District 300 candidates debate at forum
Candidates for the Community Unit District 300 school board coalesced around fiscal restraint Saturday at a forum hosted by the Carpentersville-Dundee Area League of Women Voters.
The four candidates who attended - Dave Alessio, Dorothy Jordan, Rob Lee and Tracey Perez - said they opposed new taxes and supported conservative budgets in the face of declining revenues.
Alessio, a former board member, said his involvement in the district's finance committee gave him the needed experience to tackle a potential budget shortfall.
Jordan said her background in business and teaching would enable her to balance educational needs against fiscal prudence when evaluating decisions.
Perez said her experience in law and business would help her negotiate a financially responsible teacher's contract and select a new superintendent when Ken Arndt retires in 2011.
Lee restated his plan to require five-year cost projections for every new initiative and challenged his opponents to present specific ideas to improve the district.
"We cannot rely on the status quo," Lee said. "I am the candidate that has presented ideas that will allow us to do better."
But Lee went on the defensive when the moderator and other candidates raised the issue of ethics. Lee admitted earlier in the week he had stolen $300 from a friend of a roommate when he was in college seven years ago.
All four candidates - including Lee - said they supported background checks for board members.
"It would probably ensure that the right people were sitting on the board, people who were trustworthy," Jordan said.
Without being specifically pressed on the issue, Lee said voters should not judge him by mistakes he made when he was younger.
"I made some mistakes as a college student," Lee said. "I never harmed children, never harmed people, never committed violence."
The two candidates who did not attend Saturday's forum - incumbent board members Anne Miller and Karen Roeckner - had prior commitments, according to other board members.