SEQUIM – Cheez Whiz and a law against calculators in classrooms were just two points of contention earlier this week during a debate between Sequim School Board incumbent Sarah Bedinger and challenger Stuart McColl.

Both are candidates for School Board Director position 1 in the Nov. 6 election. Directors serve four-year terms as they supervise the district superintendent and set policies and the budget for Sequim’s five public schools.

McColl, owner of the software firm Combined Computer Technology, held up a flash card – 8 x 3 = 24 – to the audience, and said that nonelectronic method should be used to teach math to young children.

He also used last week’s debate, hosted in the Sequim High School auditorium by the Clallam County League of Women Voters, to tout his “calculator law.”

It would ban calculators in Sequim’s elementary schools and, McColl said, bring up students’ math test scores.

Then he demanded to hear the incumbent’s stance on his proposed ban.

“Yes or no, please, Miss Bedinger,” McColl said.

Calculators are used as tools, Bedinger said, not as substitutes for basic math skill recollection.

Bedinger, who seeks a second term on the School Board, has been president of the board for the past two years.

She said her primary goal is to implement the school district’s data system, which is designed to provide teachers with student profiles.

“So every teacher will understand what each child knows and what each child needs to learn,” she said.

What the district needs are more and better computers plus a new stadium, countered McColl.

And the Bill and Melinda Gates and Paul Allen foundations must be asked for grants.

Yet the Sequim School Board hasn’t bothered to try for money from those Microsoft moguls, he said.

McColl promised that if elected, he’ll make the seeking of stadium and computer grants a high priority.

Audience members wrote questions on index cards that were brought to the candidates on stage.

Two came from students.

First, will a Spanish teacher be hired at Sequim Middle School? The school has never offered Spanish courses.

Bedinger answered that it’s up to the principal Brian Jones – and, of course, the finding of a funding source.

McColl answered that question in Spanish, saying he learned it in school in California.

Then he talked about improving the education system in Mexico to make life better for Mexicans – and acknowledged that he’d gone on a “tangent.”