Five candidates are running for the Orange County Board of Education in the upcoming election on March 15th. Unlike the several primary election items on the ballot, the school board race is a nonpartisan general election. The winners will take office in June.

• Full 4-year term (3 seats): Stephen H. Halkiotis, Tony McKnight, Matthew Roberts
• Unexpired 2-year term (1 seat): John D. Hamilton, Michael H. Hood

OrangePolitics asked the candidates to answer five questions. The responses from four of the candidates are provided below. Candidate Matthew Roberts did not respond.

The Orange County Schools Board of Education has appointed Millicent Rainey and Jessica Aguilar to fill vacancies on the board. Both will serve until June, to be replaced by winners of the March 15th election.

On Saturday, February 20, the second community forum on school equity was held: "Excellence with Equity: The Schools Our Children Deserve." The event was cosponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools PTA Council, Organizing Against Racism (OAR)-Orange, the NAACP Youth Council, Movement of Youth, and the Special Needs Advisory Council (SNAC). The event was live-tweeted by OrangePolitics and a number of other attendees.

We asked the nine candidates for Orange County Board of Commissioners to answer five questions, and all provided responses. On each the next five Mondays, we will post the responses to one question. We begin today with the first question: Why are people poor? What tools or programs is the county using and/or should the county use to address poverty?