Want to know more about your Red Clay Board of Education candidates? Here are some more questions answered by the candidates at a forum May 1 at Dickinson High School.

What is your philosophy on discipline and should disruptive students be placed in alternative assessments?

Wilmington challenger Leah Davis said school officials need to be consistent.

“Kids want structure,” she said. “If they know what you expect and you aim high, they will give it to you. If they continue to be disruptive, then yes we need an alternative school.”

Wilmington incumbent Gary C. Linarducci said he supports alternative schools, which he thinks should not be considered “bad words.” Children learn at different rates.

“The ones who don’t pick it up are often the ones who are disruptive,” he said. “It’s not that they’re sociopaths. They don’t understand what they’re doing; they’re frustrated.”

Elsmere-Newport area incumbent Charles M. Cavanaugh said that before Red Clay had an alternative school, whenever the board expelled students they ended up on the street. That is why he pushed for the creation of an alternative program.

“We do have an increase in discipline problems,” he said. Challenger, Kenneth Woods, of Cleveland Heights said he wishes schools could go back to the days “when my parents were taught.”

“Unfortunately, those days are gone,” Woods said. “(But) everybody can be taught. There’s just a different need for them. You have to figure out a way to help them. Discipline comes from reaching out to parents and reaching out to the community.”

Did you support referendum on February 28?

All the candidates said they supported the referendum.

“It’s in my contract,” Cavanaugh said. “I voted for every referendum. It was frustrating to see (state cuts).” But he indicated that legislators and superintendents across the state have been working hard to minimize state cuts to education.

Woods said he was glad to hear of minimizing state cuts. He added that the district needs to rethink ineffective programs.

Being an educator, Davis said “there is no way I would ever vote against kids.”

“But the vote for the referendum was not a vote for change,” she said. “I ran for the school board in order to effect change.”

Linarducci said it was important to restore cuts that were made to after school activities and sports this year. But in light of the state’s revenue shortfall, “there is a difference between restoring programs and implementing new programs.”

What would you do to support increased communication between the board and community?

Cavanaugh said the district recently created a communications committee. But the best thing was when the board went from school to school. “We learned so much.”

Woods said all board members should have to attend a PTA meeting each month. “That’s where it starts,” he said. Also, the district should see what kind of help local businesses can provide.

Linarducci said since e-mail accounts were set up for board members and posted on the district’s website, several people have written to the board. He always answers messages addressed directly to him and tries to answer as many of the messages sent to the board as a whole. He also wants to change the board’s lack of response to people during the public comment portion of board meetings.

While this is the technological age, Davis said it cannot be assumed that everyone has an e-mail account. Board members need to be more visible in the community.

If elected, how often and how critical do you feel your presence is as a board member in our schools and at the district office?

Davis said that would be her responsibility as a board member.

Cavanaugh said it’s a trick question. “I’ve seen the hands-off (aloof) board member that just showed up to board meetings and I’ve seen micromanaging by board members. They get into personnel issues and I’ve seen where individual board members influenced the administration on hiring decisions. There’s a line you have to draw. You have to work with the whole board.”

Woods reiterated his position that board members need to be visible and involved with expenditures.

Linarducci said more people need to be like forum organizer Yvonne Johnson, the Delaware PTA regional vice president for Red Clay, who is not shy about expressing her views to the board or the state Legislature.

The Community News asked for candidates’ views on the two major recommendations made by the Wilmington Education Task Force. When it comes to the number of school districts occupying the city, the task force, in the words of Arthur Boswell, believes “Two is twice as good as four.” Namely, only the Brandywine and Red Clay school districts should serve Wilmington. Also, the task force recommended a comprehensive high school for the city, whose students are bused to 10 different suburban high schools.

Linarducci, who served on the task force, said there is no logic to having Christina – the former Newark Special School District – in the city of Wilmington, a satellite 15 miles away. In addition, Colonial only serves about 200 city children so it does not make sense to keep that district in the city. As for the high school, Linarducci voted for that measure as well because Wilmington is the largest city in the state, yet it doesn’t have its own high school.

“A lot of kids north of the Brandywine River are bused all the way out to Dickinson,” he said.

Davis said she agrees that Christina and Colonial should leave the city. But she is concerned about the financial implications and enrollment patterns.

“I do believe schools need to be community centered in order to be successful,” she said.

Cavanaugh said two districts in the city in lieu of four “sounds like a logical idea,” but the board has not discussed it.

“There’s always two sides to the city story,” he said. “(And) we don’t have the money to do this right now.”

As for the high school, Cavanaugh said … “It can’t be looked at just in a vacuum.”

Woods agreed with the other three candidates. He questioned how much the community was involved with the recommendations. (The task force met over a span of six months and all meetings were public. In addition, a public hearing on the recommendations was held in April).

Woods said, “Perhaps city people want to keep going to high schools in the suburbs.”

Barry Cowin, whose daughter attends Dickinson, asked the candidates what kind of vision they have for the classes of 2010, 2011 and beyond?

Linarducci said leadership is important, and he is much more qualified to be a board member after five years of experience. He wants the board to have more vision.

“If you’re just reacting to crisis after crisis, you’re never going to get to where you want to be,” he said.

Davis said the board and administration need short term and long term goals, and those goals need to be monitored during the year. “We need a vision,” she said. “Presently, the board is in a reactive mode and I would work for a proactive mode.”

Cavanaugh said each year the board is either going to be reactive or proactive. He said he has been proactive, such as bringing together administrators and school police officers to address the increase in disciplinary incidents and violence, for instance.

Woods said he knows how to have a vision and how to see that vision through. His present job at Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 came from his aim to actively improve his industry while working in his last job, bringing different groups together.

Parent Leslie Wagner asked candidates if they have a plan for moving forward on the Wilmington High feeder pattern and the middle school feeder patterns.

Woods said that if elementary attendance zones that send children to the schools closest to their homes works, then the district has to take a look at it for the middle and high school levels. While he wants “our feeder patterns to be more productive,” he does not agree with dispersing Baltz School’s middle school students.

Cavanaugh agreed that the district needs “to look at the best way of utilizing schools.”

“Make sure our feeder patterns are aligned to ensure capacity is used,” he said.

Davis said the goal is to send children to schools closest to home and to keep neighborhoods together. But, that often means that children attend schools closest to their homes, not necessarily in their neighborhoods.

Linarducci said before any decisions are made, there has to be feedback from parents and the community. He wants parents to continue to have choices available to them.

“As a board member, you have to stand up and ask administrators, ‘Why are you doing that?’” he said. “We need to trust but verify.”

Andy Hall, a Red Clay parent and teacher, asked how board members view the gifted and talented program, which seems to be less and less important in the district.

As a former talented and gifted teacher, Davis said that is a unit count issue. Every school should have a librarian, counselor and TAG teacher, she said. “When a principal has to make a decision (regarding cuts), those are the fast and hard things.”

Cavanaugh agreed.

Linarducci strongly believes in parents’ ability to choose the schools and programs that are right for their children. He attributed the “horrible dropout rate” to children at the top who are bored and at risk for dropping out. Then, the district has children at the bottom who are the most at risk for dropping out.

Woods said the district should look for other ways to fund things, thinking “outside the box,” before it cuts programs.