CUSD Candidate Forum

The Claremont Area League of Women Voters (LWV) and the Claremont Educational Foundation, two Claremont 400 organizations, are holding their Claremont Unified School District (CUSD) Board of Education candidate forum tonight beginning at 7:00pm at El Roble Intermediate School.

League candidate forums generally tend to be sanitized events revealing very little real information about the candidates. The moderators like to cull out the hard questions, so you won't hear anything tonight about the expenditure of the 2001 Measure Y construction funds - $48.5 million that has been fully spent without finishing all of the projects it was supposed to have funded (one project, La Puerta Elementary School, wasn't even started).

The League, in trying to protect its Claremont 400 friends with softball questions, does a real disservice to the public and to the election process.

The Claremont 400 candidates this time around? Well, Hilary LaConte, for sure. LaConte was a co-chair for Claremont City Councilperson Linda Elderkin's March 2007 campaign. LaConte taught elementary school from 1989 to 1995 and done substitute teaching since then. Not that actual knowledge, education, or brains matters. LaConte is, of course, overwhelmingly qualified for the CUSD board based on her membership in the Claremont 400.

Remember, these are the same folks that gave you Steve "Flag Gate" Llanusa.

But don't let us sway you. See for yourself tonight, and remember to compare tonight's impressions to the actual performances of the two winners after they've been on the school board a couple years. Then - and only then - can you begin to get a real understanding of Claremont politics.

CUSD Candidate Forum - 7:00 to 8:30pm
El Roble Intermediate School
665 N. Mountain Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711