On 10/29/2009, Decatur EDtv held a forum of candidates for the Decatur School Board. It was very well conducted, but unfortunately not well attended. (The Oakhurst District 2 debate was packed.)
Decatur EDtv may present a video of the entire proceeding, as well as questions presented which were not answered due to time constraints. [As of this posting, I see no coverage of the forum there, other than announcing it and a feature on Valarie Wilson.]
In the meantime, here are videos which include the opening and closing comments for the candidates in the two contested races. (Sorry they are a bit shaky, but it's hard to hold a camera steady for very long. The inDECATUR cameraman should have brought a tripod.)
You are also encouraged to study the websites of the candidates. But nothing beats seeing their faces as they speak their words.
I apologize for not getting these published yesterday, as intended, but I was plagued by technical difficulties.
While you can watch the embeds, the videos are best viewed at the links below them. You can even expand them to full screen if you like and your equipment can handle it.
Here's the video for Garrett G vs. Marc W:
Decatur school board debate 10/29/2009 Garrett G v Mark W from Dave Kell on Vimeo.
This video contains the opening statements for Rob P vs. Valarie W (both of whom are a bit long-winded). Their closing comments are in the next video further down (Vimeo apparently just crops videos which are longer than they allow.)
Decatur, GA school board forum 10/29/2009 Rob P v Valarie from Dave Kell on Vimeo.
Here are Valarie and Rob's closing statements, with Bernadette Seal's closing thrown in for good measure:
Decatur School Board Forum - VW, RP, BS closings from Dave Kell on Vimeo.
It's interesting to compare how they feel about SAT scores, which have been trending downward for five years (see spreadsheet (developed by Garrett) in this earlier post if you can't read it in the video).
