Unit 5 and District 87 have a combined eight school board seats being elected in April. (WJBC file photo)

By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – City council candidates weren't the only ones who spoke to laborers during Wednesday night's candidate forum.

Candidates for the Unit 5 and District 87 school boards also took the floor.

Unit 5 has five positions up for election: One two-year term and four four-year terms. Denise Schuster is one of two incumbents seeking re-election. She said the number one issue facing public education is funding.

"We're going to need to work with everyone who can participate in bringing ideas on how to fairly do more with less and on creative solutions to the challenges that we face," Schuster said.

Incumbent Mike Trask said the district is facing a $1.5 million to $2.5 million deficit.

"Those are alarming numbers that we, as a district, are going to have to make some decisions (on) in the near future," said Trask. "We need to fight for public education."

Four challengers are vying for the four year terms. Barry Hitchens was another who said funding is a big challenge for education.

"The gap between what it costs to provide a quality education and the amount of funding is not sufficient to provide that quality education," Hitchens said.

Glenn Block said the answer is change.

"We have change at the state level where we don't know if our funding is coming," Block said.

Jon Kuk believed the challenge is the future.

"There's a lot of uncertainty with our budget," said Kuk. "What's going to happen? How are we going to deal with change?"

The fourth challenger, James Hayek, was unable to speak Wednesday.

District 87

District 87's Board of Education battle features four candidates seeking three seats. Karl Goeke believed there's an attack on public education.

"It's rarely said that funding will be provided for public education and I'm a strong proponent of public education," said Goeke. "I would say that is one of our biggest concerns right now."

Mark Wylie said short and long term finances are something he's concerned about.

"Obviously, as people know, District 87 cannot really grow very easily," said Wylie. "Our growth is going to have to be in redevelopment."

Incumbent James Almeda and Tammy Houtzel are the other two vying for the board seats. They were not able to speak at Wednesday's forum.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].