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Brandon Brice
Brandon Brice was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education in Michigan. Brice was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Elections
2016
- See also: Detroit Public Schools elections (2016)
Seven seats on the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education were up for general election on November 8, 2016. There was no primary. A total of 63 candidates filed for the election including 10 of the 11 incumbent board members. The top two vote recipients will serve six-year terms, the next three winners will serve four-year terms, and the remaining two winners will serve two-year terms.[1][2] The winning candidates were Angelique Nicole Peterson-Mayberry, LaMar Lemmons, Georgia Lemmons, Sonya Mays, Misha Stallworth, Deborah Hunter-Harvill, and Iris Taylor.
A June 2016 state reorganization bill split Detroit Public Schools into two entities. The existing district will collect taxes to pay down debts, while a new district overseen by the school board was created to oversee school operations. This bill reduced the school board's membership from 11 to seven after the November 2016 election. The state-appointed Detroit Financial Review Commission will oversee the new district's financial dealings.[1]
Results
Funding
School board candidates in Michigan were required to file pre-election campaign finance reports with their county election offices by October 28, 2016. Post-election reports were due by December 8, 2016.[3]
In Michigan, candidates are prohibited from receiving contributions from corporations or labor organizations. Within 10 days of becoming a candidate, candidates must form a candidate committee. Following the creation of the committee, candidates have an additional 10 days to register the committee with the school district filing official by filing a statement of organization. A candidate committee that does not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000 during the election cycle is eligible to receive a reporting waiver, which allows that committee not to file pre-election, post-election, and annual campaign statements.[4]
October 28 filing
Candidates received a total of $164,533.68 and spent a total of $100,234.02 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Wayne County Clerk.[5] Angelique Nicole Peterson-Mayberry led the field with $57,980.00 in contributions and $40,364.82 in expenditures for the reporting period. Her biggest donor through October 28, 2016, was the United Auto Workers Michigan V-PAC, which contributed $27,500.00 to her candidate committee. Sixteen of the 63 candidates filed campaign finance statements by October 30, 2016. The remaining candidates had not filed their reports or qualified for exemption from reporting.
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tawanna Simpson | $1,200.00 | $996.38 | $203.62 |
| Ida Carol Short | $1,409.15 | $975.00 | $434.15 |
| Herman Davis | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Angelique Nicole Peterson-Mayberry | $57,980.00 | $40,346.82 | $17,633.18 |
| Kevin Turman | $5,038.99 | $3,555.84 | $1,483.15 |
| Deborah Hunter-Harvill | $3,950.00 | $4,387.83 | -$577.83 |
| John Telford | $19,000.00 | $5,341.52 | $13,658.51 |
| Markita Meeks | $100.00 | $25.00 | $75.00 |
| Mary Kovari | $14,383.54 | $16,883.54 | $4,315.86 |
| Ben Washburn | $500.00 | $0.00 | $500.00 |
| Iris Taylor | $10,725.00 | $6,311.16 | $4,413.84 |
| Sonya Mays | $20,935.00 | $15,450.49 | $0.00 |
| Charmaine Johnson | $0.00 | $1,939.68 | $0.00 |
| Phillip Caldwell II | $2,915.00 | $2,713.37 | $201.67 |
| Leslie Andrews | $16,114.00 | $0.00 | $6,500.00 |
| Penny Bailer | $10,283.00 | $1,307.39 | $8,975.61 |
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Brandon Brice participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 4, 2016:
| “ | Local Control for School Districts. Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability for the District. Student Academic Achievement and Options for Student's Success Higher Wages and Certifications for Quality Teachers[6][7] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Michigan. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| “ | DPS must seek to prepare it's students for the global economy and to be competitive in today's workforce. Returning skilled trade vocational technical programs is critical to the overall long term success of DPS students, Detroit's future workforce and for re-building Detroit's middle class.[7] | ” |
| —Brandon Brice (September 4, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. We need to first fix the 97 schools within our school district as we already have 15-16 charters within the DPS Structure. Charters should only be approved in the severe case that a school is failing and we have significant data to prove it. Hence, we should not approve charters in locations where public schools are positively performing and offering parents a quality option for their child. . |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Standardized testing is a part of interpreting student achievement. However there are alternative measures which must be accounted for when determining student achievement. Demographic and School Data. Describing the population of students served by DPS. Student Achievement Data. Measuring students’ academic achievement over the academic year. Perception Data/Reports. Representing student, staff, and teacher opinions Instructional data. Describing the teaching instruction and curriculum. