Two Hart School Board candidates participated in a Canyon Country Advisory Committee “meet and greet” session Wednesday evening.

Nineteen-year-old Canyon High graduate Andrew Taban might be the youngest person ever to run for the Hart board.

He is challenging longtime board member Steve Sturgeon, who has been endorsed by the Hart District Teachers Association.

The two will square off in November for the newly created Trustee Area 4, which primarily serves Canyon Country.

Taban is a resident of the Santa Clarita Valley and has had first-hand experience in volunteering in the community, including performing the Sierra Vista Junior High School graduation ceremony at the age of 14 after it was cancelled due to budget cuts.

Taban also was able to participate in drafting bills in Sacramento to better Santa Clarita Valley’s education system.

Sturgeon has been on the Hart District school board for 16 years. He has been a resident of Canyon Country for 35 years and has had two children go through the Hart School District.

He was also apart of the Sulphur Springs school board for five years.

“When I started, I attended basically every meeting over the course of a year and a half,” said Sturgeon. “As I was a member of the Sulphur Springs board, I wanted to know what was happening at the Hart District school board.”

Sturgeon also serves at the state level for the California School Boards Association as a delegate, which is an elected position.

Sturgeon was the 2013 Santa Clarita Valley Man of the Year. He was nominated by the SCV Child & Family Center and the Rotary Club of SCV.

He volunteered for several different organizations serving as a President, Chairman, Foundation Director or on an Advisory Board or Task Force such as for Sulphur Springs School District and Hart High School District or the Sheriff’s Foundation to name a few.

Over a dozen Santa Clarita residents attended the event and had the chance to ask questions to each of the candidates.

Questions that came up to each of the candidates included Common Core, parental involvement and budget concerns.

The candidates were asked about their thoughts on Common Core and how the Hart District is implementing it.

“In my 20 years with both the elementary and the secondary education, it is a constant struggle to seek ways to improve the achievement levels of our kids in class,” said Sturgeon. “Common Core, I think, for students of today and our future are geared toward technology. They need to be critical thinkers… I think Common Core is going to be good. It’s a tough implementation process across the spectrum, but I think overall it’s going to do a good job.”

The candidates spoke mainly positive about the Common Core system. put paraphrase here

As a student progresses, Taban believes that addition challenges should be added, as students are supposed to meet certain criteria as they progress.

“My thoughts on Common Core after meeting with our Assistant Superintendent Mike Kuhlman is, on paper, it seems to be a very good system. ” said Taban. “They have done, as far as I’ve seen, they’ve been working hard to implement it and working with teachers.”

The 2015-16 school year in the Hart School District will fully implement Common Core, said Vicki Engbrecht, superintendent for the Hart School District, in a previous story.

Attendees of the meeting were also concerned about the issue of parental involvement in the Hart District.

“Over time, we have added PTSA’s, which are similar to PTA’s, at the junior high level. Our (District Advisory Committee, or DAC) has, at points, been extremely successful at being able to be that liaison between the district staff and the schools in terms of what’s going on,” Sturgeon said. “Right now, I think the DAC needs some energy infused in it.”

One of the things Sturgeon said he intended to do is get more involvement with the parents. He said he has spoken with the superintendent about getting the DAC to ask what’s important to the students and, potentially, the parents on the Committee.

“In regards to parent involvement… I believe we need to find a way to work with these parents, as well as the school, to find a way we can integrate the parents more,” said Taban. “I can’t necessarily say this is a directly a board decision, but I can say that I believe in the best efforts that I could do, is work with the board, as well as the schools, to find a way we can bring the parents back into the schools and working with us.”

Multiple residents brought up the issue of budget at the meeting.

“My best understanding after meeting with our chief financial officer, is that we of course get our money from our taxes as well as we gain our developer fees through construction in our city and in our district,” said Taban. “Now we have, so far, approximately $200 million budget as of this year.”

Along with budget concerns, a resident asked how much of the budget went towards the Hart School District’s staff.

“Out of our $200 million budget this year, 85 percent of it is salaries and benefits. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 to $20 million of money that we have to work with,” said Sturgeon. “That money includes things like the administrators allocation at the site where they have the ability to spend money on site level expenses under their own discretion, or for specific purposes.”

The election for the Hart Board is on Nov. 3.