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Candidates for LA Unified’s District 1 board seat are participating in two forums in early May, but not all candidates are attending both.

On May 7, Genethia Hudley-Hayes, George McKenna, Alex Johnson and Sherlett Hendy-Newbill will take questions from a moderator and the audience in an event organized by 10 community groups under the sponsorship of The California Endowment.

Why just those four, and not Hattie McFrazier, Omarosa Manigault and Rachel Johnson.?

As measured by money raised so far and key endorsements, four candidates emerged at the top, said Manisha Vaze, organization director of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE), one of the groups organizing groups.

“We decided to keep it at four,” she said. “We thought that was a healthy number for a good conversation.”

In an unusual twist to spur audience participation, Vaze said each attendee will be given two fans, one green and one red, to wave in response to anything the candidates say, as a way to express support (green) or disagreement (red).

Details of the event are available here.

Another forum is scheduled for a week later, sponsored by the California Charter Schools Association with five of the candidates confirmed — Hudley-Hayes, McKenna, both Johnsons and Manigault.

Hendy-Newbill told organizers she has a scheduling conflict, and Hattie McFrazier did not respond to the invitation, organizers said.

Details of that forum are here.

The special election to fill the seat is June 3, with a runoff scheduled for early August if no candidates wins a majority of votes.