The People for Portsmouth Political Action Committee hosted a school board candidate forum at the Scottish Rite Center on Cedar Lane. All eight candidates — incumbent Board Members Sarah Duncan Hinds, Ted Lamb, Keith Nance, and Costella Williams; and challengers Angelia Allen, Lakeesha “Klu” Atkinson, De’Andre Barnes, and Joanne Clarke — attended and gave good account of themselves. Ms. Laura Geller, the lead investigative reporter for WVEC-TV13 News Now, served as moderator.

Although PortsmouthCityWatch.org captured the video record of the event without breaks,  we decided to split it into five separate parts corresponding to the logical divisions that the host organization established. These are:

1. The opening remarks by PfP President Pam Kloeppel, including introduction of the timekeeper and moderator, followed by the self-introductions and platform statements of the candidates — PfPSBForum part 1;
2. a round of “yes/no” questions to which candidates responded by holding up red (“no”) or green (“yes”) cards, segueing, if they chose to do so, into one-minute explanations for some of the positions taken — PfPSBForum part 2I;
3. randomly assigned issue questions for each incumbent candidate with one minute allotted for response — PfPSBForum part 3;
4. the same question/answer scheme for the challengers as above — PfPSBForum part 4; and
5. two-minute closing statements by the candidates and wrap-up remarks from PfP representatives — PfPSBForum part 5.

We chose to sacrifice continuity in the hope that viewers might want to revisit the different sections to help differentiate the candidates’ perspectives on issues of interest. We welcome your feedback on this arrangement, as well as on the recording overall.

Special thanks to our videographer, Peter Olanitori, who kept the camera on target for the entirety of the program.