School Board Candidates Take Questions, Talk Budget

Six candidates for three open seats in next month's election answered questions from voters Tuesday at a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Cuyahoga Area at ’s Woman’s Club Pavilion.

No surprise, the issue of the night was cutting the district’s proposed by 2015.

“We cannot balance that budget on tax increases alone,” said , who is treasurer of an HVAC company in Lakewood.

Call said employees must make financial sacrifices, teachers should embrace web-based and home-based teaching and schools should adopt standards-based education.

“The schools must be more productive,” he said.

But , vice president of real estate services at Playhouse Square, said standardized testing has hurt Lakewood, because it is , and requires unique teaching techniques.

“We have to make sure we can continue to do a good job of addressing the diversity, the 46 different languages spoken in our schools, and give everyone an opportunity,” he said.

, a small business owner, said financial savings could be found outside of the classroom, such as converting to digital files to save 1.8 million pieces of paper, to turning off computer monitors at night to cut electricity costs.

“We have to focus our financial savings on non student-teacher interactions,” Calleri said.

Another small business owner, , said she will have a litmus test for all her decisions, and any budget cut that will affect education will not pass.

“One of the things I’m worried about is that the kids don’t get lost” in the budget debate, she said.

The breadth of diversity in Lakewood High School’s course offerings also could face the budget ax. , a trustee at the Lakewood Alumni Foundation, said the LHS course catalog is similar to that of a small community college, and could offer endowed chairs.

“It’s going to have to be a group effort to find those funds, whether it’s through organizations or the community as a whole,” she said. “But we need to work with teachers in their area of interest to identify and hold on to those niche programs.”

But the board will be facing difficult questions, and Call said there may be too many courses offered.

“Sometimes you have so many choices and opportunities, you forget to learn the basics,” he said.

Call said the high school could partner with the new, and other entities to offer advanced education.

The district could also partner with businesses and organizations to rent use of school property for a fee to generate revenue. , the lone incumbent, said the district already does this. They have separate fees for nonprofit and for-profit groups.

“It’s an issue we’ve talked a lot about at board meetings,” Beebe said. “We try to balance cost and the community’s right to use those buildings.”