
{"id":646,"date":"2007-07-25T14:38:48","date_gmt":"2007-07-25T22:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/07\/25\/school-board-candidates-craft-their-platforms\/"},"modified":"2007-07-25T14:38:48","modified_gmt":"2007-07-25T22:38:48","slug":"school-board-candidates-craft-their-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/07\/25\/school-board-candidates-craft-their-platforms\/","title":{"rendered":"School board candidates craft their platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Now that filing season has closed, candidates for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education are gearing up for a tight race.<\/p>\n<p>Six candidates are running for four seats on the board. Board members Jamezetta Bedford, Mike Kelley and Annetta Streater seek reelection. Newcomers Mia Burroughs, Mehar Safvi and Gary Wallach have thrown their hats into the race as well.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still early in election season, the candidates have started crafting their platforms and developing campaign strategies.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Bedford, who serves as the board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chair, said she wants to continue her work with the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special needs advisory council. In addition, she said she would like to work with the board to plan for growth within the district.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The overall problem that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve encountered for the past 15 years is growth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bedford said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It would be nice to plan for that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Burroughs, who is a freelance grant strategist, said she too would like to see the board prepare for growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of the challenges that the board will be dealing with stem from growth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Burroughs has served as chair of Estes Hills Elementary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s School Governance Committee and said that while she has seen the school district do a number of things very well, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there are a lot of things they can do better.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Kelley, who has served on the board since 2003, said in a statement that he would like to work toward improving the efficiency of the budget process.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget process was more challenging than usual and suggests continuing challenges ahead,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need to continue to improve our school system to adapt to a changing world but need to do so in a way that is as cost effective as possible.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Safvi teaches in the Durham Public Schools and has worked in school administration. She said her children benefited from Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools and she would like to give back to the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time that [the board] have a fresh perspective, a fresh new outlook, a more diverse view,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that bringing diversity to the board is important as the district becomes more diverse.<\/p>\n<p>Streater, who was appointed to the board in June 2006 to fill Ed Sechrest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seat, said she would like to work toward closing the achievement gap.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The district is still challenged when it comes to raising the achievement of its children of color,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that she would like to develop a system to evaluate the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different programs to determine if they are working for all children.<\/p>\n<p>Wallach, who has a background in marketing in social work, said he has a number of concerns about the district and would like to work toward improving the schools as a member of the school board. During redistricting meetings earlier this year, Wallach expressed concern regarding equity across the district. In addition, Wallach said he would like to see an improved budget process.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want [the commissioners] to put our children, the future of this county, at the forefront of [their] decisions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>All of the candidates have children who attend or have attended Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.<br \/>\nBoard member Liz Carter will not run for re-election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Dickson Staff Writer Now that filing season has closed, candidates for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education are gearing up for a tight race. Six candidates are running for four seats on the board. Board members Jamezetta Bedford, Mike Kelley and Annetta Streater seek reelection. Newcomers Mia Burroughs, Mehar Safvi and Gary Wallach&#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-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646","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=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}