Bethlehem Area School District elections (2017)

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2019 → ← 2015
Bethlehem Area School District Elections
Primary election date
May 16, 2017
General election date
November 7, 2017
Enrollment (14-15)
13,681 students

Four of the nine seats on the Bethlehem Area School District school board were up for general election on November 7, 2017. Three seats were elected at large and one seat was elected by district. Democratic and Republican primary elections were held on May 16, 2017. Board incumbents Shannon Patrick, Michael Faccinetto, and Angela Sinkler cross-filed to run in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the at-large seats. John Gallagher ran in the Republican primary. All four candidates advanced to the general election, with Faccinetto, Patrick, and Sinkler emerging victorious. Patrick and Faccinetto won their spots in the general election in both the Democratic and Republican primaries, Sinkler won through the Democratic primary, and Gallagher won through the Republican primary.

Incumbent Rogelio Ortiz cross-filed for the Region 1 seat. He won in the general election after advancing from both the Democratic and Republican primaries.

These candidates could have faced independent candidates in the general election. However, no independent candidate filed by the August 1, 2017, deadline to get on the ballot.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

The Bethlehem Area School District school board consists of nine members elected to four-year, staggered terms. Three members are elected by district, and the remaining six members are elected at large. Five seats were up for election on November 3, 2015, and four seats were up for election on November 7, 2017.

Cross-filing

Pennsylvania permits school board candidates to cross-file in primary elections. This means that a candidate may file to run in the primary election for both the Democratic and Republican parties. A cross-filed candidate can advance to the general election by winning one or both of the partisan primaries. This maximizes a candidate’s chances of advancing to the general as they have two ways to win in the primary round. If the candidate wins only one, they face the winner of the other primary in the general election. Cross-filers who win both primaries may still face independent candidates in the general election.

General candidate requirements

To run for a school board in Pennsylvania, one must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, and a resident of the school district for at least one year before the election date. To run in this 2017 school board election, partisan candidates had to file for office by March 7, 2017, and independent candidates had to file by August 1, 2017.

Voter requirements

To vote in Pennsylvania, a resident must be a U.S. citizen for at least one month and a resident of the district in which he or she is registering for at least 30 days before the election. A voter must be at least 18 years of age by the next election date. The deadline to register to vote before the primary election was April 17, 2017, and the deadline to register to vote before the general election was October 10, 2017.

See also: Voting in Pennsylvania and Voter identification laws by state

At-large general election

Results

Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Michael Faccinetto Incumbent	32.33%	13,353
	Democratic/Republican	Shannon Patrick Incumbent	32.17%	13,290
	Democratic	Angela Sinkler Incumbent	21.77%	8,993
	Republican	John Gallagher	13.68%	5,652
		Write-in votes	0.05%	20
Total Votes				41,308
Source: Lehigh County, "School Districts Elector Results," accessed November 7, 2017 and Northampton County, "Summary Report," accessed November 7, 2017These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Candidates

Shannon Patrick		Michael Faccinetto
	Incumbent (2011 - Present) Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican		Incumbent (2009 - Present) Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican
Angela Sinkler		John Gallagher
	Incumbent (2013 - Present) Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican in the primary election

At-Large primary election

Democratic results

Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large Primary Democratic Election, 4-year terms, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Michael Faccinetto Incumbent	34.09%	3,824
	Democratic	Shannon Patrick Incumbent	33.57%	3,765
	Democratic	Angela Sinkler Incumbent	32.22%	3,614
		Write-in votes	0.12%	13
Total Votes				11,216
Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 2017: School Districts Director Results," accessed June 19, 2017 and Northampton County Elections Department, "May 16, 2017 Summary Report," accessed June 19, 2017

Republican results

Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large Primary Republican Election, 4-year terms, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Gallagher	30.18%	1,658
	Republican	Shannon Patrick Incumbent	25.79%	1,417
	Republican	Michael Faccinetto Incumbent	25.76%	1,415
	Republican	Angela Sinkler Incumbent	18.20%	1,000
		Write-in votes	0.07%	4
Total Votes				5,494
Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 2017: School Districts Director Results," accessed June 19, 2017 and Northampton County Elections Department, "May 16, 2017 Summary Report," accessed June 19, 2017

Candidates

Shannon Patrick		Michael Faccinetto
	Incumbent Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican		Incumbent Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican
Angela Sinkler		John Gallagher
	Incumbent Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican