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Common Core is important as we make sure all students in K–12 are to to academic standards in English language arts and mathematics by a certain point. However, we need to also account that all students do not learn the same and some alternative methods of learning are just as important for some students in the classroom. The quality of education must be a part of the standards with allowing educators to try alternative methods of learning. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Under performing teachers should be offered additional support immediately. Part of the problem is making sure we have the best educators in the beginning, who are qualified to teach. Principals should be empowered to put these teachers on a probationary period while assigning a mentor/more experienced educator to partner with them as a means of support. Measurement, evaluation and keeping a record of a teachers performance is vital when deciding outcomes for under performing educators. Not to mention, monthly staff meetings and consistent principal visits to classrooms can help reduce the rate of underperforming teachers in classrooms. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Quality teachers should receive higher wages, and we want educators to be equipped and prepared with the tools to be successful in educating DPS students. As for merit pay, it's difficult to reward those educators for children living in challenged communities which directly effects our school district. We need higher salaries for DPS teachers who have a portfolio of quality, success and are certified, which means we have to make sure we are hiring the best and brightest teachers in the beginning, which should help to reduce under performing educators and selecting who gets a higher salary and who doesn't. Part of this process is empowering local school districts and principals to make tough decisions while making sure we implement a tier system for compensation. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. School vouchers or opportunity scholarships are state-funded scholarships that pay for students to attend private school over than public school. The reality is that we want the best in quality education for our children and that decision should solely be up to the parent. Our focus as a Board is that we must provide quality options for parents to keep their children from having to go across 8 mile in search of quality schools. Funding should encourage parents to keep their children in the district so the voucher for the student should only be used in the district. Our goal is to offer every parent in the City of Detroit a quality education and offering vouchers should be a supplement to help low income parents. We need to make all schools meet minimum standards in order to accept vouchers based on a specified income threshold, students attending chronically low performing schools, students with disabilities, or students in foster care. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Students in DPS schools should only be removed or banned for violating that institution's rules, or for a major offense. DPS schools should have expulsion hearings which should be held by the school board members and must follow the requirements of the State Procedure Act for Michigan, which specifies evidence, record keeping requirements and rights to appeal by the student, etc. A DPS student caught with a fire-arm or weapon on school grounds could be subject to this violation and expelled for a specific amount of time based on the Board and State standards. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement. Parental involvement and quality educators that are certified. Parents play a critical role in getting families engaged in their children's learning and accountability in and outside the classroom. Qualified teachers who are prepared, equipped and given the tools to be successful play a significant role in educating children and supporting students through wraparound services if needed. |
Additional themes
Brice answered the following questions from 482Forward:
| “ |
What are the top 3 priorities you hope to accomplish during your tenure?
What do you think the role of the school board is?
What is your vision for student well-being and success? What experience do you have that prepares you for this role? |
” |
| —Brandon Brice (2016), [8] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Brandon Brice Detroit Public Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wayne County, Michigan, "Elections Division-Election Information," accessed August 30, 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "list" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ The Detroit Free Press, "72 people seek seven Detroit school board seats," July 26, 2016
- ↑ Michigan Bureau of Elections, "2016 and 2017 Campaign Finance Filing Schedule," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Genesee County, "Filing Requirements under Michigan's Campaign Finance Act," February 7, 2014
- ↑ Wayne County Clerk, "Wayne County Campaign Finance Information System," accessed October 30, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Brandon Brice's responses," September 4, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 482Forward, "DPS Board Answers: Brandon Brice," accessed September 26, 2016
