On Sunday, incumbent David Bringman and newcomer Keith Padgett faced off in District 6 school board forum hosted by local Facebook education advocacy page, Voices for Schools.
Questions were submitted in advanced and ranged from issues related to roles a board member, academic success and more.
Note: For length and clarity, not questions that all questions that were asked are listed
What issues have you identified that you believe your district needs to address both in academic programming as well as extra offerings?
Bringman: "The largest problem I see is community engagement."
Padgett: "The number one issue is the math and reading proficiencies for our students."
There are a lot of factors that contribute to student's academic success. Can you name what you believe those factors are and how you will work with the board to strengthen to close the gap?
Bringman: "We first and foremost need to hire enough teachers to fill all the classrooms. That's a nationwide problem. I believe we deliver on this by a teacher making their learning environment comfortable."
Padgett: "So the first thing we need to start off in the classroom. We need smaller teacher to student ratios, because if a student is not engaged, then they're going to act out."
Credit: Bianca Moorman/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bianca Moorman/Savannah Morning News
How will you both ensure that you will not only leverage your power to advocate for full funding, but that you'll be able to communicate to constituents when something is just a sparkly distraction?
Bringman: "I thoroughly believe the district does a good job with the budget. We do have to work on making sure that funding is used equitably across the district (and) to make sure that funding is different at different schools depending on what is needed at that school."
Padgett: "I think we need to take on something called a bottom up approach. A nice clean slate and we'll start off in the classroom. We'll start with funding for all we need... and everything else comes after that."
Credit: Bianca Moorman/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bianca Moorman/Savannah Morning News
What is your plan to help continue a path forward with what a positive school climate looks like at each school?
Bringman: "I think one of the big places that we can make a change is a gaining community engagement. And that is one of the things I think in the sixth district we can definitely get more community partners within our schools."
Padgett: "Getting more funding in the classroom plus small sizes for the teachers to engage all the students."
The full forum can be viewed the Voices for School Facebook page.
Bianca Moorman is the education reporter. Reach her at BMoorman@gannett.com or 912-239-7706. Find her on Twitter @biancarmoorman.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: District funding, school climate tackled by candidates in District 6 school board forum
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