In Search of Candidates

Remember this post? It was written on March 6th. Today is April 6th, and I still know very little about these candidates that I didn't know before April 6th. Where are they? Am I not looking in the right places?

Thank goodness the League of ~~Extraordinary~~ Women Voters is having a Candidate Forum on April 30th.( 7-10 pm, Board of Ed. offices) But where's the social media for these candidates? The only one actively up (that I am aware of) and running is Leslie Kornreich. I believe Cindy Vaillancourt has a page remaining from the last election, but I haven't seen any recent updates. Please feel free to post links in the comments if I am missing something.

Now: Calling All Candidates!

From the Howard County Board of Education Website:

The Board of Education is composed of seven members elected at-large for four-year terms, and a student member elected by students for a one-year term. The Board is responsible for setting local education policy consistent with state and federal laws governing public education. At the direction of the Board, the Superintendent and the school system's administrative staff develop procedures and administrative regulations to support policy decisions.

And, from my aforementioned VG/TS post, "Bigger Than Tweets":

We shouldn't, of course, hire a superintendent and then not allow him or her to do the job. But we also shouldn't elect Board of Education members and not expect them to do theirs. So as the election season gathers momentum, I am asking the biggest question: what do they think that job is?

I am issuing a public invitation to all candidates for the Howard County Board of Education to submit the answer to that question and have it appear on the blog. Please limit your response to 250 words. I will run them as I receive them. (As I recall, former blogger Trevor Greene used his blog to host Board of Education candidates at one point and it was a helpful service.)

To clarify, when I ask, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" I expect you to address the following in your response.

1. What power does the position convey?

2. What is the best use of that power?

3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible?

I am relying on my readers to share this post so we can get the greatest participation possible from the field of candidates. This election is extremely important and the more informed voters can be, the better.

Let's do this thing!

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