
{"id":1042,"date":"2007-10-04T07:03:51","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T15:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/10\/04\/school-board-contest-picks-up-steam\/"},"modified":"2007-10-04T07:03:51","modified_gmt":"2007-10-04T15:03:51","slug":"school-board-contest-picks-up-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/10\/04\/school-board-contest-picks-up-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"School board contest picks up steam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Susan Dickson<\/em><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the election about a month away, candidates for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education are stepping up their campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>Incumbents Jamezetta Bedford, Mike Kelley and Annetta Streater are seeking re-election, while newcomers Mia Burroughs and Gary Wallach also have joined the race. Former candidate Mehar Safvi has withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p>Four seats on the board are available. Longtime board member Liz Carter is not running for reelection.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Campaign signs are popping up in yards and along sidewalks throughout Chapel Hill and Carrboro. School board candidates have been busy fine-tuning their platforms and getting the word out.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The campaign is gearing up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kelley said, noting that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been doing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153most of the usual school board campaign activities, such as putting up signs, emailing constituents and posting a website.<\/p>\n<p>Kelley has been on the board since 2003. He has said that one of his main focuses if reelected would be to improve the efficiency of the budget process, which has been strained in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Wallach said one of his primary focuses would be the importance of maintaining educational equity across the district.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that a child who goes to FPG should have the same educational opportunities as a child who goes to Rashkis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, noting that different schools\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 parent-teacher-student associations raise varying amounts of money.<\/p>\n<p>Bedford, who serves as the board chair and has been a board member since 2003, said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been running a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153low-key campaign,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but will be campaigning more over the next several weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Bedford has emphasized the need to better plan for growth within the district, which is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153critical budget driver.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Burroughs said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been trying to meet and talk to as many people as possible to get her message out.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really continue to believe that the district must commit itself to every student. Every student matters,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that the district needs to continue to focus on closing the minority achievement gap.<\/p>\n<p>Streater also emphasized the importance of closing the achievement gap. The district needs to continue to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153monitor programs to ensure that we are providing services for those who do struggle academically,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Streater said she has attended various community events to get out to meet constituents.<\/p>\n<p>Carol Woods will hold a forum for school board candidates on October 21 at 3 p.m. In addition, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA Council is organizing a candidates forum, but has not yet announced a date.<\/p>\n<p>The Peoples Channel has interviewed both Kelley and Bedford and will interview other candidates over the next couple of weeks. Interviews are posted online at www.thepeopleschannel.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Dickson Staff Writer With the election about a month away, candidates for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education are stepping up their campaigns. Incumbents Jamezetta Bedford, Mike Kelley and Annetta Streater are seeking re-election, while newcomers Mia Burroughs and Gary Wallach also have joined the race. Former candidate Mehar Safvi has withdrawn. Four&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}