School board candidates will face their first real test tonight when they field community members’ questions at the first of three public forums designed to evaluate the candidates.
The Candidate Nominating Committee, composed of a maximum of 120 community volunteers, runs the forums to interview and assess a candidate’s qualifications for the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board and Evanston Township High School District 202 board. Each candidate attends one forum, and as many as 10 delegates from each of Evanston’s 12 school areas will attend each forum.
Delegates will question candidates on the issues facing the districts and at the end of each forum cast a vote as to whether a candidate is qualified. The results of the committee’s findings will be made public March 7.
CNC officer Bill Speth said the committee doesn’t go down a list and grade each candidate on a set of objective criteria.
Instead, he said, “the committee tends to find people qualified who have a general sense of the issues and who demonstrate a sincere desire to improve quality of education for all kids.”
An oft-criticized aspect of the process is the composition of the delegations. There is no rule stipulating that a candidate’s friends or campaign workers cannot be on a delegation.
But Speth said the CNC is considering changing the bylaws to not allow campaign workers to be delegates.
Speth added that the sheer number of delegates helps to counteract any potential biases.
“Evanston just isn’t that big to get an objective, unbiased group,” he said. “We just use the number of people to counteract that. But everyone participating in CNC is sincerely looking to have people on the board who are going to be good policy makers.”
Speth, who has been involved with the CNC for 8 years, also said each delegation attempts to pull together a representative sampling of the area.
“The whole idea is to get a diverse group. But it is typically not as diverse as I would like,” Speth said. “It’s usually about 25 percent minorities. But half of the kids in D65 are minority students, so we are trying to get that diversity represented in the CNC.”
Margaret Lurie, a District 202 incumbent who will make her fourth appearance before the CNC, said that although the process is an intimidating one, it’s a valuable experience for candidates.
“It’s not something you look forward to,” Lurie said. “There are 120 delegates and one of you. But it’s really an opportunity for candidates to hear what people are thinking and what they have concerns and questions about.”
John Lalley, president of the District 65 Teachers Union, said that although the union has endorsed candidates in the past he was not sure if they would in this election.
“We’ve got a lot on our plate right now with (teacher contract) negotiations,” Lalley said.
