The six Manhattan Beach school board candidates - running for three open seats - appeared together at a forum sponsored by the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce on Thursday night.

The forum marked the first official public appearance of all six candidates, following a public event last week where three of the candidates opted out.

The candidates include:

The candidates found common ground on many of the questions presented, including e-bike safety (important); hate crimes and vandalism on campuses (bad, needs to be stopped); and cooperation with other school districts and local colleges (good).

But divisions emerged on issues such as the top challenges the board will need to face; what changes need to be made in the budget; the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the schools; and the reasons for long-term enrollment decline. 

A video of the first portion of the forum can be seen here (before the live feed went out) and the video of closing statements is available here. MB News took a closer look at a few of the questions that were not covered by the video segments.

One question dealt with where and how the district should make budget cuts, an issue that looms ahead for the district in future funding years. It is a difficult question because there are many fixed categories of funding, as well as contracts that are already in place and grant monies that dedicated to a certain cause. The answers (in order the candidates responded) included:

John Uriostegui: "The short answer is, I don’t know," said Uriostegui. "I have not sat down and looked at every line item in the budget." However, Uriostegui added, with his financial background and experience with balance sheets, he was certain that he would be able to find "a lot of fat" in the budget. Uriostegui cited as an example COVID tests that the district had purchased that he had learned could be purchased for much less in large quantities.

Wysh Weinstein: Weinstein clarified that the COVID test purchases were actually arranged by the L.A. County Office of Education. She also noted that more than 80 percent of the budget goes toward staff, or is dictated by categorical funding, and MBEF grants are decided on by the MBEF board. "There's not much to cut; but maybe can you be creative with categoricals, such as covering our reading specialists through the COVID categorical funding because of student learning loss," she said. She also suggested revenue possibilities such as renting out Mira Costa's lesser-used "small theater."

Mike Welsh: Welsh said that his priority was making sure that people working directly with children would not get cut, and making the district one of the highest paying in the state. Welsh added, "I went to South High in Torrance, which had about 2,500 students, and I can count on both my hands the amount of administrators we had. Nowadays we have administrators that are not dealing with our students. I would like to take a serious look at that line item and redirect the money to teaching children."

Christy Barnes: "We need to stop checking the boxes," said Barnes. "I do not want to cut teachers. I don’t know every line item, but I feel like we are being reactionary instead of being proactive." Barnes cited the RUVNA student check-in program used during COVID, (paid for by COVID relief funds, she noted), which was frustrating to many parents and was frequently not taken seriously by the end. She said she would look at every item in the budget such as consultants and ask, "Do we need it, is it going to give us a positive result, or is it just checking a box?"

Jen Fenton: "I think it’s easy to say where you can cut when you haven’t worked on the budget for the last four years," said Fenton. "MBUSD runs a tight ship. During the recession we cut everywhere we could besides the classroom. But 83 percent of our budget goes to people. That helps keep our class sizes down." Fenton added: "I've weighed the pros and cons, and there's very little that can be cut [while keeping class sizes small]."

Tina Shivpuri: Shivpuri noted that to preserve personnel, cuts had been made as far away from the classroom as possible, including deferred maintenance and textbook delays. "But what we learned is that maintenance ends up creeping back into the budget," she said, noting the costs associated with asbestos remediation in the library at Mira Costa and mold issues in the bungalows at Manhattan Beach Middle School. "We need to perform those risk analyses. It’s easy to turn an eye on things that don’t touch students, but we also need to keep an eye on maintenance that might cost additional amounts later."

Note: The latest version of the MBUSD budget for 2022/23 (the 45-day budget revision, which marks updates since the governor signed the 2022/23 budget bill) can be found here with more explanation here.

Another question that came up was, "What is your definition of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), and how would you promote a plan of it in MBUSD?" The answers (in the order the candidates responded), included:

Christy Barnes: "I don’t know if we’re going a good job; we’re doing assemblies, but we’re still having hate crimes," said Barnes, adding that surveys of students are "calling attention to our differences as opposed to our similarities." "We need to go back to drawing board, because what’s going on right now is not working," she said.

Jen Fenton: "DEI means preparing our students to navigate the world, preparing them and teaching them how to think," said Fenton. Current programs are working to ensure that children feel safe and included, she added, noting that these messages have been taught at MBUSD since 2000. "Character Counts, Safe School Ambassadors, all of those things encompass DEI – quality academics but also social emotional learning," she said.

Tina Shivpuri: Shivpuri noted that many universities have been adding the term "Belonging" to their DEI centers to clarify the meaning of the term. "We just want every student and every stakeholder to feel that they can thrive," she said, adding. "We cannot just do assemblies – we need smaller environments to communicate those messages."

John Uriostegui: "Very similar to what others have said, it's about being inclusive, it's about everyone feeling like they are belonging," said Uriostegui. "When people become confident they become less negative - it really does work." He added that improving security at schools would have "a big deal to do with it."

Wysh Weinstein: "Treat people the way you want to be treated," Weinstein said was the mantra her father taught her. "If we’re not treating everyone as we want to be treated, what hope do we have? I just want my kids to be kind, to be hard working, to reach their goal potential - and you can’t have that without EDSJI [Equity, Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusion], educating global citizens." Weinstein noted that DEI has been an increasingly common question on college applications and "students need to be able to answer it."

Mike Welsh: "It’s the role of parents to teach tolerance, acceptance and embrace common humanity," said Welsh. "Diversity also includes diversity of thought, and that’s in short supply these days. I am all for diversity, I am all for inclusion, but nobody has said what equity is. I’m happy to to have a discussion what equity is – I am for equality – but equity is a political statement that a group that looks different deserves something more."

For reference, MBUSD's Equity, Diversity, Social Justice, and Inclusion Plan can be seen here and is reflected in its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) documents.

Election Day is November 8.