Columbus City Schools elections (2015)
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Four seats on the Columbus City Schools Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A primary election was held on May 5, 2015.
Incumbents Gary Baker, Shawna Gibbs, and Mary Jo Hudson won re-election to their seats. Eric Brown won the fourth seat left empty by incumbent Bryan Steward. Challengers Jim Hunter, Bernadine Kennedy Kent, Tina Pierce and Ben Tyson were defeated in the general election. Brian Bainbridge and Robert Sharrah were defeated in the primary election.[1][2]
Baker and Gibbs were on the board when the district paid a tutoring company over $800,000 for unperformed tutoring services. Candidate Bernadine Kennedy Kent brought the fraud to the attention of the FBI that launched an investigation and led to an audit of the district.
About the district
- See also: Columbus City Schools, Ohio
Columbus City Schools is located in central Ohio in Franklin County. The county seat is Columbus. The county was home to 1,231,393 residents in 2014, according the United States Census Bureau.[3] Columbus City Schools was the largest school district in Ohio, serving 50,384 students during the 2012-2013 school year.[4]
Demographics
Franklin County outperformed the rest of Ohio in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 36.4 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 25.2 percent of state residents. The median household income in the county was $50,877, compared to $48,308 for the state. The poverty rate for the county was 18.1 percent, compared to 15.8 percent for the entire state.[3]
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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 Columbus City Schools Board of Education consists of seven members elected to four-year terms. All members represent the district at-large. Four seats were up for election in 2015. A primary election was necessary due to the fact that more than twice the number of candidates as open seats filed to run in the election. The primary election was held on May 5, 2015, to determine the eight candidates that would participate in the general election. Voters will select four candidates in the general election on November 3, 2015. The remaining three seats were up for election on November 7, 2017.
School board candidates had to file for this election with the Franklin County Board of Elections by August 5, 2015. To vote in the election, residents had to register by October 5, 2015.[6]
Elections
2015
Candidates
General election candidates
Gary Baker 
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Eric Brown
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Shawna Gibbs
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Mary Jo Hudson
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| Jim Hunter | Bernadine Kennedy Kent | Tina Pierce | Ben Tyson | ||||
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Candidates defeated in the primary election
| Brian Bainbridge | Robert Sharrah | ||
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Election results
| Columbus City Schools, At-Large, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Mary Jo Hudson Incumbent |
20.0% | 59,922 |
| Eric Brown |
18.0% | 53,778 |
| Shawna Gibbs Incumbent |
15.7% | 46,947 |
| Gary Baker Incumbent |
12.6% | 37,755 |
| Tina Pierce | 10.9% | 32,699 |
| Ben Tyson | 9.1% | 27,173 |
| Jim Hunter | 7.6% | 22,813 |
| Bernadine Kennedy Kent | 6.0% | 17,910 |
| Total Votes | 298,997 | |
| Source: Franklin County, Ohio, "2015 General Election Official Results," November 27, 2015 | ||
| Columbus Board of Education, At-Large Primary Election, 2015 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Mary Jo Hudson Incumbent |
16.1% | 16,399 | |
| Nonpartisan | Shawna Gibbs Incumbent |
13.8% | 14,068 | |
| Nonpartisan | Eric Brown |
13.1% | 13,343 | |
| Nonpartisan | Tina Pierce |
10.4% | 10,595 | |
| Nonpartisan | Bernadine Kennedy Kent |
8.8% | 9,018 | |
| Nonpartisan | Gary Baker Incumbent |
8.6% | 8,748 | |
| Nonpartisan | Ben Tyson |
8.3% | 8,505 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jim Hunter |
7.5% | 7,683 | |
| Nonpartisan | Brian Bainbridge | 7.5% | 7,607 | |
| Nonpartisan | Robert Sharrah | 6% | 6,078 | |
| Total Votes | 102,044 | |||
| Source: Franklin County Board of Elections, "Franklin County Only Official Results Primary Election May 2015," accessed October 26, 2015 | ||||
Endorsements
Baker, Gibbs, Hudson and Brown received official endorsements from the Franklin County Democratic Party and the Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio.[7][8]
Brown, Hudson, Pierce and Tyson received official endorsements from The Columbus Dispatch.[9]
Baker also received official endorsements from the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, the Ohio AFSCME Power in Action and the Baptist Ministerial Alliance of Columbus as of October 23, 2015.[10]
Hudson also received official endorsements from the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, the Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, the Columbus Education Association, the Franklin County Young Democrats, the Franklin County Adelante Democrats, the Central Ohio Labor Council, AFL-CIO and the Columbus Association of Realtors.[11]
Pierce also received official endorsements from Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and the African American News Journal.[12][13]
Hunter received an official endorsement from the Franklin County Republican Party.[14]
Campaign finance
Candidates received a total of $229,771.91 and spent a total of $210,605.00 in the election, according to the Franklin County Board of Elections.[15]
| Candidates | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Baker | $18,639.27 | $18,117.38 | $521.89 |
| Eric Brown | $67,620.00 | $58,308.34 | $9,311.66 |
| Shawna Gibbs | $20,528.37 | $10,087.98 | $10,440.39 |
| Jim Hunter | $875.00 | $0 | $875.00 |
| Mary Jo Hudson | $69,552.00 | $72,797.88 | $-3,245 |
| Bernadine Kennedy Kent | $8,003.51 | $8,003.51 | $0 |
| Tina Pierce | $22,643.76 | $22,416.53 | $227.23 |
| Ben Tyson | $21,910.00 | $20,873.38 | $1,036.62 |
Past elections
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2013
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What was at stake?
