Dispatch to stage forum from CMAP studio at Gavilan
Gilroy – The five candidates vying for a seat on the Gilroy Unified School District board will face off at a Dispatch sponsored forum Tuesday evening aired live on local cable.
During the forum, which will be filmed by Community Media Access Partnership, members of the Dispatch editorial board will pose a series of questions to the candidates. Each candidate will be granted one minute response time.
Selected candidates will then be given the chance to spend 30 seconds commenting on or refuting the answer given. In addition, during the hour-and-a-half forum, candidates will answer questions from the audience and the public via phone.
Javier Aguirre, Denise Apuzzo, Tom Bundros, Francisco Dominguez and Ardy Ghoreishi are competing for one of four seats on the local school board.
Aguirre, a married father of one, with another on the way, has served on the GUSD board for the past 10 months after being appointed to cover the remainder of the late TJ Owens’ term. The Gilroy native is senior policy aide for Santa Clara County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado.
Apuzzo, a married mother of three and Realtor, has served on numerous school site councils and spends her free time volunteering for other education and district-related issues. She attends board meetings regularly, is a former Dispatch columnist and her children are all enrolled in Gilroy public schools.
Bundros has served on the board for one four-year term, is a married father of six ranging in age from 39 to 18. A software engineer for San Jose’s Hitachi, five of Bundros’ children graduated from Gilroy High School and one of his grandchildren began kindergarten here this summer.
Dominguez, served two terms on the Oxnard School District and one term on the Franklin-McKinley School District board in San Jose. He is a public affairs consultant for his Gilroy-based business DZ Consulting.
The married father of four moved to Gilroy a year ago. Three of his children attend local schools with the youngest at Luigi Aprea Elementary School, another at Brownell Middle School and the third at Gilroy High School.
Ghoreishi, is married with one son who attends Las Animas Elementary School, regularly attends board meetings and volunteers to serve on a variety of boards including the Citizens Oversight Committee, Christopher High Community Steering Committee, Las Animas Renaming Committee and Las Animas computer, home and school clubs.
He’s a senior engineering technician for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
