Chelmsford Club To Host Select Board Candidate Debate

CHELMSFORD, MA — The Chelmsford High School civics action club is hosting a Select Board candidate debate March 31 at the School Performing Arts Center ahead of the April 6 town election.

All four candidates vying to fill two seats up for election — George Dixon, April Danielson, Latosha Dixon and Mark Carota — will participate, according to high school senior Gayathri Mantha who founded the Civic Action Club at Chelmsford High School last fall.

“Our current goal is to get more involved in politics, especially local politics,” Mantha said. “[The debate] is pretty historic because two women of color are running for office, and the Civic Action Club is almost all women.”

The candidate debate will be moderated by members of the Civic Action Club and streamed by Chelmsford Telemedia — by an all-student film crew — on its YouTube channel. It will also be broadcast on Xfinity channel 22 and Verizon channel 36. Only the candidates, moderators and film crew will be permitted in the Performing Arts Center because of Covid-19 safety guidelines.

Debate topics are expected to include the condominium project in the Town Center, the increasing number of businesses in town, as well as local impacts of racism and climate change, according to the club.

The Civic Action Club is encouraging those interested in the debate to indicate their most pressing issues and submit questions in advance through its public interest form.

The Civic Action Club is the first to host a debate for the candidates as a way to get to know the four in the race.

The Civic Action Club has had plenty of practice with debate protocol. The club stages its own debates on the last Thursday of each month – it has had six debates throughout the school year – and adheres to guidelines for subject matter and time constraints.

Mantha took inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement last year as the impetus to form the Civic Action Club at the school.

“As a student, I kept thinking about what we could do,” she said. “I wanted to have an outlet for students in our school, to make an impact.”

Mantha is also in the process of organizing an online student watch party to be followed with a Q&A discussion.

Patch has reached out to all candidates running for Select Board, here are their candidate profiles:

• Latosha Dixon
• April Danielson
• Mark Carota
• George Dixon