Thanks so much to the Chapel Hill News for recognizing the good work of OrangePolitics and our recent leadership transition. Fortunately (or unfortunately, perhaps) the online version does not include my 1999 campaign headshot! Alert reader John Rees snapped a photo of it though.

Over the two years, Chapel Hill has gone through an extensive process to restructure our advisory boards and commissions. The main focus of this work has been to simplify the development review process, and has led to the creation of four major boards that will review development proposals (Planning Commission, Transportation and Connectivity Advisory Board, Environmental Stewardship Advisory Board, and Housing Advisory Board). The town will be making appointments to these four boards this spring, and we need community members to step up and serve to help move our community forward. The town also has a number of vacancies on existing boards that may be filled this spring.

Welcome to the open thread for the Orange County School Board candidate forum happening on April 13, 2014. Comments on this post will open at that time.

There are six candidates for four seats: 

• Greg Andrews - did not respond to our invitations to participate
• Tom Carr - declined to participate in our forum
• Donna Coffey
• Michael Hood
• Brenda Stephens - declined to participate in our forum
• Rosa Williams

You can observe the forum at http://orangepolitics.org/elections-2014/forums/ocboe.

We hope you'll use this open thread to post your thoughts and reactions. Also, if you want to propose additional discussion topics, you can reach the editors during the forum via Twitter, Facebook, or the contact page. The forum moderator will have final say in question selection.