Region 1 general election

Results

Bethlehem Area School District, Region 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Rogelio Ortiz Incumbent (unopposed)	99.82%	2,262
		Write-in votes	0.18%	4
Total Votes				2,266
Source: Lehigh County, "School Districts Elector Results," accessed November 7, 2017 and Northampton County, "Summary Report," accessed November 7, 2017These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Candidates

Rogelio Ortiz
	Incumbent (2013 - Present) Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican

Region 1 primary election

Democratic results

Bethlehem Area School District, Region 1 Primary Democratic Election, 4-year term, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Rogelio Ortiz Incumbent (unopposed)	99.73%	730
		Write-in votes	0.27%	2
Total Votes				732
Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 2017: School Districts Director Results," accessed June 19, 2017 and Northampton County Elections Department, "May 16, 2017 Summary Report," accessed June 19, 2017

Republican results

Bethlehem Area School District, Region 1 Primary Republican Election, 4-year term, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Rogelio Ortiz Incumbent (unopposed)	99.47%	189
		Write-in votes	0.53%	1
Total Votes				190
Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 2017: School Districts Director Results," accessed June 19, 2017 and Northampton County Elections Department, "May 16, 2017 Summary Report," accessed June 19, 2017

Candidates

Rogelio Ortiz
	Incumbent Cross-filed as a Democrat and Republican

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Pennsylvania elections, 2017

The Bethlehem Area School District general election shared the ballot with elections for:

• State judges
• Local trial court judges
• County executive
• County council
• Mayor
• City controller
• City council

The Bethlehem Area School District primary election shared the ballot with primary elections for state judges, Northampton County executive and council, Lehigh county commissioner, and Bethlehem Township election judge, inspector judge, and commissioner.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for this Pennsylvania school board election in 2017:

Deadline	Event
March 7, 2017	Partisan candidate filing deadline
April 17, 2017	Deadline to register to vote before the primary election
May 16, 2017	Primary election day
August 1, 2017	Independent candidate filing deadline
October 10, 2017	Deadline to register to vote before the general election
November 7, 2017	General election day

Endorsements

Angela Sinkler received an official endorsement from the East Penn Democratic Club.

Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements in Pennsylvania and List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2017

2017 Campaign Finance Deadlines in Pennsylvania
Date	Deadline
May 5, 2017	2nd Friday Pre-Primary report due
June 15, 2017	30-Day Post-Primary report due
October 27, 2017	2nd Friday Pre-Election report due
December 7, 2017	30-Day Post-Election report due

School board candidates in Pennsylvania were required to report their campaign finance activity. Those who spent or received more than $250 in a reporting period had to file full reports. Those below the threshold had to file forms to declare they were exempt from reporting. Candidates could have, but were not required to, form committees to handle campaign finance transactions. They were not required to have separate bank accounts for campaign purposes.

The table to the left details the four campaign finance deadlines in 2017.

