Connie A. Martin
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Connie A. Martin is a member of the Lowell Public Schools school board, At-large in Massachusetts. She assumed office in 1999.
Martin ran for re-election to the Lowell Public Schools school board, At-large in Massachusetts. She won in the general election on November 7, 2017.
Biography
Martin earned a bachelor's degree in English from St. Michael's College and a master's degree in education administration from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.[1] Martin served as the associate executive director for Energy and Community Teamwork, Inc.[1]
Elections
2017
- See also: Lowell Public Schools elections (2017)
Six seats on the Lowell Public Schools School Committee in Massachusetts were up for general election on November 7, 2017.[2] In their bids for re-election, incumbents Andre Descoteaux, Jackie Doherty, Robert J. Hoey Jr., and Connie A. Martin faced former candidates Dominik Hok Y Lay and Dennis R. Mercier and newcomers Timothy Blake, Noelle Creegan, Gerard Nutter, and Daniel J. Shanahan IV.[3] All four incumbents won re-election, and Hok Y Lay and Nutter won the other two seats on the ballot.[4]
All seven seats on the school committee were up for election. The seventh seat was held by the mayor of Lowell, but was not covered by Ballotpedia as the city fell outside of municipal elections coverage.[5][6]
Results
| Lowell Public Schools, At-large General Election, 2-year terms, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jacqueline Doherty Incumbent |
12.19% | 6,385 |
| Robert J. Hoey Jr. Incumbent |
11.55% | 6,054 |
| Connie A. Martin Incumbent |
11.54% | 6,047 |
| Dominik Hok Y Lay |
10.61% | 5,558 |
| Andre Descoteaux Incumbent |
9.77% | 5,117 |
| Gerard Nutter |
9.19% | 4,817 |
| Dennis R. Mercier | 9.02% | 4,727 |
| Noelle Creegan | 8.94% | 4,684 |
| Timothy Blake | 8.63% | 4,520 |
| Daniel J. Shanahan IV | 8.39% | 4,396 |
| Write-in votes | 0.17% | 88 |
| Total Votes | 52,393 | |
| Source: City of Lowell, "Election Summary Report: Official Results," accessed November 28, 2017 | ||
Funding
The Lowell Election & Census Office 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.
2015
- See also: Lowell Public Schools elections (2015)
Six of the seven seats on the Lowell School Committee were up for election on November 3, 2015. All six seats were at-large and voted on by eligible voters in Lowell. The seventh seat was held by the city's mayor, but was not covered by Ballotpedia.[5]
Incumbents Stephen J. Gendron and Connie A. Martin won re-election, while newcomers Jackie Doherty, Robert J. Hoey Jr., Robert James Gignac, and Andre Descoteaux joined the board. They defeated challengers Patrick William Farmer, Kamara Kay, Dominik Hok Y Lay, Dennis R. Mercier, Benjamin T. Opara, and Christopher N. Roux. Gendron and Martin were the only incumbents to file for re-election.[7]
Results
| Lowell School Committee, At-large, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Stephen J. Gendron Incumbent |
12.17% | 4,790 |
| Jacqueline Doherty |
10.67% | 4,200 |
| Connie A. Martin Incumbent |
10.51% | 4,137 |
| Robert J. Hoey Jr. |
9.88% | 3,889 |
| Robert James Gignac |
9.70% | 3,820 |
| Andre Descoteaux |
9.62% | 3,789 |
| Dennis R. Mercier | 9.25% | 3,640 |
| Benjamin T. Opara | 6.12% | 2,409 |
| Christopher N. Roux | 5.79% | 2,278 |
| Kamara Kay | 5.71% | 2,249 |
| Patrick William Farmer | 5.30% | 2,087 |
| Dominik Hok Y Lay | 5.02% | 1,978 |
| Write-in votes | 0.26% | 104 |
| Total Votes | 39,370 | |
| Source: Lowell Election Commission, "Municipal Election: Official Results," November 30, 2015 | ||
Funding
Martin reported no contributions or expenditures to the Lowell Election Commission as of October 28, 2015.[8]
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify any official endorsements for Martin in the election.
