Ex-congressman joins
race for BOE seatDenise Matsumoto will be
challenged by Cecil Heftel
for her Honolulu district seat
After years out of the limelight, former Congressman and broadcast executive Cecil Heftel has decided to run for the state Board of Education, challenging veteran school board member Denise Matsumoto for the Honolulu district seat.
"I don't know of anything more important, particularly in Hawaii, than how we educate our young people," Heftel, 79, said in announcing his candidacy yesterday at a Rotary Club of Waikiki luncheon. "I decided -- young or old -- I should run for school board."
Races for the Hawaii Board of Education traditionally have fallen off the radar screen of most voters, but with education making headlines in recent years, the nonpartisan election is getting new attention.
Some observers see the board election as the next battleground in Gov. Linda Lingle's efforts to break up the statewide education system into several local school boards.
Heftel, however, said he is motivated by a concern that Hawaii public school students are not getting the education the public is paying for, not by the school board issue.
"A statewide school board can make sure the money is spent in the classrooms," he said. "I don't think it matters whether it's one board or several boards."
Heftel, a U.S. representative from 1976 to 1986 and former president of Heftel Broadcasting, sent his seven children to Punahou. Asked what he considered the top issues facing the school board, he honed in on the basics.
"Reading, writing and arithmetic," he said. "And now we can add computers, contemporary textbooks, air conditioning as needed in classrooms, and toilets that work."
Matsumoto, who is traveling in Oregon, said yesterday that she hoped Heftel would consider running for an open at-large seat "instead of trying to replace an effective board member."
"There have been a lot of improvements (in the Department of Education) in the past several years," she said, "and I want to continue to be part of that, to make sure those improvements become permanent and affect every child in the state."
Matsumoto was first elected in 1988, and has been on the board ever since. Malcolm Kirkpatrick, a former math teacher who has previously run for the board, has pulled papers in that race, too.
Seven of the 13 voting seats on the board are up for grabs in this fall's election -- three at-large seats on Oahu and the seats representing Leeward Oahu, Honolulu, the Big Island and Kauai.
Oahu at-large member Shelton Jim On, who was appointed by Lingle in 2003, has not taken out papers to launch a candidacy. He said late yesterday that he had not decided whether to run. The filing deadline is July 20.
Kaneohe resident Robert Barry, retired librarian Marcia Linville, of Honolulu, and Liliha Neighborhood Board member Arvid Youngquist have filed as candidates for the Oahu at-large seats now held by Jim On, Garrett Toguchi and Carol Gabbard. Gabbard has taken out papers to run for a second term but has not yet filed. Toguchi said he will run again.
Kauai resident Sherwood Hara will be stepping down after one term. Longtime Kauai educator Margaret Cox, who recently retired as principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, intends to run for his seat. Others who have pulled papers for that race are William Georgi, of Kalaheo; John Hoff, of Koloa; and Lloyd Jeffrey Mallan, of Kapaa.
On the Big Island, Nadia Davies, of Kailua-Kona, has filed to run against incumbent Herbert Watanabe.
State Board of Education
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