CARLSBAD — Six candidates vying for three seats on the Carlsbad Unified School District Board of Trustees discussed their positions during the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce candidate forum on Oct. 2 at the Dove Library.
A packed house at the Schulman Auditorium heard from Sharon McKeeman and Michelle Ward, both running for Area 1, Jen Fornal and Gretchen Vurbeff in Area 4, and incumbent Trustee Kathy Rallings and challenger Scott Davison in Area 5.
For 90 minutes, candidates responded to a series of questions related to the state of the district.
Questions centered on the board’s role, the best course of action for the district, special education progress, English learners and gifted students, safety and their top priorities, among others.
Each candidate struggled with a question relating to the district’s adult education program, which all mistakenly linked to a transition program for students rather than adults with special needs.
McKeeman and Vurbeff received boos and jeers from the crowd after they didn’t acknowledge or refuse to support health and well-being programs for LGBTQIA+ students. McKeeman later said she would have to know what any policy specifies before lending her support.
Vurbeff said she could not support such programs but later clarified her response in a statement on her website. According to Vurbeff, the question was confusing and lacked necessary “contextual information,” but she said she supports all students, ensuring the rights of a single student or subgroup don’t infringe on the rights of others.
In Area 1, Ward, an elementary school principal in Poway, said her priorities are continued innovation, diversity, equity and inclusion and supporting emotional learning. McKeeman said her priorities are students first and supporting educators.
In Area 4, Fornal said her priorities include maintaining high education expectations and student performance while ensuring safe spaces for students. Vurbeff said she wants to put all students first and make sure students have resources to rebound from learning losses suffered from the pandemic.
For Area 5 candidates Rallings and Davison, the opponents had the most enthusiastic responses of the evening. Rallings said her goal is to create green and sustainable campuses through green energy and other means. She also championed the district’s career technical pathway for students looking at trade schools and other skilled careers and advocated for teachers — support for whom she reiterated several times.
Davison said after losing 600 students in the past two years, the district must create ways to bring them back, assessing learning loss and deploying resources to help those students get back on track.
Additionally, Davison criticized Rallings for her career with the California Teachers Association, at times calling it a conflict of interest when the district must negotiate with the teacher’s union.