2013
- See also: Lowell Public Schools elections (2013)
Martin won re-election against six other candidates to one of six at-large seats in the general election on November 5, 2013.
Results
| Lowell Public Schools, At-large General Election, 2-year term, 2013 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | James D. Leary Incumbent |
15.9% | 6,418 | |
| Nonpartisan | David J. Conway Incumbent |
15.8% | 6,366 | |
| Nonpartisan | Steven Gendron |
15.8% | 6,365 | |
| Nonpartisan | Connie A. Martin Incumbent |
13.7% | 5,518 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kimberly A. Scott Incumbent |
13.4% | 5,385 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kristin Ross-Sitawich Incumbent |
13.1% | 5,262 | |
| Nonpartisan | Robert J. Gignac Incumbent | 12.1% | 4,881 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.2% | 64 | |
| Total Votes | 40,259 | |||
| Source: The City of Lowell, "2013 Municipal Election Results (*Official*)," accessed December 18, 2013 | ||||
Funding
Martin began the race with an existing account balance of $734.21 from her previous campaigns. She reported $3,600.00 in contributions but no expenditures to the Lowell Election and Census Office, which left her campaign with $4,334.21 on hand in the election.[9]
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify any official endorsements for Martin in the election.
2011
| Lowell Public Schools, At-large General Election, 2-year term, 2011 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Kimberly A. Scott |
15% | 5,104 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kristin Ross-Sitcawich |
14.4% | 4,904 | |
| Nonpartisan | David J. Conway Incumbent |
14.1% | 4,808 | |
| Nonpartisan | James D. Leary Incumbent |
13.4% | 4,543 | |
| Nonpartisan | Robert J. Gignac |
11.7% | 3,970 | |
| Nonpartisan | Connie A. Martin Incumbent |
10.7% | 3,635 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jaqueline Doherty Incumbent | 10.5% | 3,556 | |
| Nonpartisan | Alison Laraba Incumbent | 10.1% | 3,419 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.1% | 49 | |
| Total Votes | 33,988 | |||
| Source: City of Lowell Election and Census Office, "2011 Municipal Election Results," accessed September 16, 2013 | ||||
2009
| Lowell Public Schools, At-large General Election, 2-year term, 2009 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | David J. Conway Incumbent |
15.9% | 7,355 | |
| Nonpartisan | John J. Leahy Incumbent |
15.7% | 7,275 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jaqueline Doherty Incumbent |
15.5% | 7,179 | |
| Nonpartisan | James D. Leary Incumbent |
15.3% | 7,095 | |
| Nonpartisan | Alison Laraba |
15% | 6,942 | |
| Nonpartisan | Connie A. Martin Incumbent |
14.7% | 6,825 | |
| Nonpartisan | Regina M. Faticanti Incumbent | 7.7% | 3,585 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.2% | 88 | |
| Total Votes | 46,344 | |||
| Source: City of Lowell Election and Census Office, "2009 Municipal Election Results," accessed September 16, 2013 | ||||
Campaign themes
2017
Martin answered the following five questions from the Lowell Sun as part of a series for the newspaper. The questions provided by the newspaper appear bolded, and Martin's answers follow below.
