Chippewa Falls Area School District elections (2017)
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Two of the seven seats on the Chippewa Falls Area School District Board of Education were up for general election on April 4, 2017. Incumbents Pete Lehmann and Amy Mason defeated Ross Spitz in their bids for re-election.[1]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Chippewa Falls Area Board of Education consists of seven members elected to three-year terms. All members are elected at large, and elections are held every year. Three seats were up for election in 2016, and two seats were up for election in 2017. The general election was held on April 4, 2017.[2][3]
School board candidates had to be at least 18 years old, U.S. citizens, and residents of the school district for a minimum of 28 consecutive days before filing as a candidate. They also could not be disqualified from voting under Wisconsin law.[3]
To get on the ballot, school board candidates had to file nomination papers with the school district clerk by January 3, 2017. If incumbents whose terms were up for re-election did not file to run in the race and did not file written notification that they would not be running, the candidate filing deadline could have been extended until January 6, 2017. The terms of candidates elected in the race started on April 24, 2017.[3]
Candidates and results
At-large
Results
| Chippewa Falls Area School District, General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
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|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Amy Mason Incumbent |
41.05% | 2,369 |
| Pete Lehmann Incumbent |
32.99% | 1,904 |
| Ross Spitz | 25.96% | 1,498 |
| Total Votes | 5,771 | |
| Source: Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Peggy McKillip, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District," May 2, 2017 | ||
Candidates
Pete Lehmann 
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Amy Mason
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Ross Spitz | |||
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2017
The Chippewa Falls Area Board of Education election shared the ballot with elections for the office of Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction and one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[4]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Wisconsin school board elections in 2017:[5][6]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| January 3, 2017 | Candidate filing deadline |
| January 16, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for candidates registered before January 1 |
| February 13, 2017 | Pre-primary election campaign finance deadline |
| February 21, 2017 | Primary election day |
| March 27, 2017 | Pre-general election campaign finance deadline |
| April 4, 2017 | Election Day |
| April 24, 2017 | Board members take office |
| July 15, 2017 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
The Wisconsin AFL-CIO and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans endorsed challenger Ross Spitz.[7][8]
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
All school board candidates in Wisconsin were required to file a campaign registration statement with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission after qualifying as candidates. This statement declares their candidacy to the county clerk's office and allows them to claim exemption from reporting campaign contributions and expenditures. Candidates were only required to report campaign contributions and expenditures if they did one or both of the following:[9]
- Accepted contributions, made disbursements, or incurred debt in excess of $2,000 during the calendar year
- Accepted more than $100 from a single source during the calendar year, barring contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns
There were three campaign finance report deadlines in 2017:
- The pre-primary report was due February 13, 2017,
- The pre-election report was due March 27, 2017, and
- The post-election report was due July 15, 2017.[10]
Candidates who filed before January 1, 2017, also had to file a continuing campaign finance report on January 16, 2017.[11]
Reports
All three candidates in this race filed exemption statements detailing they would not spend or receive more than $2,000 toward their campaigns. Because of this, they did not have to file additional campaign finance reports.[12]
Past elections
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What was at stake?
Election trends
- See also: School board elections, 2017
The 2017 school board election for the Chippewa Falls Area School District attracted the highest average number of candidates per seat out of five election cycles with an average of 1.5 candidates per seat. Two incumbents and a challenger ran for the two seats on the ballot in 2017.
The 2016 school board election had an average of 1.3 candidates run per seat on the ballot. The average for the 2015, 2014, and 2013 elections was 1 as incumbents ran unopposed for every seat up for election. The 2016 and 2017 elections saw an average number of candidates per seat closer to the 2015 state and national averages of 1.38 and 1.72, respectively.
| School board election trends | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidates per seat | Unopposed seats | Incumbent success rate | Seats won by newcomers | |
| Chippewa Falls Area School District | |||||
| 2017 | 1.50 | 0.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| 2016 | 1.30 | 0.00% | 50.00% | 66.67% | |
| 2015 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| 2014 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| 2013 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| Wisconsin | |||||
| 2015 | 1.38 | 32.00% | 84.00% | 35.29% | |
| United States | |||||
| 2015 | 1.72 | 35.95% | 82.66% | 40.81% | |
Report a story for this election
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About the district
The Chippewa Falls School District is located in Chippewa County in central Wisconsin. The county seat is Chippewa Falls. The county was home to 63,531 residents in 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau.[13] The district was the 32nd-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 5,515 students.[14]
Demographics
Higher education achievement
Chippewa County residents underperformed compared to Wisconsin as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2011-2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 19.2 percent of county residents aged 25 years or older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 27.8 percent for the state as a whole.[13]
Median household income
The median household income for Chippewa County between 2011 and 2015 was $52.109. During that same time period, the median household income for Wisconsin was $53,357, and it was $53,889 for the entire United States.[13][15]
Poverty rate
From 2011 to 2015, the poverty rate in Chippewa County was 10.8 percent, while it was 12.1 percent statewide.[13] During that same time period, the poverty rate for the country as a whole was 13.5 percent.[15]
| Racial Demographics, 2015[13] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race | Chippewa County (%) | Wisconsin (%) | |
| White | 95.2 | 87.6 | |
| Black or African American | 1.6 | 6.6 | |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6 | 1.1 | |
| Asian | 1.4 | 2.8 | |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| Two or more races | 1.1 | 1.8 | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 1.6 | 6.6 | |
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 Chippewa Falls Area School District Wisconsin election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Chippewa Falls Area School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Leader-Telegram, "Most local officials running unopposed," January 4, 2017
- ↑ Chippewa Falls Area School District, "Board of Education," accessed December 27, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wisconsin Association of School Boards, "Guide for Candidates: 2017 Spring Election Edition," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Election Commission, "Candidate Tracking by Office: 2017 Spring Election - 4/4/2017," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Guided for Candidates," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Campaign Finance Checklist," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin AFL-CIO, "Spring Election Endorsed Candidates," March 9, 2017
- ↑ Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, "WIARA Spring Election Endorsements," March 17, 2017
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "11.0104 Reporting exemptions: limited activity," accessed December 15, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Filing Deadlines and Reporting Periods," accessed December 15, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Campaign Finance Checklist," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Peggy McKillip, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District" March 30, 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 United States Census Bureau, "Chippewa Falls County, Wisconsin," accessed December 13, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 United States Census Bureau, "State & County QuickFacts: USA," accessed July 6, 2015
| Chippewa Falls Area School District elections in 2017 | |
| Chippewa County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 4, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-large: Incumbent, Pete Lehmann • Incumbent, Amy Mason • Ross Spitz |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
