Twenty-five City Council candidates squeezed around the table at a Sept. 27 forum at the Dante Alighieri Society Center in Kendall Square. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Eight candidates forum are scheduled for October – with two being merely a split event resulting from “the large number of City Council candidates,” according to organizers at the Mount Auburn Neighborhood Association. There are 25 council candidates this year running for nine seats.

There are also nine candidates running for six School Committee seats, and on each body there are two seats open.

The first forum is for council candidates. It is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Lesley University’s University Hall Amphitheatre, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, and is taking questions from residents to be asked of the candidates.

Howard said to submit questions for the candidates to [email protected].

Given the retirement of Robert W. Healy as city manager, the departures of long-serving councillors Henrietta Davis and Marjorie Decker, the number of potential candidates “and the issues that confront our neighborhoods, we believe that this election is particularly important, and we want to engage the community in it,” said John Howard, president of the Porter Square Neighbors Association.

In addition to the association, forum sponsors include the Agassiz Baldwin Community, Neighborhood Nine,  Massachusetts Avenue Improvement Committee and Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods.

In the School Committee race, the nine candidates  get several chances to prove themselves. The first upcoming committee forum is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, in the Fletcher-Maynard Academy auditorium at 225 Windsor St. The sponsor is Like Minded Parents, a discussion and networking group for parents and guardians of color in the Cambridge Public Schools. For information, call LMP parent coordinator Helen Bryant at (617) 680-4943.

Another School Committee forum is scheduled for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, to be co-moderated by a parent and high school student. The sponsors are the Citywide School Advisory Group of parents, Kids’ Council Youth Involvement Committee, Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods, Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Wellington-Harrington Neighborhood Association, Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Association and the East Cambridge Planning Team.

A set of forums arrives Oct. 16, 17 and 18, all starting at 9:30 a.m. and lasting an hour and a half. The first two will split the roster of council candidates in half to make for more manageable sessions.

The final event in the set, Oct. 18, is for School Committee candidates.

All are to be held at The Cambridge Homes, 360 Mount Auburn St., moderated by former mayor Frank Duehay and Fleet Hill, chairwoman of the Mount Auburn Neighborhood Association. Candidates will get their questions in advance.

For information, send e-mail to Somita Ray at The Cambridge Homes, [email protected] or Fleet Hill, [email protected].

The Area IV/Port Neighborhood is having a council candidates night open to any resident (with child care provided), from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Area IV Youth Center, 243 Harvard St., with candidates Dennis Benzan, Dennis Carlone, Janneke House, James Lee, Nadeem Mazen, Sam Seidel, Denise Simmons, Tim Toomey and James Williamson committed to attend.

The event starts with a half-hour of food and mingling, then gets down to business at 6:30 p.m. with three questions given to the candidates beforehand. There may be time for “Q&A and chit-chat after,” organizers said.

Another council candidates forum is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 22 at Citywide Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, sponsored by the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee and Alliance of Cambridge Tenants.

The final two forums reported are for School Committee candidates:

at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23, sponsored by the Cambridge Parent Advisory Council on Special Education. The location isn’t set.

from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at the main cafeteria at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, 459 Broadway.

This story was updated Oct. 6, 2013, to add events and sponsors to the Oct. 16 forum. It was updated Oct. 10, 2013, to add the Oct. 17 event in Area IV. It was updated Oct. 16, 2013, to fix the address of the Area IV event.