2015
- See also: 2013 school board elections
Four seats were up for election in 2015. Three incumbents, Gary Baker, Shawna Gibbs and Mary Jo Hudson, were running for re-election. They faced five challengers for the four seats in the general election.[16]
| Voter Participation 2011-2015, Franklin County[17] | ||
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| Year | Voter Turnout (%) | Total votes in school board election |
| 2015 | 34.4 | 286,178 |
| 2013 | 17.6 | 139,515 |
| 2011 | 29.3 | 219,645 |
A primary election was held for the district when there were more than double the number of candidates per open seat. There was no primary election held in 2011 or 2013. The 2013 election averaged two candidates per seat with six candidates running for three seats. Of the three incumbents running, only one of them won re-election. The 2011 election only had three candidates running for four seats, two of which were incumbents who won re-election. The fourth seat had to be filled by a write-in candidate. A primary election was held in 2015 when the race averaged 2.5 candidates per seat. Three incumbents won in the general election.
In addition to the increase in the average number of candidates between 2011 and 2015, the total number of votes in the election also experienced a 30 percent increase during that time. The 2011 election garnered 57 percent more votes than the 2013 election. The 2015 election had a 105 percent increase in total votes, compared to the 2013 election. Voter turnout took a 40 percent decrease between 2011 and 2013. Turnout improved between 2013-2015 by 95 percent.
Issues in the district
Audit discovers payments for unperformed services
The state of Ohio conducted a special investigation audit that discovered approximately $850,000 in payments from Columbus City Schools to tutoring companies for services that were never provided. The money was paid to 27 different tutoring companies to tutor at-risk students in the district as part of a federal grant program provided by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The district received the NCLB money from the state as part of the now defunct Supplemental Educational Services program. The district was billed for students who did not attend the tutoring sessions or who were not attending school in the district. Two tutoring company owners, Mussa Farrah and Ashkir Ali, were charged with aggravated identity theft and making false statements as a result of the investigation.[18]
School board candidate Bernadine Kennedy Kent and her husband, James Whitaker, attempted to uncover the fraud in 2006 when they filed a report with the Columbus Police Department that alleged fraud involving the NCLB funds. Kent was an assistant principal in the district and operator of the nonprofit Parents Advocates for Students in Schools (PASS). After no action was taken by the Columbus Police Department, Kent and Whitaker went to the FBI with the information they had collected regarding the fraudulent payments. The FBI then launched an investigation, which led to the state audit. In 2014, it was discovered that Kent and Whitaker had been placed on a "chronic complainer" list by the Columbus Police Department, leading to their original report being ignored.[19][20]
While the tutoring providers submitted false invoices to the district, Ohio state auditor Dave Yost criticized the district for a lack of oversight: “Even if you don’t do it for every single invoice, to not at least sample some of those invoices and check it back is a little bit puzzling." The district released a statement regarding the audit that said it had implemented new accounting practices since that time.[21]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Columbus City Schools Board of Education election in 2015:[6]
| Deadline | Event |
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| February 4, 2015 | Candidate filing deadline |
| May 5, 2015 | Primary election day |
| August 24, 2015 | Write-in candidate deadline |
| August 28, 2015 | Last day to protest write-in candidate |
| September 19, 2015 | Absentee ballots sent out |
| October 5, 2015 | Voter registration deadline |
| November 3, 2015 | Election Day |
| November 24, 2015 | Last day for officials to complete canvas |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Ohio elections, 2015
This election shared the ballot with races for mayor and city council in Columbus and an election for a Franklin County Municipal Court judge. Residents also voted on three state ballot measures regarding legislative redistricting, monopolies and recreational marajuana.[16]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Columbus City Schools Ohio. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Columbus City Schools | Ohio | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Columbus City Schools, "Board of Education," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ Franklin County, Ohio, "2015 General Election Unofficial Results," November 3, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 United States Census Bureau, "QuickFacts:Franklin County," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "District Directory Information," accessed July 14, 2015
- ↑ Franklin County Board of Elections, "Past Election Results," accessed September 13, 2013
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ohio Secretary of State, "2015 Ohio Elections Calendar," accessed July 7, 2015
- ↑ Franklin County Democratic Party, "2015 Election," accessed October 26, 2015
- ↑ Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio, "Endorsed Candidates," accessed October 26, 2015
- ↑ The Columbus Dispatch, "For school board," October 6, 2015
- ↑ Baker for the Board, "Endorsements," accessed October 23, 2015
- ↑ Mary Jo Hudson for Columbus Board of Education, "About," accessed October 26, 2015
- ↑ Facebook, "Tina Pierce for Columbus City School Board," October 12, 2015
- ↑ Facebook, "Tina Pierce for Columbus City School Board," October 7, 2015
- ↑ Franklin County Republican Party, "2015 Endorsed Candidate," accessed October 26, 2015
- ↑ Franklin County Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed February 3, 2016
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Franklin County, Ohio, "General Certified Candidate List," accessed August 6, 2015
- ↑ Franklin County, Ohio, "Election Archives," accessed November 16, 2015
- ↑ The Columbus Dispatch, "Audit: Fake tutoring accounts cost taxpayers more than $800,000," October 6, 2015
- ↑ Columbus Free Press, "Are you on the Columbus Police's secret blacklist," January 30, 2014
- ↑ The Columbus Dispatch, "Complainers list holds risk," March 24, 2014
- ↑ WOSU Radio, "Columbus City Schools Bilked Out Of Tutoring Money," October 5, 2015
| 2015 Columbus City Schools Elections | |
| Franklin County, Ohio | |
| Election date: | Primary election: May 5, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Brian Bainbridge • Incumbent, Gary Baker • Shawna Gibbs • Mary Jo Hudson • Eric Brown • Jim Hunter • Bernadine Kennedy Kent • Tina Pierce • Robert Sharrah • Ben Tyson |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional measures on the ballot |
