KELSEYVILLE— The Candidates Forum for Kelseyville Unified School board elections took place Monday. October 24. The three candidates in attendance were KVUSD school board candidates Allison Panella, Rick Winer, and Janet Rykert.
In their opening statements, Winer talked about his 21 years of experience on the board. Panella talked about different achievements she has helped the board accomplish during her tenure such as school modernization projects. Rykert talked about her past experience working in long beach school district and her goals for the district.
Following opening statements questions began. The questions were generated by KHS seniors in civics class. Seniors came forward to ask their questions.
The seniors who came to ask questions to the board candidates were Emmanuel Acosta, Anthony Ruiz, Mckenzie McNeil, Foreign exchange student Jefke Schoonjans, Senior Maddy Madrzyk, Andrew Huggins, Elizabeth Edens, and Rylan Lipscomb.
When asked about problems in the community, Panella focused on community engagement and better ways to involve and engage parents in the district. Rykert discussed poverty in the community and how programs could be set up set up in order to get food and clothing out to children.
Winer talked about lack of opportunities and affordable housing for graduating KHS seniors and ways to improve this. Winer then made the point in rebuttal to Rykert that while we are in an impoverished area, the district is working hard to help students through free lunch and breakfast programs at the high school.
The forum ended with closing remarks from the candidates.
