Editor;
Candidates should want to be heard by as many people as possible. Candidates should want to take advantage of every opportunity to engage with our community. They should make it easy for you to access their message and understand their platform. In return, they should make it easy for you to share your questions and concerns. If someone doesn’t show up for you and our community, they haven’t earned your vote.
School board members have to speak in front of people who are not necessarily their friends, who don’t agree with them, or who even speak out against them. It’s part of the job. Showing up for public forums is a basic prerequisite to show you have the skills to do what is asked of a public official.
Katy Foreman, Dave Smith, and Rob Sturm showed up for Lafayette on October 3rd, by appearing at the non-partisan forum hosted by the League of Women Voters – Diablo Valley and the Las Trampas Creek Council of PTAs. The other candidates did not.
The choice is clear. When you receive your ballots, please vote for Foreman, Smith, and Sturm for Lafayette School District Governing Board.
Justine Parmelee/Lafayette
Based on your metric that candidates who don’t engage should be voted out, note that Gavin Newsom did not bother to submit a candidate statement in the past election. Are you voting for him?
I do not know why those candidates did not show up but it would be a great follow up story here. As always, voters have a difficult time actually uncovering what candidates are for. I carefully read the local free paper’s opinion section on the school election with what sounded to me like Looney-Tunes warnings of January 6, Trump, and Republican takeovers. Crazy stuff when what I want is a school that teaches a balanced curriculum. My kid knows all about the Virginia slave laws, but has no clue what the Vietnam war was. Which is more important to know about as a voter and citizen given the global risks of the Ukraine, Taiwan, and the recent train wreck of a war in Iraq? Which candidates are for teaching actual facts and information and leaving politics to the parents, kids, and their families?
Rather than base your vote on attendance at one event, look at the track record. Vote for the incumbents or against them based on your opinion of their performance. Good performance equals job security, just like in the private sector.
A more experienced “trio” of candidates would have known this non-partisan forum is the best way to reach engaged voters and Lafayette families. The room was pretty full. Based on the “excuse” from one of the candidates, and comments from some of their supporters, it’s obvious they were unaware. A more cynical person than I would say they avoided the forum altogether because they wouldn’t be able to discuss the school issues in any depth or detail.