BY DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
STAFF WRITER [email protected]
Even as Californians decide the fate of Prop. 30 on Tuesday, Nov. 6, voters in the Hemet area will be deciding the fate of would-be school board members who will deal with its aftermath. The ballot proposition, proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, raises sales and income taxes to help balance the state budget. If it fails, the state could cut education funding by $6.2 billion, which would trim the Hemet Unified School District budget by millions of dollars. How to deal with a potential loss of state funding is an issue in what has been a quiet election race to fill three seats on the seven-member Hemet district board of trustees. The Hemet school district stretches from Winchester to Idyllwild and from a slice of San Jacinto to French Valley. The three seats at stake Tuesday represent the San Jacinto Valley floor. Five candidates are seeking the three seats, with incumbents Marilyn Forst and Lisa DeForest joined in the race by retired teachers Jim Smith and John Graham, and real estate broker Boyd Lachlan Roberts. Incumbent Charlotte Jones is not seeking re-election. INCUMBENTS Forst, who taught at Hemet Elementary School for 34 years and owns the Red Rabbit Boutique in Hemet, is seeking a fourth term on the school board. She said any potential cuts should not be dictated by the school board. “Every department in the school district needs to look at their budget and find things they could get rid of for a while,” she said. “Everybody in the school district has to give something. Yes, the teachers, but also the nutrition department, the transportation department, everybody.” She said she wants the district eventually to reopen Hemet Elementary School, which was closed in 2009 when its main building began sinking into the ground. Even when it reopens, Forst said, the school would need to contain state-of-the-art technology to keep up with what is offered at other schools. DeForest, a chiropractor, has served four years on the Hemet school board. She said the district has managed to remain solvent despite tough economic times. “Class sizes are already maxed,” she said. “We cannot go any bigger. “We need to look at the broad picture like we always have,” she said. “There might be many small cuts throughout the district, but when we look at the district as a whole we have made very sound cuts.” DeForest said the school district should rely on revenue-generating programs, like its transportation de partment, to help offset any budget shortages. The transportation department has raised about $800,000, she said, by hiring out to other districts. “I am hoping we can think outside the box and not keep cutting,” she said. “We are not supposed to keep cutting.” CHALLENGERS Roberts, who lives in French Valley, said his strength is that he is an outsider to the school board. “I am not affiliated with any of the decisions that have been made in the past in the district,” he said. “I feel it is a failing district and I feel that I have the problem-solving skill set (the board needs) to look at these problems and look at them freshly.” He, like the others, said he would avoid cuts that directly affect the classrooms, but would consider cuts in other areas, including some sports programs. Football, for example, “is not in the classroom,” he said. “It’s expenditure. I wouldn’t cut anything in the classroom, but everything else is on the chopping block.” Smith, who worked for the Hemet school district for 36 years as a teacher and administrator, said he is hoping Prop. 30 passes. “If it doesn’t,” he said, “what is going to have to happen will be things like furloughs, more furlough days, more class size increases, all of those things we don’t want.” He said his campaign emphasizes his experience in education. “I am very well acquainted with school budgets and school finance,” he said. “I can bring some excellent perspective to the board. I’ve been on both sides of the education issues. I’ve been a teacher and I’ve been an administrator.” He said the incumbents “have by and large been good board members,” but “I don’t agree with all of the decisions they have made. I definitely don’t characterize Hemet schools as failing schools.” Graham, who taught in the Hemet school district for 34 years, said if cuts were necessary, he would look at slicing top administrators’ pay. “My understanding is that there is a whole lot of waste,” he said. “I would not cut money that goes to classrooms, and I would try my darnedest not to cut any days from the school year,” Graham said. “If that is necessary, it would be the fewest possible days.” He opposes more furlough days and wants to strengthen vocational education by establishing what he calls technical academies that offer a range of vocational classes.HEMET SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES