All questions that will be posed will come from the stakeholders in the district, who will have the opportunity to submit those questions through the link included in the NWN story,” debate parent Elaina Geraghty explained.
A similar forum was conducted recently at Niles North and has since sparked interest with administration at Niles West.
“I was approached by Dr. Ness at a Principal Coffee asking if the Debate Parents Group would be willing to facilitate the Forum. Since The Parent Advisory Group at North was conducting a forum, we wanted West’s parents and students to have the same opportunity,” Geraghty said.
Openings on the board include a two-year term seat and four other four-year term seats. Candidates include: Carlton Evans, Sheri Doniger, Jeff Greenspan, David Ko, Eileen Valfer, Jon H. Heinz, Lateef Farisa Hussain, Linda Lampert, Brian Novak, Franklin A. Sacks, Bennett Santana, and Mark Sproat. The election will be held April 7.
Those interested in submitting questions have the opportunity to do so through the form included below. Students, community members, and teachers are encouraged to submit questions and attend the forum.
“I’d encourage students, teachers, and community members to submit a question to the forum rather than complaining about policies the school board implements, they can be proactive and try to have their voice heard,” senior class president and student board representative Cassie Bergman said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for students, parents, and teachers for their voices to be heard. Typically these elections just run without people realizing it’s happening, so it’s not an informed vote. It gives the opportunity for voters to know who they’re voting for and allows students and teachers to hopefully have a say in who will be making all the decisions.”
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