Meet the Candidates Night occurred Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Ladue High School Multipurpose Room. The three candidates, Sheldon Johnson, Jeff Kopolow, and Leslie Tolliver, are applying for two open Ladue Schools Board of Education positions.
The event allowed people to ask questions of their choice to all three of the candidates. Audience members asked questions ranging from school start times to racial equity. For school start times, Kopolow believes that there is a chance they will change.
“We need to tackle this hard task of balancing our start times,” Kopolow said. “This may bump elementary school start times earlier and high school starts at the elementary school time. We need to solve this problem, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”
Johnson and Kopolow are incumbents on the Ladue Schools Board of Education, and Tolliver is running for her first term. In one of her answers, Tolliver talked about how she understands the problems happening in Ladue and is ready to solve them.
“My four children are here,” Tolliver said. “I came to this district because of them. I know the challenges, and I know how the district is meeting the challenges.”
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Registered voters in the Ladue School District can vote for their top two candidates April 2. One question included the issue of safety for schools, and Johnson believed that the schools will be safer than before.
“We are looking into hiring a district wide safety officer that will be responsible to going to all of the schools,” Johnson said.
Once the question and answer session finished, the three candidates said their closing statements. After, they talked to the audience members personally.
“I am parent here at the district,” Tolliver said. “I believe that every family here deserves the best. Thank you for the opportunity, and I will be honored to serve your families.”
(For more in-depth information on each candidate, go to https://boardcandidates-ladueschools.blogspot.com/)
