October 15, 2008
Only half of candidates show up for VUSD forum
Three of the six people running for the Vista Unified school board decided not to show up for the last and largest candidate forum Wednesday.
Stephen Guffanti, Eileen Fernandez and Patty Anderson, who are running together, decided not to attend Wednesday's forum, which was put on by the district's Parent-Teacher Association council. They said they were concerned the forum might not be fair or civil.
Elizabeth Jaka, Angela Chunka and Steve Lilly attended the event at the Vista Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and answered questions on a variety of familiar topics ranging from literacy and test scores to school budgets and iPod use.
Guffanti, a physician who has been on the board for the last eight years, said before the event that he didn't think he would be treated fairly at the forum, considering the support some PTA parents have shown for the other three candidates, whom the unions are endorsing.
"What's the point, they've already made up their mind," Guffanti said Wednesday about the parents and teachers in the Del Norte PTA Council. He complained that parents have already broken campaign rules by handing out fliers supporting Chunka, Jaka and Lilly at a back-to-school night on at least one campus.
Both Chunka and Jaka have children attending Vista Unified schools and have been very involved with the PTA group in the past. Lilly is a retired educator.
Gail Hallemeyer, vice president of the PTA council, said the organizers have worked to make the forum as impartial as possible by asking members of the League of Women Voters to moderate.
"We're saddened that they do not feel the League of Women Voters can put on a candidates forum that they feel will be impartial," she said. "We felt this is an opportunity for them to meet parents in the district."
Fernandez and Anderson said they didn't want to attend the forum because they thought the audiences were disrespectful in the past. Anderson ran for the school board two years ago, and Fernandez four years ago.
"There's just no point in going somewhere where pretty much 90 percent of the audience is rooting for your opponents," said Fernandez, who runs a home-based business and had a daughter go through Vista Unified schools.
Both said they have been pleased with the forums they've attended so far during the election. All six candidates were at forums put on by the Vista Chamber of Commerce, local Rotary clubs and cable channel KOCT.
Anderson, a college professor, said she had planned on going to the forum, but didn't want to be the only one of the three united candidates not there. She said she was harassed after the PTA forum when she ran two years ago.
"If they (Guffanti and Fernandez) aren't going, I'm not going to put myself in harm's way," she said shortly before the forum, adding that she thinks the campaign has been positive this time around and she's hoping to keep it that way.
Lisa Sikes, a mother who attended the forum, said she thought it was "a disgrace" that the three candidates didn't show up to talk with parents.
"I thought that it was a snub to the parents and to the PTA members, who really are the backbone of the schools," she said after the forum.
Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.
return to www.vistata.org