Andrew Davidson (Oregon)

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Andrew Davidson

Prior offices

Portland Public Schools Board of Education Student Representative

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Education

High school

Grant High School

Personal

Profession

Student

Contact

Personal website

Andrew Davidson was a candidate for Zone 1 representative on the Portland Board of Education in Oregon. He lost in the general election on May 19, 2015.

Davidson was a student representative member of the board during his senior year at Grant High School in the 2013-2014 school year. He highlighted that experience throughout his campaigning for the Zone 1 seat. He also stated that he thought the district's biggest issue was that it "operates without a clear, unified education vision emphasizing" opportunity, equity, community engagement and administrative accountability.

Across all seats up for election in the district, the 2015 election was more competitive than in the district's two most recent election cycles. While an average of 2.75 candidates filed for each of the seats up for election, Davidson faced just one opponent. Coincidentally, Davidson is a student at the university where his opponent, Julie Esparza Brown, is an associate professor.

See also: Issues in the election

Biography

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A 2014 graduate of Portland Public Schools, Davidson served as the student representative on the district's board of education in the 2013-2014 school year. He currently attends Portland State University, where he is studying for a double major in business administration and political science in the Urban Honors College.

In the spring of 2014, Davidson was an intern for Don Gavitte, a Democratic candidate for the Oregon House of Representatives. He then worked as a communications intern for U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley's (D) re-election campaign.

Elections

2015

See also: Portland Public Schools elections (2015)

Four of the seven seats on the Portland Board of Education were up for general election on May 19, 2015. The seats of Zone 1 incumbent Ruth Adkins, Zone 2 incumbent Matt Morton, Zone 3 incumbent Bobbie Regan and Zone 7 incumbent Greg Belisle were up for election.

Regan was the only incumbent to file to seek re-election. He faced three challengers, Amy Carlsen Kohnstamm, Gretchen Hollands and Wes Soderback, and was defeated by Kohnstamm.

Julie Esparza Brown defeated Andrew Davidson in the race for the open Zone 1 seat. Four candidates—Paul Anthony, José González, Emma Russac Williams and John Sweeney—filed for the open Zone 2 race. Anthony was successful in that race. Mike Rosen won the open Zone 7 seat unopposed.

Results

Portland Public Schools, Zone 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Julie Esparza Brown	77.5%	39,230
	Nonpartisan	Andrew Davidson	22%	11,135
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.5%	276
Total Votes				50,641
Source: Washington County Elections Divsion, "Official Summary Report: Special District Election May 19, 2015," June 4, 2015, Multnomah County, Oregon, "May 2015 Special Election Results," June 3, 2015, and Clackamas County, Oregon, "Specail District Election May 19, 2015, Official Results for Election," accessed June 9, 2015

Funding

Davidson reported $6,485.00 in contributions and $4,033.00 in expenditures to the Oregon Secretary of State, which left his campaign with $2,802.00 in cash on hand in this election.

Endorsements

Davidson was endorsed by the following:

• PPS Board Member Tom Koehler
• PPS Board Member Bobbie Regan
• PPS Board Member Steve Buel
• PPS Board Member Minna Jayaswal
• Community & Parents for Public Schools Board Member Ted Wolf
• Former State Sen. Margaret Carter (D-22)

Campaign themes

2015

Campaign website

Davidson provided the following statements on his campaign website:

“	Opportunity Every child, regardless of where or how the child lives, deserves easy access to a worldclass education. PPS needs to do a better job of providing access to all types of programs, and engaging community members who are authorities in their field, and are interested in sharing their expertise. We have to make sure that during the future years of building back the PPS budget, we are extremely deliberate about what programs we restore from the past (such as music and the critical life skills all students need - including cooking and civics). We also need to be very deliberate about what new programs we should be providing (technology education, including coding and digital design, as well as more language classes and immersion programs to make our students better prepared for a global economy). Additionally, we must make sure that evaluations used in our district influence instruction and keep a constructive emphasis on student success. Transparency As a board member, Andrew will continue to advocate for increased accountability within PPS. This means giving greater access for parents and community members to see who is making the decisions that most impact their students. The board must be held fully accountable for the district by the community, and must therefore hold district staff to the highest level of accountability. Equity The PPS Racial Equity Policy has a lot of potential to do good, but our most at-risk students are still struggling. We talk about equity, but we continue to test our students using high stakes standardized tests which are not designed for students with other cultural backgrounds or a lack of English proficiency. These tests are detrimental to all students, but are especially damaging to our non-white, low socioeconomic, and ELL students. Decisions at a district level regarding issues such as resource allocation, curriculum design, and testing must ensure that historically underserved students receive a quality of education that is indistinguishable from any of their peers, not starting next month or next year, but starting today. Accountability Portland Public Schools has made some great improvements in their ability to engage the community. However, there is still a need for an emphasis on making sure that everyone with an interest can quickly and easily find out what is going on in the district, as well as how, what, and upon whose authority decisions are being made. Meaningful community engagement is critical to the success of PPS, and must be made a priority.	”
—Andrew Davidson's campaign website (2015)

Multnomah County voter's pamphlet

Davidson provided the following statement for the Multnomah County voter's pamphlet:

“	As a PPS graduate and former board member, I will jumpstart the school board with new energy, urgency, and understanding. I have an outstanding record of promoting success for all students, and have worked hard to find innovative solutions that foster learning. PPS’ biggest problem is that the school board currently operates without a clear, unified education vision emphasizing the following: Opportunity It’s time to rebuild programs with the future workforce in mind by moving some traditional high school electives to middle schools, and putting more technological education in high schools. We need to promote and seek community volunteers and partners. Equity Equity needs new supports and urgency to push it directly into the classroom. I am concerned that the board has not done more to support explicit strategies relating to student discipline. We need more action around equity to back up our words. Community Engagement Parents, teachers, students and community members need to be fully engaged in decision making within the district and each school, which means the board needs to be out listening in their community. Using more frequent and honest communication, I will open this process so the sun can shine on a transformative approach to PPS decision making. Administrative Accountability Too many of our central administrators believe the schools exist to support them. Instead, we need an administrative culture which understands the administration’s purpose is to support the programs and children in the schools.	”
—Andrew Davidson (2015)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Andrew Davidson Portland Public Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Andrew Davidson (Oregon) - Google News

See also

• Portland Public Schools, Oregon
• Portland Public Schools elections (2015)
• Embroiled incumbents see differing outcomes in May 19 school board elections across five states (May 21, 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• Portland Public Schools
• Campaign website