Students will host a “Meet the Candidates” debate at Mars Area School District at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 to engage with local school board candidates and educate the community.

The event, scheduled to take place in the Mars Area High School auditorium, is run by the Mars Enrichment Club, a student-led group at the high school that participates in academic competitions and programs along with working with the local community.

Max Solich and Lauren Miko, two senior members of the approximately 50-member group, are leaders on the debate project, which they said is one of their group's big goals this year.

“We saw on Facebook all the negative feedback about some of the candidates and how harsh that people were being in the comments of their Facebook page,” said Solich. “We went to some of the school board meetings and saw firsthand how harsh some of the parents get. So we decided it would be best to get all of the candidates in one room, and have an open-forum questionnaire session that we can monitor ourselves.”

The event will be recorded and streamed on the Armstrong Neighborhood Channel. School board candidates Jennifer DiCuccio, Justin Miller, Lee Ann Riner, Jennifer Stuber and Nicole Thurner will attend and answer questions sourced from local residents.

Solich and Miko came up with the idea for the project over the summer. Miko is 18, but Solich is 17 and won't be able to vote in the November election.

“With all the political turmoil lately I think everyone's paid more attention nationally,” Miko said. “Since we can make more change locally, I figured that we should pay attention to that as well.”

The team created a Facebook page for the Mars Enrichment Club and posted on local Facebook groups to gather questions from the community. Mars Area School District residents have the chance to submit questions they would like the candidates to answer.

Solich and Miko say they may combine some questions based on how many they receive. They hope to limit the event to an hour and a half in duration.

The group has already received some questions through an online form, along with 20 responses from residents saying they're interested in attending the event.

“So far, the questions that we've gotten are not about masks,” Solich said. “One question that comes to mind was that people were asking about specials teachers for Centennial School, and how they are covering for other teachers, because parents are concerned about their students not being able to go to certain specials.”

“It's less about the masks and COVID stuff, and more about more niche things that parents would like answered, and that we're hoping that these school board candidates can answer for them,” Miko added.

Each candidate will have a limited time to speak during each question. There will not be a rebuttal portion.

“The goal of this is to be an informative event, and remind people of the importance of local elections, and the changes these candidates are and are not able to bring, and also open people's eyes up to the issues that they care about that they're able to vote on Election Day,” Miko said. “We want it to be representative of what the community as a whole would like to know.”