With nary a mis-step, not even a baby one, the five evenly matched candidates for the School Board sailed through their first community-wide forum so deftly last night that if Chris Columbus ever decides to essay a comeback, any could qualify as his chief navigator.
For an hour, they responded to 19 written questions in a rat-ta-tat-tat rhythm with a one-minute cap on answers.
The only way for Alan Elmont or Michael Eskridge or Steve Gourley or Roger Maxwell or C. Scott Zeidman to draw attention to himself would have been to commit a jaw-hanging gaffe.
Law and Order
Three of the five are lawyers, perhaps contributing to the just-right air of confidence they exuded.
It is debatable whether the restrictive format better showcased the candidates’ sheer knowledge of the landscape or proved that they could think fast standing on one leg.
No one was trapped or caught short of information. No one surprised or disappointed.
Funny You Should Say That
Mr. Zeidman and Mr. Gourley dueled for the wittiest responses and one-liners.
Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Elmont consistently dipped into their deep portfolios to display the most researched data.
As a two-time previous School Board member, Mr. Eskridge was uniquely positioned to reach into his not-too-distant past, invoking nostalgia and his organic
experience.
All emphasized a powerful need to improve communication between the School District/School Board and the community. Mr. Zeidman said he will appear at a different school every week to hear community complaints/suggestions.
One Exception
On declining enrollment, the majority said the District needs to do a better job of selling Culver City schools to Culver City families. Mr. Maxwell demurred, insisting that “enrollment has been flat for 37 years.”
Another question: Each of you has made promises this campaign. How will you keep them?
“The only promise I made was to work hard and to push out information (into the community),” Mr. Elmont said. “Democracy is not a neat thing to watch. On the Board, you need to be a consensus builder to get anything done. I have experience with team-building in the organizations I belong to now.”
‘Let’s Leave Act Behind’
This is Mr. Zeidman responding to the question of what curriculum changes he would recommend:
“We need to work more with the A.P. (Advanced Placement) students, and we need to stop the stupid emphasis on testing that was brought on by the No Child Left Behind Act.” He would love to dump it, he said, but that is outside the Board’s purview.
A Lusty Laugh
Mr. Gourley’s reputation for well-timed quips did not suffer. To the question of whether high school students should be required to choose between athletics and the arts, he truncated all of his thoughts into two letters, “no.” The crowd, well-behaved throughout the 85-minute program, loved it when he pointedly declined to use up his last 59 seconds. To the question of whether to spread language immersion beyond the walls of El Marino Language School, Mr. Gourley brought another howl when he responded in fluid, fluent Spanish.
On the feasibility of admitting, potentially, several hundred students from Ladera Heights, Mr. Eskridge said not enough student data was known while only Mr. Maxwell came out flatly opposed to the proposition.
In Substance, Pretty Alike
The differences between and among the five on the major subjects probably is more of style than content. A review of answers showed virtually indiscernible distinctions. By accenting the rapidity and brevity of their answers, the result was more on Sound Bite City than range or depth of knowledge.
Two of them seemed flustered at the opening, possibly because the assembly in the bosom of the School District turned out the most critical audience they are likely to encounter before Election Day on Nov. 6.
But the jitters died a mercifully speedy death.
Large and Dark Cloud
Candidates’ performances aside, one gloomy cloud loomed:
The audience.
If the community were fractionally as enthused about the election for two uncontested seats as the candidates, this could be one of the fun months in Culver City history.
But they aren’t, and it isn’t.
In a riff on irony, resident apathy is fighting hard to discourage the candidates’ infectious energy.
It’s Apathy in the Lead
The lifeless, bony fingers of apathy tried to drench each candidate with a bucket of icy cold water last night at Lin Howe School by staying away in droves.
They nearly succeeded.
The scheduled 7 o’clock start was delayed for 35 minutes by the co-sponsoring PTA and League of Women Voters so that the candidate field would not be larger than the audience.
Had they held off until midnight, they might have filled most of the 145 folding chairs set up in the auditorium. Counting pregnant ladies as two, perhaps a hundred people came out, a noticeable number of sub-voting age.
Whether the challengers were merely flexing themselves for the first time in a broad public setting or warming up for Thursday night’s 7 o’clock forum for the benefit of the Culver City Homeowners Assn. at the Vets Auditorium, their grasp on School District issues, their insights and their acuity should have impressed the crowd.
Which Way Is It?
The problem — or advantage? — was they were working inside a tight format.
The 60-second responses and random, unpredictable order in which the candidates were called on seemed to put a premium on how many questions could be squeezed in rather than what the candidates were saying.