School Board Narrows the Field to Five Finalists for Vacant Seat

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 7, 2006

Montgomery County school board members have selected five finalists for the vacant board seat representing the Silver Spring area, picking their choices from a group of 20 candidates.

The Board of Education will interview the candidates Saturday and vote on the appointment at a public meeting. The new board member will complete the last two years of Valerie Ervin's term. Ervin was elected last month to the County Council.

Applicants for the District 4 seat, which encompasses Takoma Park and parts of Silver Spring and Wheaton, have stressed the major issues of their community: closing the achievement gap that separates students of different races and socioeconomic levels; raising grade-point averages, advanced coursework participation and graduation rates at the high school level; and challenging the school system to provide equal services to all students and schools.

After reviewing the applications -- a field winnowed to 19 after one candidate was disqualified for not being a registered voter -- each of the seven board members picked five top candidates. No one got seven votes; the five finalists each received five ballots.

Three of the finalists are minorities and three are men, reflecting the diversity of the applicant pool and also the interest among board members in further diversifying their panel. All but one of the current board members are women, and four of the six adult members are white.

The candidates will be interviewed in half-hour sessions starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the board room at the Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Dr. in Rockville. The interviews are open to the public. They will be structured question-and-answer sessions, with questions provided to the candidates in advance.

The board said in a statement that the questions focus on "the candidates' perceptions of the role of a board member, professional and civic experiences, priorities, assessment of the needs of District 4, and availability for extensive meetings and other public commitments."

The finalists are:

· Christopher Barclay, 45, a 10-year resident of Takoma Park. He is a project manager for Verizon and has three children in the school system: a freshman at Einstein High, an eighth-grader at Takoma Park Middle and a sixth-grader at Loiederman Middle. He has been a member of the county PTA and a representative on the NAACP Parent Council at two schools.

Barclay said in a recent interview that he is particularly interested in raising standards at the county's middle schools, which have been the focus of a reform effort. He's also concerned about the large number of high school students in his community who aren't prepared to take and pass the state-mandated High School Assessments, which are being phased in as a graduation requirement.

"The big things that I've worked on for years have been the issues of equity and excellence in education," he added.

· Sheldon A. Fishman, 59, a 30-year resident of Silver Spring, a graduate of public schools and father of four Montgomery public school graduates. He describes himself in application materials as the son of a teacher, husband of a teacher and parent of a teacher, and says he taught part time for many years in higher education.

Fishman ran for the District 4 seat in 2004 and finished second, behind Ervin, garnering 118,000 votes. His credentials include 20 years of PTA service, various roles on the County Council of PTAs and a 2001 honor of Maryland PTA Family of the Year.

"He's a workhorse, not a showhorse -- which I think the board could use," wrote Naomi Freeman, a supporter, in an e-mail supporting Fishman's candidacy. "I also think that he is truly interested in education."

· Alies Muskin, 50, of Silver Spring. She is chief operating officer of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. She is a 17-year resident of the district and has two children, one a graduate of county schools, the other a senior at Einstein High.

Muskin wrote in her application that she started a college fair seven years ago at Einstein High, initially out of concern that Hispanic students were not sufficiently exposed to higher education options. The fair became a schoolwide event and now draws students from across the region, with more than 100 colleges represented.

"The original idea was to have a college fair for Hispanic students," she said in an interview, "and we realized that we had a lot of Einstein students who, if they went to college, it would be their [family's] first time, and they were white, and they were Hispanic, and they were African American."

Muskin is a longtime PTA member and received the 2005 Maryland Life Membership Award from the county PTA.

· Victor B. Salazar, 42, of Silver Spring, vice president of legislation of the county PTA. He is the father of two students in the county schools.

"They are the two major reasons why I submit this application today," Salazar wrote in his letter to the board. "My children will be attending MCPS schools for many years to come. I am clearly vested in creating a vision and implementing programs that will meet the needs of all children attending Montgomery County Public Schools."

In 2005, at the height of highly publicized gang incidents in the county, Salazar was lead organizer of an anti-gang and youth violence forum that brought more than 100 people to Sligo Middle School in Silver Spring. He wrote that the experience helped him appreciate "the many pieces of the puzzle associated with total education reform."

· Beth A. Wong, 49, of Silver Spring. She works as acting deputy director for the Office of Community Relations in Prince George's County. As such, she is well connected to county leadership, and she says she knows her way around the corridors of power in Annapolis.

"I know these people," she said in an interview. And during budget season, she feels she can help lobby for the school board's interests and "make sure that Montgomery County has a bigger piece of the pie."

Wong ran unsuccessfully for an at-large seat on the school board in 2000. In applying for the present position, she notes that the substantial Asian American population in the county schools lacks representation on the school board. Wong is Filipina. Both of her children attended county schools; the younger is now a freshman at the University of Maryland.