LYNWOOD — Voters in the Lynwood Unified School District are encouraged to attend the second community candidates forum Monday where five of the six candidates seeking two seats on the school board will be asked to address crucial educational issues.

The forum takes place at 6 p.m. at Lynwood Middle School, 12124 Bullis Road.

Incumbent school board members Rachel Chavez and Alfonso Morales, the board’s current vice president, face challengers Nancy Montes, Ana Ventura, Dorothy Plummer-Jones and Gloria Garcia in the Nov. 3 election. Garcia is the only one who will not be attending the forum.

Sponsored by the parent group, Lynwood Save Our Students, the forum will give people a chance to hear each candidate’s positions on issues that matter to the community. The forum will not be a debate between candidates, but more of a question and answer session.

“We believe that people want to know what is going on in our school district. They want to know who is making the decisions, and how this district is handling the economic crisis,” said Jackie Espinoza, one of the organizers. “This forum will give the community a chance to know who the candidates are for themselves, and not just vote for a name on the ballot.”

Rabai Parrot, a parent advocate and member of the newly instituted parent group African-Americans for Academic Excellence, said the forum will give people a chance to see where each candidate stands on issues.

“We all have issues that need to be addressed,” Parrot said. “This forum gives us an opportunity to get our questions answered.”

Parrot is a parent advocate whose own children have already graduated from Lynwood schools. “My kids have all graduated. … I’m here because I support Lynwood students.”

Parrot said she applauds the organizations coming together for the forum, which, she said, gives students a voice, especially students from Vista High School, the district’s continuation school.

“Students at Vista are very intelligent, they are very creative and they all have the potential of being successful if they are given the right resources and given the opportunity for their voices to be heard, just like at this forum,” she said. “So for them right now, being invited to participate, they’re excited.”

While Lynwood SOS are the prime organizers of the event, the forum is a community sponsored event that is being made possibly by the Lynwood Teachers Association, the Children’s Planning Area 6 Council, Madres Al Rescate, Parents in Action, the Lynwood Alumni College Conference Committee and by the African-Americans for Academic Excellence Parent Group.

Parent Imelda Rodriguez is happy that special education students in the district are getting a chance to participate.

“We haven’t had a voice for a long time,” said Rodriguez. “It’s like this district has been operating in two halves only: regular education and special education, and unfortunately, special ed has always been put on the back burner. This forum will give us a voice and a face … so that we can tell these people asking us to vote for them that our students are at level, that just because they are special ed students doesn’t mean that they can’t succeed. They have a disability, but it doesn’t mean they can’t communicate, because they can.”

The types of questions candidates will have to answer will remain under lock and key until Monday, but organizers assure the public that all of them have come from stakeholders throughout the district.

“The district right now is going through a lot of financial problems, all of our schools are under program improvement status, and we have yet to see a very crucial financial report from the county,” said parent Arturo Ramos. “We’re at a point in time that we need someone on the board who is capable of making smart decisions. But we also want to know how knowledgeable these candidates are about the school district, because you can’t just run for a seat on the school board, you have to be connected to the community, you have to know the issues.”

The community is tired of empty promises, Ramos said. “They want to see results,” he said.

The bottom line, said Parrot, is that the community that is served by the school district “wants to see change” at the district level.

“I think that’s what people expect from anyone who is on the board,” she said. “But at the same time, visibility and accountability is what we’re looking for. … If you’re not visible, then how can you expect people to count on you. Both of these things are major requirements.”

Among her concerns, Espinoza said, is that board members have in the past had little interest in including parents in the decision making.

“For all of us, that’s an important issue because a lot of times we’re not heard,” she said. “School board members need to seek parental involvement in the decision making. Just because they have a title, doesn’t mean that they know what’s going on in the schools. … We’re the parents, our children are at school every day.”

A former Lynwood teacher, Plummer-Jones said she is looking forward to participating in Monday’s forum.

“The community is looking for someone to govern, that’s what they’re looking for … Someone who is not afraid to do the right thing for the children in this city,” she said. “The district right now is not fiscally solvent, and there are a lot of things that are happening that need to be corrected. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but I do hope that the community comes out to the forum to hear where we stand.”

Susie Gomez of the Lynwood Alumni College Conference Committee also hopes the forum has a large turnout.

“This forum will give the community a chance to come out and hear the candidates so that they can make an informed choice at the polls,” she said. The forum also gives the community a chance to see how they can better work with school board members … to make the community and the school district better.

Concerns brought forward at the forum will vary, Gomez said, considering every stakeholder in the community will be represented, but overall, most likely those emphasized will be issues revolving around safety, budget cuts, the economic crisis, curriculum, dropout rates and special education.

“The concerns are very wide and very broad, but hopefully, this forum will give us a chance to hear [candidates’] thoughts about every issue and not just what their promises are, but what they can really offer the district.”

Morales, who is seeking his second term on the school board, said he is well aware of the community’s concerns and that more than ever, right now, the school district and the community “need stability.”

Among concerns he believes he will hear at the forum, Morales said safety will be number one. Coming in at a very close second, he said, will be academic performance improvements.

“That’s the purpose of this school district,” he said. In order to accomplish that, the district right now is undergoing a lot of changes at the administrative level, he said. In order to get there, stability first needs to be established … “because academic excellence is what we’re all striving for.”