Candidates respond during ‘Lightning Round’<\/a>]<\/p>\nCandidates Kevin Allen and Steve Whitney both said that more needs to be considered before a clear \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d can be handed out. Both made references to the fact that at even at the Olympic level, this matter is debated and a clear right or wrong approach simply does not exist. Candidate Dan DeBartolo delivered the only opposition to Hart\u2019s response, saying there was no question about it \u2014 all students should be allowed to play on the team that reflects their gender identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone demonstrates they\u2019re physically capable to do the sport we\u2019re talking about, or do the activity we\u2019re talking about \u2014 injury of course is a concern, but if we can get past that particular metric \u2014 if someone is able to perform at a competitive level, then let them do it,\u201d DeBartolo said.<\/p>\n
Disagreements during Monday\u2019s debate at the KTOO building, hosted in partnership with the Juneau Empire, KTOO public radio and Juneau Votes, didn\u2019t occur often and it was seldom that a candidate had a clear plan for what they would do if elected to the board. The candidates agreed that before facing the increasing college campus rape epidemic, high school students \u2014 perhaps even younger students \u2014 should be given greater sex education tools to lessen the likelihood of becoming victims.<\/p>\n
The district\u2019s curriculum also needs to include more STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics focused learning) opportunities before students enter the workforce, the candidates agreed. But making all of these changes, and on a budget that will likely shrink as a result of the state\u2019s multibillion-dollar deficit, is what the board will have figure out it want\u2019s to add any new curriculum.<\/p>\n
Allen, a recent graduate of Thunder Mountain High School who sat on the board as a student representative, suggested the board seek more federal grants to relieve some of the pressure. DeBartolo disagreed, saying grants wouldn\u2019t create the long-term solution schools need and instead schools should create partnerships with local businesses to help cover the costs of travel for student sports activities. Whitney, the candidate through the night least willing to give definitive answers, again veered from a budget solution and said he needed more time.<\/p>\n
Candidate Hart came to the table with a clearer answer, especially where funding school sports are concerned \u2014 a city sales tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you need to understand the importance of athletics, you can look no further than the (Juneau-Douglas High School) football game Saturday night here when there was a tragic accident Saturday morning,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n
Hart was referencing the sudden death of Thunder Mountain High School student Ryan Mayhew, 17, after police say he unintentionally shot himself.<\/p>\n
Members of the community gathered before the JDHS football game that same day for a ceremony in his remembrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe importance of activities can\u2019t be undersold,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n
Absentee voting for the Oct. 4 municipal election is currently open. Registered voters can cast absentee in-person ballots now through Oct. 3 at City Hall or at the Mendenhall Mall Annex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Juneau School Board candidates got a taste Monday night of both the recurrent topics that dominate community conversations, and new ones the board has never faced but will soon have to develop policies for. And therein arose key differences. As moderators Lisa Phu of the Empire and KTOO\u2019s Quinton Chandler pointed out to the four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":25726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25725"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}