BREWER – The focus was on education Tuesday night as five of eight candidates for the Brewer City Council and the Brewer school committee answered questions at a meet the candidates forum. The event was sponsored by the Brewer Education Association and was held at Brewer High School.

Attending were school committee candidates Amanda Bost, B. Calvin Bubar III and Frank Rapp Jr. Also attending were school trustee candidate Jerry Goss and City Council candidate Larry Doughty.

The need for new school buildings in Brewer was a key topic of discussion, and the sole candidate for a five-year term on the school system’s board of trustees spoke with vigor about the condition of some schools.

“Our schools need attention,” said Goss, a former principal at Brewer High School. Goss said the high school, which he headed for 15 years, was built in the 1950s and was supposed to last 25 years.

In response to a question, he said: “Walk into the Washington Street School,” which is an elementary school built in the 1940s. “The only reason it isn’t falling down around your ears is the city and school system paid to keep it afloat.”

Other topics included questions on why the city’s public works department has been reduced to nine employees and the seemingly high tax rate in the city, despite a myriad of economic development projects that supposedly should lower the tax rate.

Doughty, an incumbent City Council candidate running for his sixth term, mentioned his disappointment at the apparent decision to locate a proposed racino in Bangor instead of Brewer. The comment was the only one registered on that topic of local interest. Doughty also mentioned the need to lower taxes in Brewer despite the city’s keeping the rate at $24.38 for two years in a row.

About two dozen people attended the candidate’s forum. Candidates had three minutes to introduce themselves. Then questions were taken, followed by a one-minute closing statement from each candidate.

Doughty was the only City Council candidate to appear at the event. Incumbent City Council candidate Michael Celli is in Texas. Newcomer council candidate Ailene Simon was out of town, as was Ruth-Marie Spellman, an incumbent candidate for the Brewer school committee. Celli and Spellman had representatives read prepared statements that focused on their accomplishments and goals.

The most competition is in the school committee race, where four candidates are vying for two seats.

Incumbent Bubar, running for his third school committee term, said Brewer is at a crossroads with some “very large decisions pending on our physical schools.” He said Brewer students need the best possible education but that expenses need to be kept within the range residents can afford. Later in the discussion, Bubar said a study has revealed that Brewer schools are valued at $23 million, but expenses to correct deficiencies also are at $23 million.

Soon, Bubar said, “it will cost us more to maintain and upkeep these facilities than to build new facilities.”

Bost, running for her first term on the school committee, stressed the need to work under the guidance of the superintendent to keep a “special segment of the school population from falling through the cracks.” The comment was in response to a question about two Brewer schools being listed among the state’s underperforming schools as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Brewer’s Washington Street School and the Brewer Middle School are on the low performance list, prompting Bubar to say the federal government again is “sending us mandates but no money to back them.”

Superintendent Betsy Webb explained that only a certain group of special education students had performed lower than the No Child Left Behind standards required. She also expressed her opinion that sanctions similar to those in the federal act do little to improve school and student performance. Webb also stressed that no Brewer student is in an unsafe situation, in response to comments about the age and condition of the school system’s physical plant.

Newcomer Frank Rapp Jr. described himself as an “average, blue-collar guy” from the “school of hard knocks” who had an interest in local schools.

When asked how they would vote on the education referendum, Bost, Rapp and Goss said they would pick item 1A.

Challenging the talk about new school buildings, Doughty said Brewer doesn’t need a “Taj Mahal” like new schools he described in Hermon and Ellsworth.

“I’m looking for a physical plant that is safe enough so no harm will come to my grandchildren or Brewer children of the future,” Goss said.