Tonight the citizens of Ames can meet the four individuals vying for a place on the Ames School Board.

A public forum will take place this evening to introduce the candidates. The program will be held from 7-9 p.m. in the Ames City Council Chambers. No charge or preregistration is necessary, and the general public is welcome to attend.

Co-sponsoring the event are the Ames Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters, headed by Chad Cardani and Dotti Tschopp.

Tschopp said they sponsor the event not only to present the candidates to the public, but to give people a chance to voice their concerns and opinions to the candidates. Even those who aren’t directly involved with the Ames schools are encouraged to take an interest.

“I think the general public should be interested in all public elections,” Tschopp said. “Our organization wants to provide information to both the public and the candidates, and this is the perfect way to do it.”

The candidates for the school board are Bill Summers, Richard Lampkin, Mary Jane Bastiaans and James Davis.

The program will begin with opening commentaries from each of the candidates. A four-member panel will then present each of them with various questions.

The last hour of the forum will be devoted to answering questions from the audience. Any concerns people have for the Ames schools should be directed to the candidates at that time.

The panel that will be questioning the candidates includes the following people: Ames High teacher Don Faas, parent Sarai Beck, and students Mike Morain and Jennifer Peyser.

Tschopp said the format for determining the members of the panel was done differently this year. Instead of having the press and the media be on the panel, as had been done in the past, the sponsors decided to go straight to the people who had the most direct connections to the school, namely the teachers, students and parents.

The two-hour presentation will be broadcast live on the city’s cable access Channel 12.