Name cards for four candidates sat on the table, but only two showed up on Tuesday night in trustee races for the largest district in Idaho.

Teacher Meghan Brown and social worker Dara Ezzell-Pebworth, candidates running against absent incumbents on the West Ada school board, agreed on nearly every issue that the 45 attendees at a League of Women Voters asked at a candidate forum at Meridian City Hall.

Without any opponents present, the two candidates spoke on their support for inclusivity, opposition to tax credits for private schools and support for increasing teacher salaries.

Several attendees thanked the two candidates for showing up.

Ezzell-Pebworth is running in Zone 1 against incumbent Lori Frasure and Brown will face incumbent Angie Redford in Zone 3. Election Day is Nov. 4 and early voting begins Oct. 14.

Brown, a mother of five, described herself as a peacemaker who wants to establish communication with every school in her zone.

“My children will be in school full time next year, and I have the means to run a campaign,” Brown said. “I have a lot of value to bring with my Idaho teaching certificate. I think a school board should have an educator on it.”

Ezzell-Pebworth said the district’s response to the “Everyone Is Welcome Here” poster made her want to run. She doesn’t think that should be a political issue.

“As a social worker, we value ourselves on advocating and visible inclusion is critical,” Ezzell-Pebworth said. “We cannot just assume that everyone feels welcome at the table just because everyone can come to that table.”

Several members of Babe Vote, a youth-led organization that gets young people involved in politics, attended the forum. Member Nate Zimmerman, a freshman at Boise State University who graduated from a West Ada high school last year, asked the two candidates how they would make sure student voices are heard.

Student voices are imperative, Ezzell-Pebworth said.

“Your voices would be what impacts me to vote a certain way on certain policies,” Ezzell-Pebworth said. “For instance, the ‘Everyone is Welcome’ poster, I get parents should have a choice and a voice, of course, but at the end of the day, you guys are the ones living in it.”

Brown said students should form committees.

“I’ve watched a lot of the board meetings, and they’ll present on what the students have done socially, but not unnecessarily on what they think about the policies in the schools,” Brown said.

In response to a question on how the two candidates are different from their opponents, Brown said she would represent her entire zone and show up in every school every year. Ezzell-Pebworth said she is passionate and willing to have hard conversations.

“Maybe you don’t agree, and that’s OK,” Ezzell-Pebworth said, “but I want to have that healthy discourse and come to a compromise. Because, of course, people aren’t always going to be 100% happy with decisions that are made by the board.”

With four weeks until Election Day, Brown said she has 100 yard signs around the zone and has sent out 2,000 mailers. Ezzell-Pebworth said she is knocking on doors and her campaign is getting close to distributing yard signs. If elected, her goal is to amplify voices in the community.

“I want to make your voices so loud it’s annoying,” Ezzell-Pebworth said.

The incumbents

As EdNews reported last week, Frasure and Redford share many of the same positions.

During the 2021 election season, both Frasure and Redford opposed mask mandates and appeared in a radio interview with Idaho GOP Chairman Tom Luna. According to previous EdNews reporting, Luna told listeners “it’s critical that you get out and vote and support these conservatives, Republican(s) that ha(ve) stepped up to run in these races.”

In 2022, Redford and Frasure voted to end COVID exposure notifications to parents if a classmate tested positive for the virus.

Both candidates also share some common donors — including at least one who contributes to statewide Republican candidates — and have very similar websites with the same graphics and lists of accomplishments.

Redford described herself as a “A Proven Conservative Leader for West Ada Schools” on her campaign website.

The two incumbents declined phone interviews with EdNews last week and did not respond to questions provided via email.

Click here to find which zone you live in.