LYNWOOD — Five hopefuls for the Lynwood Unified School District’s Board of Education gave at least 100 members of the community on Monday night a chance to hear their platforms and their visions for the district if elected to office Nov. 3.

Organizers of the second annual community-sponsored candidates’ forum hoped to fill the Lynwood Middle School Auditorium, but only about 80 people trickled in to hear the candidates speak their mind and answer questions preselected by various groups throughout the community.

“I don’t know what we needed to do to get people to come out and hear the candidates,” said organizer Joaquin Mesinas, of the Lynwood Save Our Students parent group, one of the event’s sponsors. “Our school district is a mess right now. … This forum gave parents in the community the opportunity to come and hear and meet the candidates so that when election time comes around, they know who to vote for … so that they know how each of these candidates think. This was a chance to get to know the candidates.”

Nevertheless, the forum went smoothly, Mesinas said.

“Whether one person showed up in the audience, or 100 or 500, it made me happy to see that the candidates took the forum seriously, because all of our concerns are valid. … Their participation showed us that they’re willing to hear our concerns.”

While Lynwood SOS was the prime organizer of the event, the forum was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Lynwood Teachers Association, the Children’s Planning Area 6 Council, Madres Al Rescate, Parents in Action, the Lynwood Alumni College Conference Committee and the newly instituted African-Americans for Academic Excellence Parent Group. Mayor Maria Santillan and City Councilmen Ramon Rodriguez and Jim Morton also attended the forum.

School board incumbents Alfonso Morales and Rachel Chavez sat among challengers Ana Ventura, Nancy Montes and Dorothy Plummer-Jones. The sixth candidate, Gloria Garcia, did not participate.

Moderated by Gayleah Richmond, a member of the Lynwood Alumni College Conference Committee, and Alicia Fombona, a member of Parents In Action at Lynwood Middle School, each candidate was allowed to give a two-minute opening statement and later a two-minute closing statement. For each question asked, candidates had two minutes to give an answer. Every candidate was given the opportunity to answer every question.

In their opening statements, candidates gave a brief description of their vision for the board of education and the school district.

Incumbent Chavez, who has been a member of the school board for nearly 20 years, said she offers the community her years of experience on the board and her ability to say no when necessary.

“We’re facing many difficult but necessary decisions ahead of us right now,” she said. “First and foremost, will be our job to choose a new permanent superintendent.” Second, she said, will be to solve the district’s fiscal problems.

Plummer-Jones cited her many years in Lynwood and her experience as an educator in the district. “This is [my] second time running for school board. … Running again because I want to bring about civil discourse in the district. … There are a lot of problems and I would like to help solve them.”

Incumbent Morales, currently vice president of the board, also spoke of his tenure on the board and added that his experience has taught him “what questions need to be asked.”

More than anything, Morales said, in being a product of Lynwood schools and going off to college he learned that there were good things and bad things about his education growing up. In moving up the ranks of education, Morales said that he learned that Lynwood didn’t prepare him as well as he should have been prepared to compete in today’s society. Making sure Lynwood students can be competitive in the world is his No. 1 priority as a board member, he said.

Montes talked about working with at-risk youth, and told the audience that her experience would be beneficial to the board. Increasing the high school graduation rates, increasing safety at district schools, improving teacher morale and fixing the district’s financial problems are all priorities the board of education should focus on, Montes said.

Ventura, a longtime active parent in the district, said she is seeking a seat on the board because she is tired of hearing about the same fiscal problems she used to hear when she was a student in Lynwood. Both of her parents worked for the school district and as an alumni, she said, it hurts to see no support from today’s parents for their children’s education.

“It hurts to see how nobody feels the way alumni feel,” she said. Ventura also called for a change at the board level that was very much needed.

Seven questions were asked by the sponsoring community groups. The district’s secondary schools were also asked to participate in the question and answer session with the candidates. Luciano Martinez represented Vista High School and Victor Ortiz represented Lynwood High School. Students from Hosler Middle School’s Youth Act also participated in the forum.

Questions asked included: What makes you qualified to serve on the school board? What guarantees can each of you give to bring needed change to Lynwood schools? What steps do you think board members need to take to make sure principals and district management are held accountable? What steps will you take to make sure all parties understand the LUSD and LTA contract to avoid anymore unnecessary grievances? What are you going to do to ensure students graduate and go off to college? What qualities will you look for in the next superintendent? And how will you improve the district’s handling of the Special Education Department?

In regards to guaranteeing schools get much-needed change, Plummer-Jones said that in order to get there, the district was going to need to “start providing support to the schools … that’s critical right now,” she said.

Morales agreed that the district has had its problems, but said that change is already happening, including with a changing of the guard at the district administration level. If anything, he said, he blames a lack of a procedural checklist at the district level in making sure the quality of education at schools moves forward.

