Bert Ament
Bert Ament was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Dubuque Community School District School Board in Iowa. The seat was up for general election on September 8, 2015.[1]
Ament participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.
Biography
Ament works as a paraprofessional at Hillcrest School, which serves behaviorally disturbed students. She also has experience as a financial services professional.[2]
Elections
2015
Four of the seven seats on the Dubuque Community School District Board of Education were up for election on September 8, 2015. All seats on the board of education represent the district at-large.
Incumbents Tom Barton, Mike Donohue and Tami Ryan won re-election to their seats. Incumbent Otto Kreuger did not run for re-election. Upon the initial count of the votes, candidates Timothy Pope and Lisa Wittman tied for the open seat left by incumbent Otto Kreuger.[3] After an error was corrected in the original totals and the absentee ballots were counted, Wittman was determined the winner of the open seat.[4] Pope did not ask for a recount. Candidates Bert Ament and R.R.S. Stewart were also defeated in the election.[5][6][7]
Results
This election was held September 8, 2015.
| Dubuque Community School District, At-Large, 4-Year Term, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Tom Barton Incumbent |
22.2% | 2,865 |
| Mike Donohue Incumbent |
20.1% | 2,590 |
| Tami Ryan Incumbent |
19.9% | 2,573 |
| Lisa Wittman |
12.8% | 1,654 |
| Timothy Pope | 12.3% | 1,589 |
| R.R.S. Stewart | 7.4% | 951 |
| Bert Ament | 5.2% | 677 |
| Total Votes | 12,899 | |
| Source: Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Dubuque County Auditor's Office Jenny Hillary," December 3, 2015 | ||
Funding
Ament reported no contributions or expenditures to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board during the election.[8] Any candidate spending, receiving or incurring debt in the amount of $1,000 or less was not required to file the disclosure form for campaign finances.[9]
Endorsements
Ament received an official endorsement from the Dubuque Federation of Labor in cooperation with Working Iowa Neighbors (WIN).[10]
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Ament participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | My top priority as a school board is to develop more programs for the autistic community so they can lead productive lives. We can't put them all on disability so we better figure out how to teach them.[11] | ” |
| —Bert Ament (2015)[12] | ||
Ament also included the following statement with her responses:
| “ | I believe that education faces many challenges today, the biggest being lack of funding. We need to stop taking from the bottom every time there is a budget cut. Laying off teachers and paras is not the answer. These are the people on the front lines, teaching the kids, taking the hits, working with problem children and trying everyway they know possible to teach these children the best way they know so the students are successful. We should look at the upper management and see where we can trim the budget there; maybe re-structuring the system is needed. For instance, why does every district need a superintendent? That person's salary is five times of a teacher. Maybe we need to combine school districts as far as this position is concerned. Just a thought but we should never ever cut education funding. This is our country's future. We should swampt the governor's office, maybe he should take a cut in pay rather than cut education. This is an issue that must be resolved.[11] | ” |
| —Bert Ament (2015)[12] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Idaho. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "Modifications are required before they are implemented." | |
| "Yes. I feel the district should approve the creation of new charter schools." | |
| "Yes. The state should give money to private schools through the voucher system only if there is a financial hardship proven. I chose to educate my daughter in a Catholic school until High School and didn't expect anything because that was my choice." | |
| "No. Standard testing does not show an accurate student achievement at all." | |
| "The district can't ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students. This is not controllable because the student must have the desire to achieve and that's something that must come from within the child and this goes all the way back to the home life and expectations set by the parents concerning education." | |
| "Expel the student for a serious offense and the other issues should be worked out with the family and school counselors." | |
| "If a school is failiing first find out the root cause ie lower socioeconomic status, school is in a dangerous section of town and students don't feel safe, etc. Many causes for something like this, the least of it being anything a school board can control." | |
| "Yes. I do support merit pay for teachers. Why not? the rest of the world get merit increases." | |
| "Under performing teachers-First look at the group of students this teacher has. Working in a BD school such as Hillcrest Lawther Academy - this is the most important thing. If a teacher has 26 students and 12 of them are in trouble and causing issues in the classroom on a daily basis, how can any teacher teach or any student learn? Tehn mentor the teacher with a more seasoned staff and maybe look at rearranging students, switching them out with other rooms. I've personally seen the most troubled students put in one room to keep the problems in one room and then they fawn this room on a new teacher." | |
| "Community school board relations can be improved by having more informal meetings with staff and parents to problem solve issues facing the district. If put to task, most people will step up to the plate." |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Bert Ament' 'Dubuque Community School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Dubuque Community School District, Iowa
- Dubuque Community School District elections (2015)
- Newcomers and incumbents share the victories in Iowa's largest school district elections (September 9, 2015)
- Analysis of incumbency advantage in the 2014 school board elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Tiffany Rouse, Email correspondence with Dubuque County Auditor's Office Becky Griebel," August 11, 2015
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "Profile of a Precinct Captain," January 3, 2008
- ↑ The Herald Online, "Incumbents re-elected to Dubuque School Board; challengers tie for fourth seat," September 8, 2015
- ↑ The Herald Online, "With corrected vote total, Lisa Wittman easily wins Dubuque school board seat," September 13, 2015
- ↑ Dubuque County, Iowa, "School Board Election Results," accessed September 8, 2015
- ↑ Dubuque Community School District, "School Board," accessed June 23, 2015
- ↑ Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Dubuque County Auditor's Office Becky Griebel," August 11, 2015
- ↑ Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, "IECDB State/Local Campaign Disclosure Reports," accessed February 2, 2016
- ↑ Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, "Reporting Dates," accessed August 13, 2015
- ↑ Dubuque Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, "2015 Elections," accessed September 1, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Bert Ament's responses," September 8, 2015
| 2015 Dubuque Community School District Elections | |
| Dubuque County, Iowa | |
| Election date: | September 8, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Tom Barton • Incumbent, Mike Donohue • Incumbent, Tami Ryan • Bert Ament • Timothy Pope • R.R.S. Stewart • Lisa Wittman |
| Important information: | Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
