School board hopefuls share ideas
May 10—Candidates for the three open seats on the Lockport City School District's Board of Education got an opportunity to face direct questions from attendees of a League of Women Voters candidate question-and-answer forum, Monday night.
While Geneva Johnson could not be present, the four other candidates — incumbent Leslie Tobin and newcomers Sterling Pierce Jr., Tracy Caruso and Robin Heyn — each gave an opening and closing statement and answered 10 questions written on note-cards and read by moderator Terri Parks.
Pierce was picked by drawing his name from a bucket, and laid out the reason for his running for the volunteer position.
The father of two children, 15 and nine, Pierce said he was passionate about education as the gateway to success. He talked about coming together and building relationships between the students, the teachers and the community.
"I don't have all the answers, but would like the opportunity to find them," Pierce said.
Tobin pointed to her record and activities during the three years she's been a member of the Lockport school board. She noted she is on the policy and audit committees, the chair on the latter, and did a lot of work as a volunteer before running for office. She is also the Trustee on the My Brother's Keeper Advisory Council.
Tobin said she'd like the opportunity to continue the work she's done.
Tracey Caruso, who's lived in Lockport for 24 years, and raised her two sons in the district spoke next. Between her opening and closing statements, she touted her dedication to the issue of bullying in the school district, as well as the academic ranking, which she knew was a deal breaker for for young families looking to live in the area.
Robin Heyn has been driving the bus for school children for 16 years.
"I'll give a perspective of what it's like to be a bus driver," Heyn said.
Heyn said though she doesn't have children of her own, each kid on her bus is her kid. She said she saw the bullying start on the bus and go to the school and that the administration is doing something.
One of the questions was right up Tobin's alley, asking "how the administration should've handled the My Brother's Keeper grant?" While Heyn said she didn't know the issue well enough to comment and Sterling's answer was there was a need for "inclusion" with the community on the grant, Tobin, from her spot on the council, was able to say that "In September, you'll see a lot from this grant." Caruso said the grant needed more transparency and that Trustee Renee Cheatham, a woman of color, should've been asked to give her insight during in the early days of grant writing.
But when it came to bullying, Tobin said the administration has addressed the behavior, citing anti-bullying classes. At her turn Caruso bluntly said, "They've not handled bullying."
Heyn said the buildings were getting the message from the bus drivers and providing discipline such as suspension and detention. Pierce also said the administration was doing what it can, but there's a bigger picture of the home life of students.
There were also two questions involving the AEGIS facial recognition system and the Comptroller's report showing ethical wrongdoing in its procurement. Tobin noted she could not talk about any disciplining of personnel, but Caruso and Sterling said accountability is important. Sterling noted there were privacy concerns about the system. Heyn said that there are "glitches with everything," but there should be more transparency between the community and the board.
Parks commended the candidates for speaking and noted that they are not trained public speakers, but their interest in running for public office and willingness to come and answer questions before the 25 or more audience should be commended.
