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Press release of October 24, 2011
High school student leaders &
local businesses team up for town "Meet the
Candidates" night on Nov. 3
Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 pm in
the BH-BL high school library
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NOTE: You can see 7 photos from this event
on our Facebook page at
www.Facebook.com/BHBLSchools You do
not need to be a Facebook member to view these. |
BURNT HILLS: Owners of local
businesses have turned to BH-BL high school students
this year for help with their annual Meet the Candidates
night.
The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Business
and Professional Association (BPA) has held a town Meet
the Candidates debate for the past couple Octobers, but
it was poorly attended by both candidates and voters.
"We wanted a better venue to hold
this, and we wanted to open the event to a larger
segment of our community," says current BPA president Richard Doyle, Jr. "So we thought, let's
get the high school students involved and make it a
learning experience about local government for them
too."
Both BH-BL teachers and student leaders
agreed this would be a natural and beneficial
partnership.
The BH-BL high school has a very active
Student Government Organization (SGO) with students
elected to represent each graduating class. Plus, all
high school seniors are required to take a semester-long social studies course called Participation in Government
in order to graduate.
SGO teacher advisors Renee Tolan and
Mike Mosall have been actively working on the event.
Candidates for town of Ballston &
Charlton offices
Deciding to hold a joint BPA / SGO Meet
the Candidates night was the easy part. The challenge
was finding a free night to do so, and deciding how to
organize it.
Both the BPA and the school district
serve multiple towns with multiple candidates running
for election. To keep the event to a manageable size,
the decision was made to limit it to candidates running
for town of Ballston and town of Charlton offices.
A total of 15 candidates have been
invited to speak starting at 7:00 pm on Thursday,
November 3, in the BH-BL high school library. This
includes candidates for town supervisor, town council,
tax collector, highway superintendent, assessor and town
clerk
Following a welcome from BPA past
president Chris Nyhan and an introduction from SGO
president senior Carter Rana, the candidates will each
have 90 seconds to make an opening statement.
A question and answer period moderated
by the students will follow for candidates running in
contested elections only. Members of the audience will
be invited to submit their questions in writing and to
direct their questions to all candidates for a given
office.
The event will conclude with an 8:30
reception sponsored by the BPA, at which time members of the
public can meet all candidates.
For more information about the BH-BL
Business & Professional Association and their community improvement efforts, see
www.bhblbpa.com
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