Three candidates, including one incumbent, are vying for two seats on the Ravenswood City School District Board.

The incumbent is Chester Palesoo, 40, who has been an employment counselor at OICW for 19 years and is completing his first full term on the board. He was appointed to the board to replace Myrtle Walker in 1993 but failed to win election in 1994. He came back and ran successfully in 1996.

Palesoo points to the progress the district has made in improving test scores and in collaborating with the city and others to ensure good after-school programs are available to keep kids off the streets. He believes all students should learn a non-native language while in elementary school.

Jacqueline Wallace Greene, 35, a Stanford University budget administrator in the School of Engineering, is the only one of the three candidates with children currently enrolled in the district. Her four kids all attend Flood School, where she serves on the site council. She would like to see a greater emphasis on getting students on track to be able to attend college and would like to see more foreign language instruction beyond Spanish.

Edward Moss, 64, is a contractor and a retired airline mechanic. All five of his children attended Ravenswood schools and he currently serves on the Belle Haven Elementary School site council. This is his third run for the school board. Moss advocates trying to move Spanish-speaking children more quickly into English-speaking classes because of the difficulty and expense of finding bilingual teachers.

We recommend Chester Palesoo and Jacqueline Wallace Greene. Palesoo's experience on the board and Greene's fresh perspectives as a parent with kids in the schools offer the best combination to help keep the school district improving.