How to provide the best academic opportunities for students — be it through curriculum, parental education or school configuration — was the main topic before candidates hoping to serve the San Bruno Park School District at a forum Wednesday night.

Despite seeing gains in test scores, some San Bruno schools are not meeting federal mandates. Making those mandates while helping all children achieve was the challenge posed to candidates through multiple questions at a sparsely attended candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters at Crestmoor Elementary School last night. Five candidates — trustees Skip Henderson and Jim Prescott, former trustee Chuck Zelnik, physician and professor Henry Sanchez and food server Maria Araujo — are vying for three positions on the San Bruno Park Elementary School District Board of Trustees. Araujo was absent.

Student success was the top concern with challenges of many students who are learning English as a second language and the large number of socio-economically disadvantaged children. A major way to increase student success will be educating parents, according to the candidates.

Parents need to become aware of how children learn differently and ways to work with their student and his or her learning needs, Zelnik said.

Prescott agreed, adding students who are struggling should be sought out and extra help offered to their parents.

One school, Belle Air Elementary, offers help for parents after school, said Henderson. The problem is many parents are working at that time, limiting the outreach, he said. He was unsure how to solve the challenge but recognized it needed to be addressed.

Test scores are a measure of student achievement. Not all San Bruno schools have met those benchmarks in recent years. Outreach would also help aid these issues, candidates said.

Sanchez noted students struggling most are English language learners and the socio-economically challenged, and work should be done to help these families.

Prescott agreed that more should be done. One suggestion he had for that was extra tutoring.

Zelnik pointed out the need to continue offering summer school to struggling students who need that extra help.

Whether students should remain in middle school through fifth or sixth grades has been a major question in San Bruno recently spurring a community group to study the topic and resulting in a recommendation for change. San Bruno is looking at having smaller elementary schools housing children through fifth grade and building a new middle school which will teach sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

All the candidates favored the suggestion. Henderson explained doing so would allow an equalization of enrollment at the elementary schools. Sanchez, who served on the reconfiguration committee, felt the extra year in middle school allows staff to better meet the needs for children. Zelnik added core curriculum books are written to serve such a middle school, which should help students achieve. Prescott was clear, the current configuration is not wrong. It works well for now. The change would allow students a longer transition time to high school, which shares a similar curriculum and structure. Prescott said that should help children.

Ensuring funding equally at each school site was a concern for those in attendance.

Candidates noted it’s difficult to address that since the district receives some funds specifically to aid children with particular needs, and therefore the funds go with the student to his or her school.

But when it came to utilizing one-time money from the sale of Carl Sandburg Elementary School site in 2005, Prescott was against using the principal amount for reoccurring funds. Zelnik also said spending the money is tricky, but using the interest is a viable option for reoccurring charges provided the principal investment remained.

When it came to one-time money, Sanchez pointed to securing grants as a means for funding programs.

Also budget related was whether the district was top heavy with administrators. Henderson, Prescott and Sanchez said no. Zelnik believed it was a matter of ensuring people were being used to the maximum of their abilities to benefit children. This was something Zelnik looked forward to investigating if he were elected.

Zelnik was specifically asked how voters can be sure he will serve his entire term after leaving mid-term previously. Zelnik explained he left in 2006 to pursue a job through the school district without any appearance of a conflict of interest. He promised to stay involved in an effort to educate children if given the opportunity.

Term limits were also thrown out for discussion given that Henderson has served 28 years. He answered first as against term limits explaining it takes a long time for someone to become versed in school budgets. Prescott and Zelnik favored limits. Prescott previously had stated, if elected, this would be his last term. Zelnik said, if elected, he would run for one more term. Sanchez thought limits were dependent on the situation and ability of the individuals.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.