Central Bucks School District elections (2015)

2017 → ← 2013
2015 Central Bucks School District Elections
Primary Election date:
May 19, 2015
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Pennsylvania Central Bucks School District Bucks County, Pennsylvania ballot measures Local ballot measures, Pennsylvania

Five seats on the Central Bucks School District Board of Directors were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A primary election was held on May 19, 2015. The seats are elected by district.

Candidates Karen Smith, Sharon Collopy and Beth Darcy ran together as The Clean Slate. They won without opposition in the general election after defeating their opponents in the primary elections. Smith defeated Jim Duffy in Region 1. Collopy defeated Tyler Tomlinson in Region 6, and Darcy defeated Lou White in Region 8. In Region 3, Glenn Schoeffel (R) defeated Phyllis Melendez (D) in the general election after both candidates defeated Wayne Marquez in the primary election. Dennis Weldon won without opposition in Region 2.

One of the 10 candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 school board candidate survey. Check out the "Ballotpedia survey responses" section to see Karen Smith's answers.

About the district

See also: Central Bucks School District, Pennsylvania

The Central Bucks School District is located in Bucks County, Pa.

The Central Bucks School District is located in eastern Pennsylvania in Bucks County. The county seat is Doylestown. Bucks County was home to 626,685 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau. In the 2012-2013 school year, the Central Bucks School District was the third-largest school district in Pennsylvania and served 14,300 students.

Demographics

Bucks County outperformed the rest of the state in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found the percentage of county residents over 25 with a bachelor's degree was 35.8 percent, compared to 27.5 percent of state residents. The median household income in the county was $76,555, compared to $52,548 in the state. The poverty rate of the county was 5.4 percent, compared to 13.3 percent in the state.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Bucks County (%)	Pennsylvania (%)
White	89.8	83.2
Black or African American	4.0	11.5
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.3	0.3
Asian	4.4	3.1
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	1.5	1.8
Hispanic or Latino	4.7	6.3

Presidential Voting Pattern, Bucks County
Year	Democratic Vote (%)	Republican Vote (%)
2012	50.0	48.8
2008	54.0	45.0
2004	51.1	48.3
2000	50.5	46.3

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 Central Bucks Board of Directors consists of nine members elected to four-year terms. The members of the board represent nine geographical regions in the district and are elected by voters in those regions. The primary election for the Central Bucks School Board of Directors was held on May 19, 2015, and the general election was held on November 3, 2015. Five seats were up for election on November 3, 2015. There was one seat open in Region 1, Region 2, Region 3, Region 6 and Region 8.

School board candidates had to file for this election with Bucks County by March 10, 2015. Those wishing to run as an independent candidate had until August 3, 2015, to file. To vote in the primary election, residents had to register by April 20, 2015, and to vote in the general election, residents had to register by October 5, 2015.

Region 1

Jim Duffy		Karen Smith
	Republican Incumbent Reporting analyst, Frosch Travel Bachelor's degree, Temple University		Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Won Democratic and Republican primary Communications consultant Bachelor's degree, Syracuse University

Region 2

Dennis Weldon
	Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Attorney, Philadelphia Parking Authority Bachelor's degree, LaSalle University J.D., Widener University

Region 3

Phyllis Melendez		Wayne Marquez		Glenn Schoeffel
	Democratic primary winner		Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Chief executive officer, American Dream 101 Bachelor's degree, State University of New York at Albany J.D., New York University School of Law		Republican primary winner

Region 6

Tyler Tomlinson		Sharon Collopy
	Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Incumbent Member from 2011-2015 Attorney, Stark and Stark Bachelor's degree, Lehigh University J.D., New York Law School		Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Won Democratic and Republican primary Human resources manager Bachelor's degree, Pennsylvania State University

Region 8

Beth Darcy		Lou White
	Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Won Democratic and Republican primary Bachelor's degree, Villanova University		Cross-filed as Democrat and Republican Retired educator Bachelor's degree, West Chester University Master's degree, Rutgers University

Election results

Region 1

Central Bucks School District, Region 1, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Karen Smith	100.0%	2,412
Total Votes				2,412
Source: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed January 4, 2016

Central Bucks School District, Region 1 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Karen Smith	100%	390
Total Votes				390
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Central Bucks School District, Region 1 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Karen Smith	66.3%	473
	Republican	Jim Duffy Incumbent	33.7%	240
Total Votes				713
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Region 2

Central Bucks School District, Region 2, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Dennis Weldon	100.0%	1,666
Total Votes				1,666
Source: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed January 4, 2016

Central Bucks School District, Region 2 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Dennis Weldon	100%	185
Total Votes				185
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Central Bucks School District, Region 2 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Dennis Weldon	100%	368
Total Votes				368
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Region 3

Central Bucks School District, Region 3, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Glenn Schoeffel	61.6%	1,355
	Democratic	Phyllis Melendez	38.4%	843
Total Votes				2,198
Source: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed January 4, 2016

Central Bucks School District, Region 3 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Phyllis Melendez	37.2%	119
	Democratic	Glenn Schoeffel	33.8%	108
	Democratic	Wayne Marquez	29.1%	93
Total Votes				320
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Central Bucks School District, Region 3 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Glenn Schoeffel	57.2%	329
	Republican	Phyllis Melendez	30.6%	176
	Republican	Wayne Marquez	12.2%	70
Total Votes				575
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Region 6

Central Bucks School District, Region 6, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Sharon Collopy	100.0%	2,258
Total Votes				2,258
Source: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed January 4, 2016

Central Bucks School District, Region 6 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Sharon Collopy	64%	387
	Democratic	Tyler Tomlinson Incumbent	36%	218
Total Votes				605
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Central Bucks School District, Region 6 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Sharon Collopy	53.2%	485
	Republican	Tyler Tomlinson Incumbent	46.8%	427
Total Votes				912
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Region 8

Central Bucks School District, Region 8, General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Beth Darcy	100.0%	3,017
Total Votes				3,017
Source: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed January 4, 2016

Central Bucks School District, Region 8 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Beth Darcy	50.8%	440
	Democratic	Lou White	49.2%	426
Total Votes				866
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Central Bucks School District, Region 8 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Beth Darcy	69.5%	631
	Republican	Lou White	30.5%	277
Total Votes				908
Source: Bucks County, "Bucks County Election Results," accessed July 6, 2015

Endorsements

There were no official endorsements for this election.

