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Chris Quackenbush
Chris Quackenbush was a candidate for the District 7 seat on the School District of Lee County school board in Florida. Quackenbush was defeated in the by-district general election on November 8, 2016.
Elections
2016
Four seats on the School District of Lee County school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. The board originally had five seats, but the 2016 election added two more seats to the board: Districts 6 and 7, which were elected at large. Two other seats were up for by-district election, although the race for one—District 3—was decided in the primary election on August 30, 2016, and it did not appear on the general ballot. In her bid for re-election, District 2 incumbent Jeanne Dozier faced five challengers in the primary election: Charlie Flores, Melisa Giovannelli, Kimberly Hurley, David Lusk, and Stephen Solak. Since no candidate won over 50 percent of the total votes, the top two vote-getters—Dozier and Giovannelli—advanced to the general election. Giovannelli defeated Dozier in the general election. The race for a two-year term for the new District 6 seat included Don Armstrong, Charles Dailey, Richard Dunmire, and Jane Kuckel on the primary ballot. Kuckel and Armstrong advanced to the general election, with Kuckel winning the seat. In the primary election for District 7, District 3 incumbent Cathleen Morgan faced challengers Derrick Donnell, Guido Minaya, Chris Quackenbush, and Betsy Vaughn. Morgan and Quackenbush both appeared on the general election ballot. Morgan won the general election. Since Morgan ran for the District 7 seat, the District 3 was left open for a newcomer. Chris Patricca defeated Lori Fayhee in the race for the seat in the primary election.[1][2]
Results
| School District of Lee County, District 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Cathleen Morgan |
63.41% | 149,468 |
| Chris Quackenbush | 36.59% | 86,261 |
| Total Votes (100) | 235,729 | |
| Source: Lee County Supervisor of Elections, "2016 General Election," accessed November 30, 2016 | ||
| School District of Lee County, District 7 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Cathleen Morgan |
32.67% | 31,542 |
| Chris Quackenbush |
27.16% | 26,223 |
| Betsy Vaughn | 16.73% | 16,146 |
| Derrick Donnell | 15.00% | 14,477 |
| Guido Minaya | 8.44% | 8,146 |
| Total Votes | 96,534 | |
| Source: Lee County Supervisor of Elections, "2016 Primary Election," accessed November 30, 2016 | ||
Funding
Quackenbush reported $80,745.97 in contributions and $74,027.67 in expenditures to the Lee County Supervisor of Elections, which left his campaign with $6,718.30 cash on hand, as of October 11, 2016.[3]
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
Chris Quackenbush 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 July 1, 2016:
| “ | Restore local control to provide a school system that enables each student to reach his or her highest personal potential.[4][5] | ” |
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 Florida. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| “ | I have three main goals, 1) improving what all students are learning (standards and content) 2) Stop state mandated High Stakes Testing so student have time to learn and eliminate VAM scores grading teachers on student tests. Instead we will use nationally normed tests sparingly, and 3) restore local control.[5] | ” |
| —Chris Quackenbush (July 1, 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.) |
|---|
| Yes. There are bad charters and excellent charters. Choices must be individually made. |
| 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 only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. Federal Government has no authority in education and should restore local control |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Some tests are better than others. Nationally normed tests help show how we compare across the country, but should not be used for grading students, teachers or districts. State tests now mandated by the ESSA do not provide accurate comparisons or measures. Their use in evaluating teachers through the VAM scores is flawed and has resulted in a national teacher shortage. It has forced teachers to teach to the test and narrowed curriculum. The classroom has become a test driven pressure cooker which has driven the love of learning out of schools. Finland has a high achieving education system which uses no high stakes testing until students are 16 years old. They don't even begin school until age 7. They have 15 minutes between classes. Teachers there are more highly educated, more highly paid, and more highly regarded in their communities. We should look at more successful models, including our own past, and stop listening to the education lobbyists anxious to sell their latest shiny new experiments on our children. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Common Sense, NOT Common Core! |
| 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? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Most of the education process is not determined by the teacher. When teachers can only teach about 20% of their time, we must look mainly to the system for major improvement in results. Common Core standards are terribly flawed and test scores nationwide have declined. We need to restore Common Sense, not Common Core. Successful examples of standards we should adopt are available. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Merit pay is based on flawed testing, forcing teaching to the test. This has also resulted in massive cheating. Teachers advise their student to score badly on the first test of the year so show more learning gains later. Teachers should be rewarded by advancement opportunities and experience pay as determined by local administration review. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. Our tax dollars should not be used to select winners and losers. If the state is involved in private schools, they will have unproductive strings attached to each dollar, such as requiring tests and standardized curriculum. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Student safety is fundamental. Students who are disruptive to the class need to be removed. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers statistics show the teacher is a key, but the other elements are critical. It's a matter of degree. Teachers can't make a difference if they are mandated to teach garbage. Parent involvement is important, but will not help when Common Core portrays them as interfering and stupid because they can't do crazy math. Ratios don't matter when the curriculum is fundamentally flawed and school admin can only rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Chris Quackenbush School District of Lee County. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Lee County Elections, "Candidate Information 2016," accessed June 30, 2016
- ↑ Lee County Supervisor of Elections, "2016 General Election," accessed November 8, 2016
- ↑ Lee County Supervisor of Elections, "Candidate Finance Reports," accessed October 11, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Chris Quackenbush's responses," July 1, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| 2016 School District of Lee County Elections | |
| Lee County, Florida | |
| Election date: | Primary: August 30, 2016 General: November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | District 2: • Incumbent, Jeanne Dozier • Charlie Flores • Melisa Giovannelli • Kimberly Hurley • David Lusk • Stephen Solak District 3: • Lori Fayhee • Chris Patricca At-Large District 6: • Don Armstrong • Charles Dailey • Richard Dunmire • Jane Kuckel At-Large District 7: • Cathleen Morgan • Derrick Donnell • Guido Minaya • Chris Quackenbush • Betsy Vaughn |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
