School Board, Senate Candidate Forums Tonight

Two candidate forums will be held Thursday night at local schools. 

The first forum will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Sevier Middle School, hosted by Sevier Middle PTA and Paris Elementary PTA. The "Meet the Candidates" event was extended to all three candidates for the open District 17 seat on the Greenville County School board: Joy Grayson, Sunny Weigand and Paul Fallavollita. 

Thursday's school board candidate forum represents the third chance candidates for the school board have had to make an impression on likely voters, though only Joy Grayson out of the three District 17 candidates made it to a forum Monday involving all Greenville County candidates on the ballot. She was also the only one there at a District 17 candidate forum held at Blue Ridge High School on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, the person vacating the District 17 seat, Tommie Reece is a confirmed attendee of the forum being held at 7 p.m. for the S.C. Senate District 6 seat currently held by incumbent Mike Fair. That event will be held by Travelers Rest High School, the T.R. Tribune, Berea High School and the Travelers Rest Chamber of Commerce. Fair is not expected to attend. Questions will be submitted by students for candidates to answer. 

Reece is trying to beat some long odds, having once been on the ballot in the GOP primary race for the Senate 6 seat, only to be decertified and kicked off the ballot just three days before the June 12 primary because she hadn't filed her statement of economic interest form at the exact same time she declared her candidacy. That led to a successful petition drive to get her back on the ballot that ended with more signatures on the petition than Fair received in votes in the June 12 primary.