Billings Public Schools elections (2015)

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2015 Billings Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
May 5, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Montana Billings Public Schools Yellowstone County, Montana ballot measures Local ballot measures, Montana

Four seats on the Billings Public Schools Board of Trustees were up for general election on May 5, 2015.

The seats of District 4 incumbent Joseph Raffiani, District 5 incumbent Rob Rogers, District 6 incumbent Allen Halter and High School District A incumbent Teresa Stroebe were up for election. The District 5 seat was up for special election with a one-year term.

Raffiani and Rogers both ran for re-election unopposed. Newcomer Mike Leo, who campaigned for the District 6 seat, ran unopposed. No candidates filed to run for the High School District A seat, which left the seat open to a write-in candidate. In April 2015, both Gordon Klasna and Jeff Simkovic registered to run as write-in candidates for the seat. Klasna defeated Simkovic to win the only contested seat in the election.

About the district

See also: Billings Public Schools, Montana

Billings Public Schools is located in Yellowstone County, Mont.

Billings Public Schools is located in south-central Montana in Yellowstone County. The county seat is Billings. Billings is home to 104,167 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau. In the 2013-2014 school year, Billings Public Schools was the largest school district in Montana and served 16,328 students.

Demographics

Billings outperformed in comparison to the rest of Montana in terms of higher education achievement in 2010. The United States Census Bureau found that 30.6 percent of city residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 28.5 percent for Montana as a whole. The median household income in Billings was $48,074 compared to $45,456 for the state of Montana. The poverty rate was 13.1 percent compared to 14.8 percent for the entire state.

Racial Demographics, 2010
Race	Billings (%)	Montana (%)
White	89.6	89.4
Black or African American	0.8	0.4
American Indian and Alaska Native	4.4	6.3
Asian	0.7	0.6
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	2.9	2.5
Hispanic or Latino	5.2	2.9

Presidential Voting Pattern, Yellowstone County
Year	Democratic Vote	Republican Vote
2012	26,403	40,500
2008	32,038	36,483
2004	24,120	40,903
2000	20,370	33,922

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.

Voter and candidate information

The Billings Board of Trustees consists of nine members elected to three-year terms by specific geographic district. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on May 5, 2015. Four seats were up for election in 2015.

School board candidates had to file with their county elections department during the candidate filing period, which began on December 22, 2014, and ended on March 26, 2015. To vote in the 2015 general election, residents had to register by April 6, 2015.

District 4

• Joseph Raffiani
  • Incumbent
  • Graduate, Rutgers University at New Brunswick and the University of Montana School of Law
  • Attorney, the Raffiani Law Firm

District 5 (1-year term)

• Rob Rogers
  • Incumbent
  • Journalist
  • Former Billings Gazette reporter

District 6

• Mike Leo
  • Owner, Leo and Associates consulting firm

High School District A

• Gordon Klasna
  • Write-in candidate
  • Middle school principal, Lockwood Elementary School District

• Jeff Simkovic
  • Write-in candidate
  • Graduate, Touro Law Center
  • Attorney, Billings Legal LLC Montana

Election results

District 4

Incumbent Joseph Raffiani ran unopposed and won the District 4 seat by default.

District 5

Incumbent Rob Rogers ran unopposed and won the District 5 seat with an unexpired one-year term by default.

District 6

Newcomer Mike Leo ran unopposed and won the District 6 seat by default.

High School District A

Billings Public Schools, High School District A General Election, 3-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Gordon Klasna (write-in)	73.4%	188
	Nonpartisan	Jeff Simkovic (write-in)	26.6%	68
Total Votes				256
Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "School Election," accessed June 9, 2015

Endorsements

No candidates received endorsements in this election.

Campaign finance

No contributions or expenditures were reported during the election, according to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. Joseph Raffiani, Rob Rogers and Mike Leo filed forms stating that they would not receive or spend any money in this election.

Past elections

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

2014 See also: Billings Public Schools elections (2014) Tanya Ludwig ran unopposed and won the District 1 seat by default without an election. Billings Public Schools, District 2 General Election, 3-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Janna Hafer Incumbent 64.1% 1,204      Nonpartisan Virgil Middendorf 35% 657      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.9% 17 Total Votes 1,878 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "School Election," accessed January 22, 2015 Billings Public Schools, High School District B General Election, 3-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Susan Layton 59.4% 1,297      Nonpartisan Eric H. Olsen 39.7% 866      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1% 21 Total Votes 2,184 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "School Election," accessed January 22, 2015 2013 Billings Public Schools, District 3 General Election, 3-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Greta Besch Moen Incumbent 95.3% 3,676      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 4.7% 181 Total Votes 3,857 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "Official Final Results," accessed March 5, 2014 Billings Public Schools, District 5 General Election, 3-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Lindy S. Graves Incumbent 97% 3,408      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 3% 107 Total Votes 3,515 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "Official Final Results," accessed March 5, 2014 Billings Public Schools, District 7 General Election, 3-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Kevin Toohill 56.3% 3,046      Nonpartisan Connie Wardell Incumbent 42.7% 2,307      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1% 56 Total Votes 5,409 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "Official Final Results," accessed March 5, 2014 2012 Billings Public Schools, District 4 General Election, 3-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Kathy Aragon Incumbent 53.4% 1,717      Nonpartisan Dennis Johnson 45.8% 1,473      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.8% 27 Total Votes 3,217 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "School Election - May 8, 2012," accessed April 5, 2015 Billings Public Schools, District 6 General Election, 3-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Allen Halter Incumbent 57.2% 2,699      Nonpartisan Mary Jo Fox 41.6% 1,963      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1.2% 59 Total Votes 4,721 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "School Election - May 8, 2012," accessed April 5, 2015 Billings Public Schools, High School District A General Election, 3-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Teresa Stroebe Incumbent 94.5% 1,343      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 5.5% 78 Total Votes 1,421 Source: Yellowstone County, MT, "School Election - May 8, 2012," accessed April 5, 2015

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Billings Public Schools election in 2015:

Deadline	Event
December 22, 2014	First day for candidates to file nomination documents
March 26, 2015	Last day for candidates to file nomination documents
April 6, 2015	Last day to register to vote in the general election
April 15, 2015	First day for absentee voting
April 23, 2015	Last day to file pre-election campaign finance report
May 5, 2015	Election Day
May 25, 2015	Last day to file final campaign finance report

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Montana elections, 2015

This election shared the ballot with a general election for fire district trustee positions.

Recent news

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

Billings Public Schools elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Billings Public Schools	Montana	School Boards
Billings Public Schools elections (2014) List of school districts in Montana	Montana school board elections, 2015 Public education in Montana Local ballot measures, Montana	School board elections, 2015 School board elections, 2014 School board election data analysis, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Billings Public Schools
• Billings, Montana
• Yellowstone County Elections Office