Reports on School Board Candidates Forum at Harding

In case you missed the school board candidates forum Monday at Harding Elementary School in El Cerrito and want to know what happened, two additional news accounts appeared Thursday in the Contra Costa Times and on the Richmond Confidential website.

Both accounts agreed that the four candidates for two seats on the West Contra Costa Unified School District board laid extra emphasis on school funding, including two measures on the Nov. 6 ballot for property taxes to benefit West Contra Costa schools.

One is Measure E, a $380-million, long-term bond program, to replace or upgrade school facilities. It would add an estimated $48 per $100,000 of assessed valuation. It requires 55 percent of the voters to pass and would be added to existing taxes on West County property tax bills from five previous school facility bond measures passed by voters since 1998.

The other is Measure G, an extension of the current parcel tax that funds academic programs in schools. It requires a two-thirds yes vote to pass and 7.2 cents per building area. Measure G would extend the tax to June 30, 2018.

About 80 people attended the forum, which was also live webcast on El Cerrito Patch. It was co-sponsored by the Kensington Hilltop Elementary School PTA and Harding and Mira Vista elementary schools.

The discussion consisted largely of responses to questions from the audience. A number of the candidates' responses can be found in the articles from the in the Contra Costa Times and Richmond Confidential. 

The four candidates are 

• retired school principal Randall Enos
• parent volunteer Todd Groves
• incumbent Antonio Medrano
• parent volunteer Robert Studdiford

Two other school board candidate forums are scheduled next month, the school district announced:

• Thursday, October 11, 2012, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
El Cerrito High School Cafeteria
540 Ashbury Avenue
El Cerrito, CA 94530-3299

• Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Murphy Elementary School Multi-purpose Room
4350 Valley View Road
Richmond, CA 94803-1499

The election will be held Nov. 6.

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