NORTH KINGSTOWN -- Not surprisingly, the eight candidates running for School Committee want to build a better district.

But how do they feel about health care co-payments for teachers?

And what about foreign languages? Should students learn one before the eighth grade?

The answers to those -- and 43 other questions -- can be found at a new Web site devoted to the crowded School Committee race for four seats.

The site, www.whatcheer.net/nksc, is the brainchild of four parents who asked the candidates to answer questions about everything from vocational training to special education.

In preparing the questionnaire, the parents -- Tricia Armstrong, Marion Holland, Tom Sgouros and Dave Wrenn -- asked other residents, school officials and organizations to submit tough questions. The group reduced the nearly 100 submissions to 45 questions, and then added another slot for a closing statement.

They posted the results on Wednesday. As of yesterday morning, the document had been downloaded several hundred times by visitors to the site, said Sgouros.

Not every candidate met last week's deadline.

Democrat Korinne Barnes dropped out of the race after the appearance of a Journal article about her controversial MySpace web site. Barnes said she withdrew for personal reasons and because her family had been threatened.

Independent William Mudge, an incumbent, asked for more time last weekend to rework his answers. But his submission arrived too late to be included in the document, Sgouros said yesterday.

As a result, Mudge's face -- above a bow tie and tuxedo -- appears in the questionnaire. But none of his answers appear.

"I sent my first draft and said I needed more time," Mudge said yesterday. "I spent the weekend cleaning it up. I'm certainly disappointed they didn't include it, especially given that it is seven weeks to the election." Mudge e-mailed his responses to reporters and others.

The questionnaire, which is divided into 13 topics, opens with an obvious question: Why are you running for School Committee?

But later questions are more specific -- and tougher.

"Tell me a hard ... unpleasant ... truth about our school system," begins one.

The town cap on spending is a hard truth, said Republican Kimberly Page. "If the cost of living and salaries make up all the increases, there is no money left over for items such as buses and other special programs. We will have to cut great programs to meet our budget. It will not make people happy."

"The hard truth is we can't move forward without a new superintendent" and a review of other administrators, said Democrat April Brunelle. "Change is always difficult" but a fear of change "should not hold us back from what is needed to move our community forward out of this painful divisiveness."

Although Mudge's answer does not appear in the on-line questionnaire, he responded this way: "The school administration is fiscally irresponsible, wasteful, arrogant, insensitive to the needs of the public, poorly managed and ethically corrupt."

Sgouros said the group is pleased with the results.

Often, he said, voters don't really know where the candidates stand on specific issues. This year, he said, they'll have an opportunity to learn a great deal.

"This is a pretty substantial thing to digest," he said of the questionnaire. "We've accomplished our civic purpose."