Should the Lowell Public School district return to neighborhood schools or retain its two-zone, citywide schools model?[10]
| “ | I view the issue of neighborhood schools in the larger context of our desegregation mandate and our ethical responsibility to provide all of our students with equal access to a quality education. I am open to considering any rezoning plan that could reduce the amount of money we spend on busing, but we cannot abandon our commitment to maintain school communities that are not overly weighted with any one ethnic, linguistic, or socio-economic group simply because of the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood. It would be an anathema in a city like Lowell, where we celebrate our diversity at every opportunity, to sacrifice our commitment to desegregated schools that maintain parity and integration as our ultimate goal.[11] | ” |
| —Connie A. Martin (2017)[10] | ||
What solutions would you propose to ensure the district can reliably provide adequate services to students within its budget?[12]
| “ | The reality of our budget process is that because state funding makes up over 75 percent of our revenue and because the state historically doesn't finalize its state budget until late June or sometimes even later, we will always be forced to use budget projections to create our budget. Additionally, even if we were able to wait until the state finalized its annual budget, there would still be no guarantees for funding levels. There have been years when half way through the year reduced tax revenues or other funding crises have arisen at the state level that required the governor to make 9c cuts. It is challenging to operate in such an unstable funding environment, but that is the difficult job of all members of the school committee. Our only approach must be to carefully and thoughtfully consider every educational dollar that we spend in our city to ensure that we are getting the most positive impact for our students and our city.[11] | ” |
| —Connie A. Martin (2017)[12] | ||
Would you have voted to give Superintendent of Schools Salah Khelfaoui a new four-year contract?[13]
| “ | I voted against the current superintendent's contract earlier this year. My concerns focused on the length of the contract and the commitment to guaranteed annual raises regardless of funding or performance standards.[11] | ” |
| —Connie A. Martin (2017)[13] | ||
What is the most pressing capital improvement project facing the School Department, besides the high school, and how do you propose to pay for it?[14]
| “ | Recognizing that each school building in our district has specific capital needs that have not been addressed, I would say that district-wide my greatest concern is the state of our boilers. At many school locations we have been doing minimal ongoing maintenance and for many of these systems it is just a matter of time before they will fail. As School Committee members we must work with the city to head off this looming problem before it impacts any of our schools' ability to open, safe, and serve our students.[11] | ” |
| —Connie A. Martin (2017)[14] | ||
What is your opinion on standardized testing? Do public schools do too much, too little, or just enough?[15]
| “ | Achieving the appropriate amount of standardized testing is a critical challenge for all schools in today's results driven environment. The key is to ensure that the tests function as tools to provide important information to school leaders, front-line educators, as well as to concerned parents based on ambitious performance standards. The danger of falling into a "teach to the test" approach is always there and we must guard against it at all costs. From the early days of MCAS the Lowell Public Schools have worked to use the data derived from these tests to fine tune instruction, provide appropriate interventions when individual students are struggling and to advocate for the necessary funding to ensure our students have what they need to learn effectively. The key is recognizing that standardized tests are meant to measure the performance baseline for our school district. Our ultimate job is to be constantly working to ensure our students achieve over and above that basic level of performance.[11] | ” |
| —Connie A. Martin (2017)[15] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Connie A. Martin Lowell Public Schools school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Lowell Public Schools, Massachusetts
- Lowell Public Schools elections (2017)
- Lowell Public Schools elections (2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
- Lowell Public Schools elections (2013)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lowell Sun, "Connie Martin," October 18, 2011
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Eda Jane Matchak, City of Lowell," January 31, 2017
- ↑ Lowell Sun, "City Council field set for preliminary," August 10, 2017
- ↑ City of Lowell Election & Census, "Election Results," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lowell Public Schools, "2016-2017 School Committee," accessed August 9, 2017 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "board" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Lowell Sun, "Preliminary city election set as 23 candidates qualify for council race," August 9, 2017
- ↑ Lowell Election and Census Office, "2015 Election Calendar," accessed March 6, 2015
- ↑ Lowell Election Commission, "Campaign Finance Reports-2015," accessed October 28, 2015
- ↑ The City of Lowell, "Campaign Finance Reports - 2013," accessed December 23, 2013
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lowell Sun, "Lowell School Committee candidates answer questions on the issues," October 11, 2017
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lowell Sun, "Lowell candidates offer solutions on school budget issues," October 12, 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lowell Sun, "Lowell school candidates split on superintendent's contract," October 13, 2017
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lowell Sun, "Building maintenance, special ed cited as top Lowell school needs," October 14, 2017
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lowell Sun, "Lowell school candidates weigh in on standardized tests," October 15, 2017
| 2015 Lowell Public Schools Elections | |
| Middlesex County, Massachusetts | |
| Election date: | Primary election: September 22, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: Incumbent, Stephen J. Gendron • Incumbent, Connie A. Martin • Andre Descoteaux • Jackie Doherty • Patrick William Farmer • Robert James Gignac • Robert J. Hoey Jr. • Kamara Kay • Dominik Hok Y Lay • Dennis R. Mercier • Benjamin T. Opara • Christopher N. Roux |
| Important information: | Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
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