Trustee Candidates to Have 2 Forums

NEWPORT BEACH — Orange County’s League of Women Voters will moderate two candidate forums this month for Newport-Mesa Unified School District board candidates.

Three incumbents are leaving the seven-member board and one is seeking reelection. The unexpected departure of veteran board member Roderick H. MacMillian opens a seat that many previously thought was unattainable.

When MacMillian dropped out last week, citing ill health, only one opponent had filed for candidacy in Trustee Area 7. Since then, another has filed as a write-in candidate and others have indicated they are considering entering the race.

League spokeswoman Judy Gielow said only candidates who have filed with the registrar of voters’ office will be invited to the candidate forums.

They are scheduled Wednesday in the Loats Performing Arts Center at Newport Harbor High School, and Oct. 27 at the Little Theater at Corona del Mar High School. Both will begin at 7 p.m. and end by 9, Gielow said.

The forums, co-sponsored by the schools’ PTAs and committees, are open to all Newport-Mesa voters. Candidates will draw lots for the order in which they will respond to questions solicited from the audience and screened for language and duplication by League members.

Gielow said civics teachers at both high schools have been asked to have students prepare questions and select representatives to ask them at the forums.