The League of Women Voters of Southwest Santa Clara Valley held the forum on Oct. 8 for candidates to discuss their election qualifications and the issues that face the school district.

Moderator Liz Ansnes of the league led the night, which provided time for opening and closing candidate speeches and a sizable amount of time for candidates to answer questions raised by audience members.

Gagan Singh was the first to speak, as selected by a random numbering process. His main reason for candidacy is prioritizing the $107 million district budget. As a current student trustee for Mission, he explained the need facing facilities and programs at Mission College.

The next speaker, Jack Lucas, described his desire for a position on the board as based on his extensive history in education and government. He explained that he had planned to "go out for pasture" this year once his Monte Sereno mayorship was up, but that community members pushed for him to run for the board.

Kevin Moore, who arrived about 20 minutes late for the forum, provided his history as a West Valley student as an influence for running, and spoke of his qualifications for the job from previous experience as a chairperson of multiple local commissions and committees. He emphasized a desire to solve the stadium issue.

Don Wolfe, an incumbent, described his community-related career experience, as well as his accomplishments while on the board. His candidacy, he said, is based on his belief that "education is in [his] soul and is part of [his] being for [his] whole life."

Brett England asked the audience to listen with their "heads and hearts" as he described the need for harmony within the board and district financial responsibility, which he believes he could provide through his expertise as a practicing certified public accountant and through the creation of a budget standing committee.

Jeff Schwartz, an incumbent, was the last to speak based on the random selection. He described his desire for candidacy as based on his passion for education and his desire to help the district and remedy what he called the discord and dysfunction currently present within the board.

A question-and-answer session then followed, with the stadium standing out as the most prominent issue of the night. Most candidates expressed a desire to stop pushing for a large-scale stadium at West Valley.

"Let's end the stadium issue," Moore said.

"It is time to move on," England said. "The district has spent over $500,000 on litigation. We now need to look for other options and understand the wishes of the community surrounding the college and focus on the quality of education." England suggested looking at building at Mission College as a solution.

Schwartz was very opposed to keeping the stadium issue alive, as he said, "the administration has put their egos ahead of the goodwill of the district. It is time to stop—some folks ought to get it by now."

Singh, who is running on a slate with England and Schwartz, believes "35 years is a long time to fight this issue. We need to set our priorities," he said. "I absolutely oppose building a stadium against the wishes of community."

Lucas stated he is "opposed to building a stadium that is not in character with the neighborhood." However, he did express being open to looking at permanent seating that is moderate and provides "safety for parents and students wanting to view the game."

Moore echoed the interest of possibly investigating small-scale stadium additions.

Wolfe was still firm in his belief that there should be a stadium at the college. "The proposed stadium was of a reasonable size," he said, referring to the Measure E stadium draft. He relayed a story about living next to Archbishop Mitty High School—which has a full-sized stadium—in San Jose for 13 years, where he was delighted to "hear children doing what they should be doing." He said he believed the case should be the same for West Valley.

When asked if they would support a bond measure to support facility upgrades, all of the candidates answered "absolutely," noting the interior deterioration at West Valley and the fact that Mission College was never fully completed in the first place.

The question that led to the most disagreement was what the candidates thought of the $5 million district deficit and what should be done about it.

Lucas said he believes the "district is working hard on the budget." He pointed to all districts being under-funded by the state, which contributed to the deficit. "We need to get financing back into the community college district," he said. "We need to lobby and never stop trying to obtain funds at the state and federal level."

Moore and Wolfe agreed that the district, and board, was not so much at fault for the deficit, but that under-funding from the state was the main cause.

England and Schwartz blamed the deficit on district mismanagement, citing that the board lacked involvement with accounting procedures and ignored the ratios of incoming and outgoing funds.

Schwartz expressed his frustration with the board, who continually "laughed at or ignored" his attempts to review expenditures. England did, however, acknowledge that deficits such as these "do not happen overnight," and that the accumulation of debt was linked to continual years of non-reconciling budgets and deficits.

Singh agreed that the district was involved but said that it is "unfair to blame the deficit on just one thing. Budget cuts from the state are a factor, but the district also needs to look at aligning the budget with its spending."

When asked an individual question about how the community colleges stake up against budgets at four-year colleges, Schwartz stated that the college did have increased monies in performance-based funds, but that the deficit was very real and due to the board's shortfall. He cited the shortfalls on the current $1.2 million district error in accounts receivable, as well as a $3 million error several years ago that was never followed up on properly. Schwartz said these errors were ignored, despite his protests.

Wolfe replied to this statement, saying "perhaps the so-called missing $3 million can't be found because it's in Schwartz' mind."

The question-and-answer session was then timed out, and candidates were given one minute each to provide closing statements that restated their qualifications and reasons for running in the election.