LVUSD School Board Candidates Participate In Forum

AGOURA HILLS, CA – The four school board candidates in the Las Virgenes Unified School District participated in a forum at Agoura Hills High School Tuesday night. The event, organized by the school's Associated Student Body, was attended by hundreds of students, staff, parents and community members. Candidates opened with two-minute introductions, then took turns answering questions that were submitted over the last several weeks by the students. The forum ended with two-minute concluding statements from each candidate.

There are four candidates running for three seats on the Board of Education in LVUSD. The three incumbents are Angela Cutbill, Dallas Lawrence, and Lesli Stein; the newcomer is Kiyomi Kowalski. Questions ranged from the relationship between the school board and students, the #MeToo movement, the district's financial situation, the health and well-being of students and vaping.

When the candidates were told that 49 percent of students cited anxiety as the most influential factor in their academic performance, most of them mentioned the district's social-emotional education framework, Student 360. Cutbill praised the program for fostering parent and student education about stress.

"I love that we are having these conversations with the community and with each other," Cutbill said.

Lawrence focused on the district's low student-to-counselor ratio, a data point that "supports attention to student health and well-being, but also highlights the significant investment of parents and local community donations, which help fund those counselors," Kim Prince, who attended the meeting, said.

Kowalski agreed with the incumbents on many points, "but called out areas where LVUSD can improve," Prince said.

In closing statements, Stein, Cutbill, and Lawrence asked the audience to elect them to another term on the board, so they can continue the good work they supported in the past. Kowalski suggested people vote for her, partly because she will push for better implementation of the lofty goals presented by the district's Student 360 program.

"This board has a lot of progressive goals," she said. "But it's one thing to talk the talk of progressive goals, but it's another thing to walk the walk of progressive values."

Election Day is Nov. 6. For more information >> Vote In Agoura Hills: Election Day 2018

Photos courtesy of Kim Prince