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2015 See also: Bethlehem Area School District elections (2015) Region 2 Bethlehem Area School District, Region 2, General Election, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic/Republican Craig Neiman Incumbent 100.0% 7,891 Write-in votes 0.04% 3 Total Votes 7,894 Source: Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Lehigh County Chief Clerk of Registration and Elections Timothy Bento," December 17, 2015 Northamption County, Pennsylvania, "Summary Report Northamption County Official Results," accessed December 17, 2015 Bethlehem Area School District, Region 2 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Craig Neiman Incumbent 99.9% 1,620      Democratic Write-in votes 0.1% 2 Total Votes 1,622 Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 Bethlehem Area School District, Region 2 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Craig Neiman Incumbent 99.8% 936      Republican Write-in votes 0.2% 2 Total Votes 938 Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 Region 3 Bethlehem Area School District, Region 3, General Election, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic/Republican Eugene McKeon Incumbent 99.9% 5,100 Write-in votes 0.1% 5 Total Votes 5,105 Source: Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Lehigh County Chief Clerk of Registration and Elections Timothy Bento," December 17, 2015 Northamption County, Pennsylvania, "Summary Report Northamption County Official Results," accessed December 17, 2015 Bethlehem Area School District, Region 3 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Eugene McKeon Incumbent 66.7% 1,229      Democratic Dan Treffinger 33.1% 610      Democratic Write-in votes 0.2% 3 Total Votes 1,842 Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 Bethlehem Area School District, Region 3 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Eugene McKeon Incumbent 54% 615      Republican Dan Treffinger 46% 524      Republican Write-in votes 0% 0 Total Votes 1,139 Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 At-large Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large, General Election, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic/Republican Dean Donaher 33.2% 11,853      Democratic/Republican Thomas Thomasik 32.1% 11,451      Democratic Karen Beck Pooley 20.8% 7,420      Republican Dan Treffinger 13.9% 4,978 Write-in votes 0.05% 19 Total Votes 35,721 Source: Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Lehigh County Chief Clerk of Registration and Elections Timothy Bento," December 17, 2015 Northamption County, Pennsylvania, "Summary Report Northamption County Official Results," accessed December 17, 2015 Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Dean Donaher 22.2% 2,949      Democratic Thomas Thomasik 17.3% 2,297      Democratic Karen Beck Pooley 16.4% 2,178      Democratic Basilio Bonilla Incumbent 15.4% 2,042      Democratic Samuel Nazario 13% 1,732      Democratic Inez Aguilar 8.6% 1,138      Democratic Dan Treffinger 7.1% 944      Democratic Write-in votes 0.1% 10 Total Votes 13,290 Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Republican Dean Donaher 26.5% 1,662      Republican Thomas Thomasik 25.6% 1,602      Republican Dan Treffinger 17.1% 1,068      Republican Samuel Nazario 16.5% 1,032      Republican Karen Beck Pooley 14.3% 893      Republican Write-in votes 0.1% 5 Total Votes 6,262 Source: Lehigh County, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015: Bethlehem School District," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. and Northhampton County, "May 19, 2015: Summary Report," accessed July 7, 2015 2013 See also: Bethlehem Area School District elections (2013) At-large Bethlehem Area School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Cross-filed Shannon Patrick Incumbent 33.9% 2,316      Cross-filed Michael E. Faccinetto Incumbent 33.4% 2,280      Cross-filed Angela Sinker 32.6% 2,226 Total Votes 6,822 Source: Lehigh County Election Results, "Bethlehem School District," accessed November 6, 2013 District 1 Bethlehem Area School District, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democrat Rogelio Ortiz 100% 624 Total Votes 624 Source: Lehigh County Election Results, "Bethlehem School District," accessed November 6, 2013 District 2 Bethlehem Area School District, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democrat Shannon Patrick Incumbent 100% 1,495 Total Votes 1,495 Source: Lehigh County Election Results, "Bethlehem School District," accessed November 6, 2013

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About the district

See also: Bethlehem Area School District, Pennsylvania

The Bethlehem Area School District is located in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in Pennsylvania.

The Bethlehem Area School District is located in east-central Pennsylvania in Northampton County and Lehigh County. Northampton County was home to an estimated 302,294 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau. During that same time period, the population of Lehigh County was 363,147. The district was the sixth-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 13,681 students.

Demographics

Northampton and Lehigh Counties performed similarly compared to Pennsylvania as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 27.2 percent of Northampton County residents and 28.5 percent of Lehigh County residents aged 25 years and older had obtained their bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 28.6 percent for the state as a whole. Northampton and Lehigh Counties' median household income was $60,972 and $56,117, respectively, compared to $53,599 for the state as a whole. Northampton County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate 8.8 percent and Lehigh County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 12.1 percent. That rate was 13.2 percent for all state residents.

Racial Demographics, 2015
Race	Northampton County (%)	Lehigh County (%)	Pennsylvania (%)
White	88.0	84.2	82.6
Black or African American	6.4	8.8	11.7
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.4	0.8	0.4
Asian	3.0	3.6	3.4
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	2.1	2.5	1.9
Hispanic or Latino	12.4	22.4	6.8

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Bethlehem Area School District Pennsylvania election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Bethlehem Area School District elections (2017) - Google News

See also

Bethlehem Area School District	Pennsylvania	School Boards
Bethlehem Area School District elections (2015) List of school districts in Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania school board elections, 2017 Public education in Pennsylvania Local ballot measures, Pennsylvania	School board elections, 2017 School board elections, 2016 School board election data analysis, 2017 School board election data analysis, 2016

External links

• Bethlehem Area School District
• Lehigh County Elections
• Northampton County Elections Department