Here’s where you can meet Carroll school board candidates before the election

Candidates running for Carroll County Board of Education will differentiate their stances on public education policies during a series of candidate forums this month.

Muri Dueppen, Amanda Jozkowski, Greg Malveaux and Kristen Zihmer will vie for two open seats on Carroll’s nonpartisan school board. Board President Marsha Herbert and board member Donna Sivigny both have served the maximum two terms and neither can run for reelection.

The Carroll County Student Government Association will host a candidate forum on Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at 125 N. Court St., in Westminster. CCSGA President Enya Sliwinski and student representative Chloe Kang will moderate the forum, which is free and open to the public. According to a news release from the school system, the forum will be broadcast live on CETV Channel 21 and streamed live on the CCPS Media YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/4evFtxl .

Liberty High School’s parent-teacher organization will host an additional candidate forum at the Eldersburg school on Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. According to a flier posted on social media , anyone may submit a question by emailing southcarrollforum@gmail.com before Oct. 11. The Carroll Media Center will record and streaming the forum, according to a Facebook event page .

All four candidates advanced through the primary election May 14 . Though the school board is considered nonpartisan, Jozkowski and Dueppen have received funding from Democrats and left-leaning organizations, while Malveaux and Zihmer have received funding from Republicans and right-leaning ones .

Dueppen, of Mount Airy, and Jozkowski, of Eldersburg, are running together as a slate and established a joint campaign finance committee called the Slate for Student Success, according to a news release.

Both Malveaux, of Hampstead, and Zihmer, of Westminster, have been endorsed by Carroll County Moms for Liberty, the group that asked that dozens of books be removed from Carroll County Public Schools libraries .

Jozkowski placed fifth out of six candidates in the 2022 race for three school board seats. She earned 28,216 votes (15.68%) in that election. Dueppen ran for the Board of Education in 2018, and garnered 4,523 votes in the primary election, the eighth-highest total among 11 candidates. Only the top six candidates in that race advanced to the general election. Neither Malveaux nor Zihmer has run for Carroll County Board of Education in the past.

In 2022, the outcome of Carroll’s school board election was decided by around 1,000 votes .

Early voting in Carroll County begins Oct. 24 and concludes on Oct. 31. Voting takes place from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the Westminster Senior Center, South Carroll Senior Center in Sykesville and Coppermine Pantherplex in Hampstead. Information about polling places is also available online, at https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/PollingPlaceSearch . For information about submitting a ballot by mail, visit: https://elections.carrollcountymd.gov/GetMailBallot.aspx. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Got a news tip? Contact Thomas Goodwin Smith at thsmith@baltsun.com .