PEA screens Board of Ed candidates

PEA, the union representing teachers and support staff
in the Plainfield school district, interviewed Board of Ed
Candidates Wednesday at Emerson School.

About fifty people -- mostly union members -- attended the Plainfield Education Association's screening for Board of Ed candidates Wednesday evening at the Emerson Community School.

The Plainfield Education Association is the union representing teachers and support workers in the Plainfield public schools.

The format for the evening was questions posed by a panel of union members to each candidate separately. The questions were pre-determined and asked of each candidate in the same order.

Among the questions asked of each candidate were --

• What makes you uniquely qualified to serve as a Board member and what makes you different from the other candidates?
  
  
  
• Would you be able to challenge a majority of the Board if you did not support a recommendation by the Superintendent?
  
  
  
• The Board has a habit of approving critical items through walk on resolutions without community input. What are your thoughts on this practice?
  
  
  
• What would you change about current Board operations?

The following candidates were interviewed: Alma Blanco, David Graves, Melba Mullins, Harry Watson Jr., Timothy Priano and Rebecca Perkins.

PEA president Eric Jones explained to me afterward that incumbents John Caampbell and Emily Morgan chose not to be screened by the PEA, and that Board president Richard Wyatt would have made the screening but for it being his birthday.

The candidates for the 1-year unexpired seat (Eric Andrews and Dorien Hurtt) chose not to be screened. Tera Phipps is no longer a candidate.

PEA members will choose from among those who screened three candidates to be endorsed by the Plainfield Education Association in the November election.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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