PASO ROBLES — Eleven of 12 Paso Robles Joint Unified School District candidates participated in a forum Wednesday evening, Sept. 30, held via Zoom and streamed live on the PRJUSD YouTube channel.

The Paso Robles Education Alliance organized and hosted the forum. PREA is a nonprofit, community-based organization that supports and enriches the educational environment of Paso Robles Public Schools.

Twelve people are running for four seats on the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District School Board. Incumbents Chris Bausch and Joan Summers, and challengers Jim Reed, Laura Parker, Ruben Canales Jr., Caitlin J. Vierra, Nathan Williams, Jim Cogan, Dorian K. Baker, Frank Triggs and Greg. S. Goodman participated in the forum. Candidate Leonard Washington did not participate.

Candidates provided opening and closing statements and answered three rounds of questions related to the District’s finances, dual-immersion, diversity, COVID-19, athletics and Career Technical Education. Each candidate was limited to 60 seconds per reply.

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The forum went smoothly and was completed in less than 2 hours.

The community provided the first two rounds of questions and the candidates were broken up into three groups. Each group of 3-4 candidates was asked a different question.

During the final round, moderator Danna Stroud, CEO of Travel Paso, asked each candidate a question that was formed from their candidate statements.

General knowledge of the District was the theme of the first round of questions and specific issues of the District was the second round’s theme.

To view the forum, visit online www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qbt7A37amI.