Campaign finance

The Bucks County Board of Elections does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Past elections

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

2013 See also: Central Bucks School District elections (2013) This race had a primary election. In the state of Pennsylvania, candidates can cross-file as a Democrat and a Republican. This allows them to run in both parties' primary elections. Election results Central Bucks School District, Region 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Cross-filed Jerel Wohl Incumbent 100% 1,212 Total Votes 1,212 Source: Bucks County Election Results, "School District - Central Bucks School District SD," accessed December 24, 2013 Central Bucks School District, Region 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Cross-filed Paul Faulkner Incumbent 100% 1,244 Total Votes 1,244 Source: Bucks County Election Results, "School District - Central Bucks School District SD," accessed December 24, 2013 Central Bucks School District, Region 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democrat Stephen Corr Incumbent 100% 790 Total Votes 790 Source: Bucks County Election Results, "School District - Central Bucks School District SD," accessed December 24, 2013 Central Bucks School District, Region 9 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Cross-filed John Gamble Incumbent 100% 1,158 Total Votes 1,158 Source: Bucks County Election Results, "School District - Central Bucks School District SD," accessed December 24, 2013

What was at stake?

Of the five open seats on the Central Bucks school board, only two of them had incumbents running for re-election. Both incumbents were defeated. The Region 1 incumbent, Jim Duffy lost to Karen Smith who ran as part of The Clean Slate along with Region 6 candidate Sharon Collopy who defeated incumbent Tyler Tomlinson and Region 8 candidate Beth Darcy. Five new members joined the board including the three candidates working together as The Clean Slate.

Ballotpedia survey responses

One of the six candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates as of May 13, 2015. The following sections display the responses to the survey questions from Karen Smith.

Top priorities

Karen Smith

When asked what her top priorities would be if elected, Smith stated:

“	"Focus on students first: Our decisions will prioritize developing the whole child; using best practices in education to maintain academic rigor while returning to a broad-based educational approach, including the arts, technology and physical education. Emphasize transparent decision making: We will require transparency and a culture of open dialogue and collaboration in the decision making process, particularly in regards to fiscal management and reporting. We will always be aware that the school board represents you. We will seek out, respect and value input from students, teachers, staff, community members, and best practices from other school districts in our decision making. Provide strong fiscal responsibility: As parents and taxpayers in Central Bucks, we support decision making that puts our students first and considers the financial limits of our community's taxpayers. The district’s trend of cutting programs and raising taxes while maintaining undisclosed and generous surpluses is unacceptable. We will remain watchful of district finances and demand honest reporting to protect our students and taxpayers. Increase and improve communications: We will promote significant changes to the district's communication methods, increasing the frequency of communication as well as the types of communication methods used, in order to ensure an open dialogue in our community. Support exemplary leaders: We will seek out and support district leadership who have a clear vision for the future of Central Bucks, who will search for and implement leading edge educational approaches, who value the opinions of all stakeholders in the decision-making process, who are honest and transparent communicators and who embrace a positive whole child educational approach. "	”
—Karen Smith (2015)

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 the candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Issue importance ranking
Issue	Simpson's Ranking
	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget	4
Closing the achievement gap	6
Expanding arts education	1
Expanding career-technical education	2
Expanding school choice options	7
Improving college readiness	5
Improving education for special needs students	3

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer 10 multiple choice and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. A link to the candidate's responses can be found below.

• Karen Smith survey responses

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Central Bucks School District election in 2015:

Deadline	Event
March 10, 2015	Partisan candidate filing deadline
March 11, 2015 - August 3, 2015	Independent candidate filing period
March 25, 2015	Withdrawal deadline for primary election
April 20, 2015	Voter registration deadline for primary election
May 8, 2015	Pre-primary election campaign finance deadline
May 12, 2015	Last day to file for absentee ballot for primary election
May 15, 2015	Absentee ballot deadline for primary election
May 19, 2015	Primary election day
June 18, 2015	Post-primary election campaign finance deadline
August 10, 2015	Withdrawal deadline for general election
October 5, 2015	Last day to register to vote in general election
October 23, 2015	Pre-general election campaign finance deadline for general election
October 27, 2015	Voter registration deadline for general election
October 30, 2015	Absentee ballot deadline for general election
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
December 3, 2015	Post-general election campaign finance deadline for general election

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Pennsylvania elections, 2015

This election shared the ballot with primary and general elections for county offices such as commissioner, register of wills, treasurer, clerk of courts and coroner. Township and borough offices on the ballot included supervisor, treasurer, auditor, council member, controller, constable and tax collector. There were also judicial positions on the ballot including justice of the supreme court, judge of the superior court, judge of the commonwealth court, judge of the court of common pleas and magisterial district judge.

Recent news

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

Central Bucks School District elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Central Bucks School District	Pennsylvania	School Boards
Central Bucks School District elections (2013) List of school districts in Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania school board elections, 2015 Public education in Pennsylvania Local ballot measures, Pennsylvania	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

• Central Bucks School District
• Bucks County Board of Elections