School board candidates get ready for primary

With less than a week to go, candidates make last pitches to voters

School board member Christopher S. Barclay (Dist. 4) of Takoma Park is running unopposed in his district. The candidates for the at-large seat have lined up to run for the board since Sharon W. Cox, a school board member holding an at-large seat, announced this summer that she would not seek re-election.

Philip Kauffman, an attorney with the Department of Veterans Affairs and former Blake cluster coordinator, wants more parental involvement during school board meetings, a stronger emphasis on implementing middle school reform systemwide and tougher fiscal accountability if he is elected to the board.

Kauffman, 55, was the first person to file for candidacy.

‘‘I think I can make a difference,” he said. ‘‘I want to bring the experience I have in PTA. I just want to make a contribution. I see being on the board of education as a natural continuation of the work I’ve done for schools thus far.”

Like Kauffman, Alies Muskin, a former president of the Albert Einstein High School PTA and coordinator of the Einstein cluster, wants to focus on middle school achievement, developing better social supports for students, and improving outreach to parents and residents.

‘‘I really want to work and contribute to setting a future course for the children of Montgomery County,” said Muskin, 51. ‘‘As demographics change, we have to make sure we meet the needs of all students who come to the county.”

Kauffman ran for the Dist. 5 school board in 2006, but lost to Nancy Navarro, who took 63 percent of the vote. Also that year, Muskin was a finalist for the Dist. 4 seat, which was vacated after Valerie Ervin was elected to the County Council. Barclay now holds that seat.

For Tommy Le, who also ran for an At-large school board seat in 2006, he wants more technical education, more oversight over the school system, and more vocational training in upcounty schools if elected.

Le lost the at-large election to Shirley Brandman, who took almost 63 percent of the vote.

‘‘I’m just being myself with a sincere heart to serve my community, and to put my technical background and experience to guide our children to great technological careers in the highly global competitive world of work in the future,” he wrote in an e-mail. ‘‘Now that my children [have] grown up and that I have walked the walk, it’s time for me to talk the walk ... so that our children can be aware of life’s obstacles.”

For Rob Seubert, 40, it is important for the school board to reduce the workload of teachers, so they can spend more time teaching curriculum. If elected, he also wants to make sure parents have more input in school system decisions and help keep expectations high for all students.

Seubert, of Silver Spring, has taught in three county elementary and middle schools.

‘‘I thought I could do a good job at it,” he said of his decision to run for the school board. ‘‘I know the ins and out. I know a lot of the things that are going on. And if I don’t know, I could find out very quickly.”

Carey Apple, the self-proclaimed underdog of the school board race, intends to focus on the way the board approves boundaries, get educators back to teaching curriculum, and find better ways for the school system to spend the federal money allocated under the No Child Left Behind Act.

‘‘I think the school board is in need of change, and I think it’s not catering or listening to the majority,” said Apple, 52. ‘‘I think they’re out of touch of what the majority of the people want and need.”

To learn more

Go to www.gazette.net⁄votersguide08 to read more about each school board candidate.