Kessler decries partisan nature of sponsor
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
A planned candidate forum featuring the six people running for two available Burlington Area School Board positions will be short at least two people – the incumbents – next week.
The forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Burlington High School auditorium.
Both incumbents Susan Kessler and John Anderson have declined to take part in the forum. Anderson will be out of town until Feb. 10 – plans that were scheduled well ahead of the announced forum, he said.
But Kessler said in a letter to the Standard Press and in an interview Monday that she would not take part in a forum done by a group with a “specific political agenda.”
“One of the participating candidates in the proposed WeVote School Board candidate forum is a founding member of WeVote and several other participants are active members in this organization,” Kessler wrote in her letter. “Candidates do not sponsor their own forums because it gives them an unfair advantage and seems quite partisan and supercilious.”
When asked following a meeting Monday, Anderson said he agreed with Kessler.
“I think it would be naïve to think that it wasn’t somewhat slanted,” Anderson said.
Kessler also said Monday that she felt that a School Board position was not a “political seat.”
“When we vote, we’re not voting as Republicans or Democrats,” she said.
Bonnie Ketterhagen, one of the founding members of WeVote Burlington – the conservative political group sponsoring the forum – said Tuesday that she and those involved were going out of their way to be unbiased.
“It’s going to be fair,” said Ketterhagen, whose husband Phillip is one of the six candidates. “The questioners are going to draw cards for an order. Everything is going to be by chance and fair and done on time in front of the public.
“Everything will be on stage and above board.”
Bonnie Ketterhagen added that the three people asking the questions would meet ahead of time to weed out duplicate questions, but otherwise would not be doing anything else predetermined.
Two of the three forum leaders, according to Bonnie Ketterhagen, are scheduled to be Bill Berkholtz (a Burlington High School teacher and president of the Burlington Education Association, the teacher’s union) and Christopher Impens, a local businessman.
The third was yet to be determined by Tuesday. And other than the two incumbents declining to participate, Ketterhagen said things were running smoothly.
“Like it was meant to be,” Bonnie said. “The details are falling into place.”
The other four candidates running for the two spots are Megan Shuemate, Scott Elblein, Phillip Ketterhagen and Roger Koldeway.
A primary election is scheduled for Feb. 21 to narrow the field from six to four candidates for the two open positions.
The four surviving candidates will compete in the general election scheduled for April 3.
-
-
-
-
-