RALEIGH, N.C. — The first of four school board candidate debates organized by Wake Education Partnership and local area chambers of commerce will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the main campus of Wake Technical Community College.

Watch and Chat Live Online at 7 p.m.

The event will be will be attended by all four of the candidates still actively campaigning for the District 2 seat: Carlene Lucas, Horace Tart, John Tedesco and Cathy Truitt. District 2 represents schools in the southeast part of the county.

The debate will be held in the second-floor Conference Center of the Student Services Building. It is open to the public and will also be streamed live on the web by WNCN NBC-17.

The format and questions will be the same in each district, although the length of the events will vary depending on the number of candidates.

Debate Schedule:

Date: Sept. 1
Time: 7 pm
District 2
Location: Student Services Building of Wake Technical Community College Main Campus, 9101 Fayetteville Rd., Raleigh
Chamber of Commerce partners: Garner; Fuquay-Varina

Date: Sept. 9
Time: Noon
District 9
Debate location: Cary Chamber of Commerce, 307 N. Academy St., Cary
Chamber of Commerce partner: Cary

Date: Sept. 10
Time: 7 p.m.
District 1
Location: Administration Building of Wake Technical Community College, Northern Campus, 6600 Louisburg Rd., Raleigh
Chamber of Commerce partners: Rolesville; Wendell; Knightdale; Zebulon, Wake Forest

Date: Sept. 22
Time: 8 a.m.
District 7
Location: Morrisville Chamber of Commerce, 260 Town Hall Dr., Morrisville
Chamber of Commerce partners: Morrisville; Raleigh

Wake Education Partnership is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created in 1983 to support public schools, in part by educating the community on current school issues and supporting efforts to recruit and retain quality teachers.

CARY, N.C. — Talking is prohibited in most movie theaters, but at Galaxy Cinema this Friday, talk will be the main event. The Cary independent theater is opening its doors to a free live screening of the first presidential debate between candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. 

Tickets for the event are free, but seating is limited and advance ticket reservations are recommended. Debate watchers will be seated in the cinema’s Theater 5 screening room, which is equipped with state-of-the-art digital projection equipment. 

All four of the presidential/vice-presidential debates will be presented at Galaxy Cinema.  The vice-presidential debate is Thursday, October 2; the third presidential debate is Tuesday, October 7; the fourth and final presidential debate is Wednesday, October 15 (the day before North Carolina’s new One-Stop Early Voting begins at various polling sites in Wake County).  All four debates begin at 9 p.m.; doors open at 8:30 p.m.

Galaxy Cinema marketing director Kim Yaman says it’s not unusual to have a full-capacity crowd attend a community event.

“Nearly 300 people attended the live presentation of Sen. Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August,” says Yaman.  “We always see tremendous support for community events we offer on our big screens.” 

Because the theater offers WiFi in addition to digital screening technologies, it can offer an interactive environment for bloggers and others who want to share a big-screen community event with others.  The August event, for instance, featured hundreds of speech watchers who blogged and text-messaged the evening away while watching Sen. Obama speak.

Through October 10 (the deadline for voter registration in North Carolina), Galaxy moviegoers are also able to register to vote, thanks to an effort to provide voter-registration and address-update forms at the concierge desk.   Between shows and during intermissions for Galaxy’s renowned Bollywood films, the theater features slides on its screens that encourage voting and voter registration.  It’s been a novel yet popular activity at the Cary cinema known for its savvy arthouse films, director Q&A’s, Bollywood offerings and other international movies, documentaries, and independent flicks.

In addition to the Democratic convention watch party, plans are under way to provide film-related forums for other candidates for public office during this historic election season.  “We welcome virtually anyone who wants to reach out to our community,” says Yaman.  “It’s easy as pie to host a postfilm discussion or to rent a theater to bring people together to support a cause.”

To learn more, contact Kim Yaman at Galaxy Cinema (919-463-9959 by phone, or via e-mail at mygalaxycinema@gmail.com). 

For regular film schedules, moviegoers can call the Galaxy Cinema Movieline at 919-463-9989 or visit Galaxy on the Web at www.mygalaxycinema.com. The theater is located at 770 Cary Towne Blvd., near Cary Towne Center, just off I-40 Exit 291.