GOSHEN COUNTY – With the general election nipping at the heels of Goshen County residents, the list of Goshen County School District #1 Trustee candidates is much longer than it has been in previous years. Fifteen candidates will appear on the election ballot for one two-year term and five four-year terms. 

This year in November, six seats will be filled on the board by candidates who have tossed their names into the hat. 

On Monday, October 21, the Goshen County Education Association is sponsoring an “Education matters: School board candidate forum,” at the Torrington High School Auditorium. 

The forum will begin at 6 p.m., the flyer circulating on social media explained. 

There have been a handful of candidate forums recently, Stacie Fullmer, an association member, explained, however notall forums have welcomed all of the candidates whose names will appear on the general election ballot for a seat on the Goshen County School District’s Board of Trustees. 

“That group is called the ‘freedom caucus,’ they are not inviting others,” Fullmer explained. “They are only inviting the four of them that are the ‘freedom caucus,’ so we (the association) have nothing to do with that. They have been holding town hall meetings and they put it out on Facebook but not all candidates were invited.” 

Fullmer explained the association has been holding school board candidate forums for many election cycles. 

“We do this every year. We provide a forum for the community so that they can hear from all of the candidates,” Fullmer explained. “We have done that for years and years. We don’t endorse any of the candidates.” 

Fullmer expressed the forum is sponsored by the Goshen County Education Association.

“We invited everyone. I want to say 15/16 because I am a little confused about (Victoria) Tori Hunt. We invited all the candidates. We have heard back from all of them that they would attended except for Massey (Thomas A. Massey),” Fullmer explained. “My secretary is still contacting him. He has not gotten back to us, but I am pretty sure it is because of a wedding.”

Fullmer explained there was some confusion on the actual number of candidates which would appear on the ballot as Hunt notified the Telegram, she would not be withdrawing from the election last month.

“The other one would be Tori Hunt, I don’t know. Even the courthouse doesn’t know to be honest with you. It’s gone back and forth she is, she’s not, but it’s those two. All the other ones said they will be there,” Fullmer said. 

The public will not be able to ask the candidates questions like they have in years prior due to the number of candidates in the forum, Fullmer explained. 

“Normally, we would (have the public ask questions). We tend to do a few questions and then we allow some from the audience,” Fullmer said. “Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to do that this year because there are 15 candidates.” 

Fullmer explained the association will pull random questions for the candidates to answer.

“We’re going to ask a lot of questions. We are going to pull random questions and ask them,” Fullmer explained. “Usually in the past this is how we have done it we have one question that we ask all of the candidates and then we go to the next question and ask all the candidates. Here’s the thing, with 15 candidates this is just really hard. We will be there all night.”

Fullmer commented she had never seen this many candidates running for school board in her time with the association. 

“We had one year, years ago, I think we had like seven or eight, I suppose,” Fullmer said. “So, this is huge. You should have seen our meetings to tackle this. We honestly thought about two forums, but I don’t think we can get our people there for two full forums and I don’t think we could get our community there for two full forums.” 

The forum this year, even with the large number of candidates, is scheduled for one evening only. 

“We’re just going to do it in one night,” Fullmer explained. “It’s just going to be kind of fast and kind of fierce. They’re going to have a minute to answer questions. We really vetted our questions and tried to keep them different from the ones already in the paper. This is a first for us. This is a lot. I don’t even know how this is going to go. I’m hoping it’s going togo well but it’s a lot. Fifteen candidates to get through each question, it’s a lot.”

Fullmer expressed how important it is for the public to attend the forum on Monday evening. 

“It’s so important because you want people are in there that are going to work together, work as a team together and do what’s best for the kids of Goshen County,” Fullmer said. “That’s why we are doing it. We want voters to make informed decisions. I don’t care who you vote for, just make sure you have all of the information and you’re going to choose people you think are going to do really good things for your kids in Goshen County.”

Fullmer feels the public impression of the importance of the board of trustees is underexaggerated.

“The school board is just; I don’t think people understand how important it is. They make the decisions for your children, your staff, your teachers. It takes it down a different road depending on the makeup,” Fullmer said. “We just want wants best for our kids in Goshen County, so please be informed.”

It doesn’t matter who has the most signs in the resident’s yards, Fullmer expressed.

“Go listen and be informed so that you can make the best decision for the community,” Fullmer said. “This is a big year. Some years we don’t have as many [trustees] leaving the board. It’s a really big year where we are voting for six people.That really changes the makeup of your board.” 

“We are doing a community service, like we have done for eons,” Fullmer said in conclusion. “We just want the community to be informed. That’s it. That’s our goal. We’re not telling you who to vote for just come listen to all the candidates and make an informed decision.”