Candidates for Saline school board fielded questions about the district's non-discrimination policy, links to the teachers union, privatization of services and contracts for teachers and staff at a forum Tuesday night.

Three candidates are running for one seat on the board. Incumbent Paul Hynek and challenger Todd Carter will be on the ballot when voters go to the polls Nov. 2. Marian Faupel is running as a write-in candidate.

Faupel, who announced her write-in campaign after the school board voted not to change the non-discrimination policy on Oct. 12, said she would have voted yes to support the addition of “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression” to the non-discrimination policy. The policy says students cannot be discriminated against by the district due to race, height, weight, religious beliefs and other characteristics.

“It’s only a matter of time before [those statuses] are protected at the state and federal level,” Faupel said. “I have the courage to do things that are sometimes unpopular.”

Carter said he would not have voted in favor of adding the six words to the policy. “Adding more groups to fight against each other causes additional problems,” he said. Carter would prefer a general non-discrimination statement that does not list specific classes. Some of the characteristics in the non-discrimination policy are listed because they are federally protected statuses.

Hynek said he voted against the change to the policy because “I think the bullying and harassment is the root cause. Until you stop that nothing, will change.”

The question was one of several audience members had for the candidates. The school districted hosted the forum at Liberty School. Candidates gave statements and answered a few questions from moderator J.P. DiMaggio, and then took questions members of the audience wrote on 3-by-5 cards.

One audience member wanted to know whether any of the candidates had been endorsed by the Saline Education Association, the teachers union.

Faupel and Hynek said they are not endorsed by the SEA, and don't want to feel holden to the union. “In the 12 years on the board I never took support from the union. I don’t have it and I wouldn’t have taken it,” Faupel said. She served on the Saline School Board from 1978 to 1990.

“I agree with Marian," Hynek said.. “I make decisions on a lot of factors.”

Carter said he does have the union's support. “The union has provided signs for me. At this point that is the essence of our financial relationship.”

“I told the union, I will not be doing what you tell me,” he said. “But what I will do is I will work very hard to work for a fair solution.”

Another member of the audience wanted to know what changes the candidates would like to make to the current teachers’ contract. Carter did not suggest any changes because he said he was unfamiliar with the contract.

Faupel said she would like a more effective and fair way to evaluate teachers. Hynek said he would like to see the contract streamlined and less complicated.

Another person asked if the candidates are in favor of requiring support staff and administrators to pay a portion of their health-care premiums while teachers don't have to contribute toward their insurance. That's the situation under current contracts.

“It depends on what the premium sharing is for,” Hynek said. “If you’re not paying premium deductibles, you’re not invested,” and less likely to catch unnecessary charges, he added. “But I think cost sharing should be done across the board,” he said.

Faupel said she would need to do some research on the issue.

“I would want to sit down and cost out what is getting paid, talk to the union about what form they want to get paid in,” Faupel said. “There are some inequities between bargaining units right now. We can do better with our health care, and see if we can reduce those costs.”

Carter said he needed to learn more about how health care benefits work, and did not answer the question.

Another audience member asked candidates if they would support privatization of staff services.

“I can’t rule it out completely but I also don’t think it is the first place we would go,” Carter said.

Hynek said he would support privatization only as a last resort.

Faupel said she would prefer that the district, not an outside agency, hire staff.

“If a private company can do it with less money, we need to figure out how to do it with less money, and protect the people with our policies and benefits that people who work that hard should get,” she said.

Tara Cavanaugh is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com. For more Saline stories, visit our Saline page.