Debate lightning round answers

Published 2:49 am Wednesday, September 21, 2016

During Monday’s Juneau School Board candidate forum, moderators asked the candidates a series of questions meant to be answered with a simple “yes,” “no” or with a single-word response during the “lightning round.” For the most part, candidates followed the rules. The results are as follows:

Q: Do you think the Juneau School District should have a Tlingit language-only optional program?

Kevin Allen: Yes.

Dan DeBartolo: Yes.

Jason Hart: Yes

Steve Whitney: If possible, yes.

Q: Does Juneau need two high schools?

Allen: Yes.

DeBartolo: Yes.

Hart: Yes.

Whitney: “There’s a study out and we need to wait for the results.” (Moderator Lisa Phu asked again for a direct answer.) We need to wait ‘till we get that $300,000 study out. We need to wait for the results. We can’t make decisions ahead of time. (When pressed again by Phu for his personal opinion:) I’m on the fence on that one; there’s arguments both ways.

Q: Should Juneau-Douglas High School and Thunder Mountain High School have neighborhood boundaries, like the other schools do, to determine which school a student should go to?

Allen: No.

DeBartolo: No.

Hart: No.

Whitney: No.

Q: Would you support the closure of any school or schools as a cost-saving measure?

Allen: No.

DeBartolo: No.

Hart: No.

Whitney: If it was between class sizes and…I’d rather not though. There are other priorities.

Q: What would be your goal, percentage wise, of students who graduate high school in four years? Please be realistic.

(For reference, 77.3 percent of the 2014-2015 seniors graduated in four years, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. The five-year graduation rate for the same period was 87 percent.)

Allen: 80 percent.

DeBartolo: 88 percent.

Hart: 92 percent.

Whitney: 90 percent.

Q: Do you support Planned Parenthood teaching sex education in Juneau classrooms?

Allen: Yes.

DeBartolo: Yes.

Hart: Yes.

Whitney: Yes.

Q: Do you think the student representative on the Juneau School Board should have real voting rights?

Allen: Yes. There’s no bias, it’s important.

DeBartolo: No.

Hart: No.

Whitney: No.

Q: Should the district reinstate middle school sports travel?

Allen: Yes.

DeBartolo: Yes.

Hart: Yes.

Whitney: Yes.

Q: Would you try to get enough votes to try to bring that up as an agenda item?

Allen: Eventually.

DeBartolo: Yes.

Hart: Not at the first meeting I attend. I think it’d be something down the road, after I got an understanding of the (school board). Down the road when we get parents and students involved, yes.

Whitney: I oppose a blanket ban, so yes.

Q: Should transgender students be able to use the bathroom of the gender that they identify with?

Allen: Yes.

DeBartolo: Yes.

Hart: Yes.

Whitney: Yes.