“What superpower will you bring to the school board?”

This offbeat question, posed in writing by an anonymous member of the audience, stood out during a forum held this week for candidates for the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board.

It elicited revealing responses.

“My superpower is building relationships,” explained Robert Signater Sr., a retired high school principal and football coach. “I’ve never met a stranger, and I can hold a conversation with anyone.”

Tristan George, who is 27 and facing off against the 60-year-old Signater in a four-person race for the vacant District 2 seat, emphasized the present day knowledge he receives from his perch at East Feliciana High in Clinton.

“My superpower is I’m a teacher and I know what the kids need today,” George said. “I’m in the classroom working with them. So I want to bring that perspective.”

George was asked this same question a year ago for a “Twenty in their 20s” feature in 225 Magazine. He gave a lighter answer: “My smile and positivity. It’s about radiating energy that lifts others, helps them feel seen and inspires them to believe.”

Nicole Fitzgerald also fielded the “superpower” question. A former Spanish teacher at Westdale Middle School and now development director for a nonprofit group in Baton Rouge, Fitzgerald is hoping to unseat incumbent Nathan Rust in a three-person race for District 6.

Fitzgerald ended up one-upping her fellow educators.

“Mi superpoder es mi capacidad para hablar español,” Fitzgerald said, quickly translating, “My superpower is my ability to speak Spanish.”

The audience of 75 people applauded.

“I’m so glad you translated yourself,” said a relieved Clay Young, serving as moderator.

The sponsor of the forum was the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students Action, which is an affiliate of the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students, a prominent charter school friendly nonprofit. The event was held in a conference room at the downtown offices of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, or LABI.

It is one of several candidate forums being held around town in advance of the Nov. 3 elections. Thirteen of the 20 parish school board candidates attended.

Since it was founded in 2021, the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students has devoted itself to reshaping the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, particularly its nine-member elected board. Operating multiple affiliated organizations, it spent more than $900,000 in 2022 during that year’s board elections and has raised a similar amount for this fall’s races.

Baton Rouge Alliance for Students Action previously interviewed 15 of the 20 candidates. It endorsed nine, contributing between $3,000 and $6,000 to each of them. It is spending even more via another Alliance entity, Red Stick Leaders for Students, on independent campaigns on the candidate’s behalf.

Eight of the Alliance-endorsed candidates attended Wednesday’s forum; only Michael Vincent, running in District 7, was not present.

Hannah Amoroso, who is running in a three-candidate field for District 7, highlighted what she considers her special ability to help people get along. The 49-year-old physical therapist has been active with the schools her children have attended and the district they are part of, Louisiana’s second largest. She has been a leading force behind the district’s ongoing experiment with having older children start school later and younger students start school earlier.

“My superpower is that I love people,” Amoroso proclaimed.

“I want to bring people together,” she continued, “find whatever it is we want to work on, bring all the stakeholders together, bring all the people with all the ideas together and figure out a way to make the right decisions for our kids.”

Kimberly Bainguel is a licensed mental health therapist making a second bid to win the District 1 seat after losing her 2022 race by just 22 votes. Bainguel said she has a superior ability to make sense of things, to “look at data and then process that data and then be able to explain that data to people clearly.”

Bainguel’s District 1 opponent Megan Garretson identified her superpower as “lived experience,” starting with attending public schools growing up. Now the owner of Young Scholars Academy, a childcare center in Baton Rouge, Garretson said she has amassed a varied menu of relevant work and life experience.

“I’ve seen it all, and I know what it’s going to take, and I’m willing to step up and do the work,” Garretson declared.

District 8 challenger Melissa “Dani” Altazin said being a mom of three school-age children has seasoned her for the post she is seeking.

“We make a million decisions before we walk out the door, with children screaming that they can’t find a shoe or a sock, and we’re really over stressed,” Altazin said. “We do that before we even get into carpool time.”

Her gender also confers special power on her, she said.

“I’ll add to that that I’m a woman, and women get sit done,” Altazin said, purposefully saying “sit” instead of the more profane word normally used.

District 8 incumbent Emily Soulé, who has served on the board since March 2024, went in a different, more humble direction: “My superpower is that I’m willing to admit that I don’t know everything, and ask questions and listen and learn.”