by Terri Hogan

Staff Writer

Eight of the nine candidates seeking a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education discussed their plans to "raise the bar" and "close the gap" to improve education in the county during a forum in Olney last Thursday.

"This is the first forum of what promises to be a very interesting and long election," said Dr. Edward Taubman, chairman of the Northeast Montgomery Political Action Committee (NEMPAC), which sponsored the event. "These people are the stewards for education to our future generations."

The candidates -- Sharon Cox of Germantown, Charles Haughey of Rockville, Augustus Alzona of Bethesda, Beth Amigable-Wong of Silver Spring, Luella Mast of Colesville, Lauri Rodich of Brookeville, Carmen Roman of Bethesda and Said Jahanmir of Darnestown -- are vying for the at-large seat in the March 7 primary election. That seat is being vacated by Beatrice Gordon, who announced in December that she would not seek a third term on the school board.

The two top winners in the primary election will advance to the general election in November.

Since only two candidates each have filed in the District 2 and District 4 races, they automatically advance to the general election.

Alzona, Amigable-Wong, Haughey and Roman are all new to the school board race.

Taubman said NEMPAC did not invite candidate William A. White of Derwood to participate in the forum.

"As a thoughtful political organization, we are interested in getting the best candidate possible," Taubman said, explaining that the last time he ran for Board of Education, White said he would abolish the school system.

"We're a PAC [political action committee], not the League of Women Voters," Talbot said.

Although he said he felt that "no novel ground was broken on controversial issues," NEMPAC board member Philip Kauffman said the forum gave him a sense of "where the candidates were coming from."

Paul Rankin, NEMPAC treasurer, said he was very pleased with the success of the forum, and that all of the candidates "handled themselves very well."

"It is an impressive group of candidates, although not as deep as I would have liked in terms of elected political experience," he said.

Rankin said he was also impressed by the incredible cross-section of cultures represented by the candidates, and that he believed that was very reflective of the Montgomery County Public Schools system.

After introducing the candidates, Rankin, who served as the forum's moderator, asked each candidate to answer questions prepared by NEMPAC members.

When asked if they would appeal the recent Supreme Court's "Eisenberg Decision" regarding school transfer policies, many of the candidates responded that they were not familiar enough with the legalities involved in the case to give an informed answer.

"Yes, I would appeal, then make a deal," Mast said. "We don't want it to reverse the other way. We need to keep local control."

The candidates' answers disappointed some members of the audience.

"I wasn't really pleased at the responses to this question," Kauffman said. "With the exception of Luella Mast, most danced around the issue."

The candidates were also asked how they felt about creating more competition in schools, whether by using vouchers or some other means.

Most of the candidates felt that vouchers were not the answer, but agreed that competition could be healthy.

"If the school system failed, I would be willing to look at alternatives," Jahanmir said. "But for now, I am not convinced the system has failed.

"Open enrollment could be used to bring competition to the schools, but I would be very careful about vouchers," he said. "I have a problem with spending public money on private or semi-private education."

Roman agreed that competition is healthy.

"We need something," she said. "If vouchers make the schools competitive, then fine. We need to break the ever-pervasive pattern and accept new ideas."

When asked how the candidates felt the school system is preparing students for higher education or the workforce, the curriculum and smaller class size seemed to be the most prevalent concerns.

"Smaller class size is my mantra," Alzona said. "We also need to focus on the middle and disadvantaged students, not only the students that make us look great."

Rodich said the school system must be diligent about preparing students for furthering their education.

"Eighty-five percent of our students go on to two or four year colleges," Rodich said. "We need to prepare our students so that when they do go to college, they are ready. So yes, we do need to be rigorous."

"We do need to set high standards," Cox said. "We can't use only Montgomery County standards for the real world."

Each candidate was given the opportunity to make closing remarks before they broke up into small groups for further casual discussion.

According to Taubman, NEMPAC is currently working on a questionnaire to distribute to all candidates, requesting more in-depth issues.

"Although most of the candidates appeared to have good intentions, some weren't as specific as I would have liked," he said.

Taubman said NEMPAC would post the results of the questionnaire on its Web site (www.nempac.org) and hold a meeting next month to decide which candidates NEMPAC would endorse.

"To me, this is what NEMPAC is all about," Taubman said. "We want to put an effort into supporting candidates which will support our area. It's easier to get in at this stage than after they are elected."

Staff Writer Effie Bathen contributed to this story.