Ventura said a checklist won’t do. On the contrary, she said, to better Lynwood schools it will take “all of us,” she said. For that, she said, “We need more accountability, more monitoring district-wide to make sure our students are learning.”

Darwin, a student representing Vista High School, asked the candidates what they intended to do to bring the continuation school up to par with the district’s other two high schools.

It was unanimous among the candidates that students at Vista needed to succeed as well as students from the other two high schools and that basically, they were no different.

Montes, however, said that working with at-risk youth she knows firsthand how students at Vista need extra support.

“If you give these students the resources they need … results will be incredible,” Ventura said in her answer to Darwin’s question.

Val Zolfaghari, president of the LTA asked the question about the teacher’s contract.

Morales answered that question with one word: “Respect.”

Morales talked about how negotiations between the LUSD and LTA require special attention — attention, he felt he needed to give when he agreed to sit down with the bargaining teams earlier this year.

“It’s about putting your personal affairs aside,” he said. “From the top to the bottom, respect is the answer … you have to respect each other.”

Rabaii Parrot, vice president of the African-Americans for Academic Excellence parent group, asked the candidates what they intended to do to make sure African-American students and parents were included in the decision-making and to instill in them how important parent involvement was to their children’s education.

Several candidates admitted they knew parent involvement was quite low at both the district level and at the school site level, but that the lack of involvement included Latino families, not just African-American families.

Plummer-Jones told the audience that she agreed that African-American parents and students in Lynwood thought they were being “totally ignored.” She suggested that district meetings be changed to Saturday mornings.

“All parents have always been encouraged to participate,” said Chavez. “When we say all children, all schools, we are talking about everyone, not just one race. Everyone is welcome, all parents are welcome. … As parents it’s our responsibility to make sure that we are involved.”

As far as he is concerned, Morales said the goal of seeing every child succeed, means just that — every child, it doesn’t matter whether they are Latino, African-American, Asian, White — “We want to see all children succeed, I think that’s what we all want,” he said.

Susan Melgarejo, a member of the Lynwood Alumni College Conference Committee, asked the candidates what they believed needed to be done to make sure Lynwood children make college a part of their future?

In order to make that happen, Chavez said, that it is imperative to get student to start thinking about college at a very early age — high school is a little bit late, she said. For starters, she said, the district first needs to make sure students are inspired to stay in school and to love school — starting at the elementary school level.

Teachers and parents need more support, Montes said. Not only would giving teachers and parents more support help them instill in children to stay in school but it will also help in decreasing the high drop out rates.

In her two-minute answer, Ventura talked about going back to the basics, back to the grassroots level of teaching kids. “The dropout rate anywhere is going to exist,” she said. “When I was growing up, there were a lot of activities. … It should be our goal that all of us go to college … but I remember back then, we had ROP, nursing and vocation programs. It is very important that we go back to that.”

Maria Torres, representing the special education parent group, asked each candidate how they would make sure special education programs would no longer be neglected?

Every candidate agreed that special education needed more resources and attention from the school district.

As board members, Chavez and Morales said they know how the special education program in Lynwood has been under-funded and at times overlooked, but that in the last couple of years, they helped steer changes to that program for the better of the students, including with the development of a new Special Education Parents Advisory Council.

Five random questions from the audience were selected for the forum’s second round, but it was a question from Victor Ortiz of Lynwood High School that topped the night. “What are you going to look for in the district’s next superintendent? What qualities will you be focusing on?” he asked.

“Someone who has education and experience and who can identify with our community,” answered Morales. “We need to make sure we bring someone who … is a good fit. I think it is important for us to bring someone in who understands our community, who understands our parents, our students, because every district is different. … So we need someone who is a good fit.”

Montes agreed with Morales. “Experience and a proven track record, is what a new superintendent needs to have,” she said. “I also think it’s important that we bring in someone who is culturally sensitive to the demographics that we have.”

Ventura said that she would look for someone who is a good business person, considering the district is having great fiscal financial difficulties. “[He or she] also have to be a good fit, and understand our cultures,” she said. “In order for that person to fit in, he has to also be a good people person.”

Chavez, who found herself alone in opposing the selection of the last two superintendents, said she has learned firsthand how selecting a superintendent is the single most important decision that a school board member will have to make.

“This will be the person that will be the leader of the district,” she said. “What all of the candidates here tonight have said, is very important. He or she has to be strong in academics, understand school budgets and how they are formed, who enjoys working with children and the diversity of our community, someone who will inspire principals, administrators and someone who will truly move this district forward.”

In their closing statements, each candidate talked about what they had to offer to the district and how it was crucial that the district not fail any more generations.

“The forum was a great success,” said Jackie Espinoza, an organizer and member of Lynwood SOS. “It was clear that the candidates did their homework … it was very interesting what they all had to say. … Every answer intrigued me. School board members can’t be effective if they’re not involved in the community. … Ideally all of the people we heard from on Monday night, would be connected with the community year round, not just during election season.”