Cyrus Karl
Cyrus Karl was a candidate for Ward 2 representative on the Newton Public Schools school board in Massachusetts. Karl was defeated in the by-district general election on November 7, 2017.
Karl previously ran for a seat on the board and was defeated in the general election on November 3, 2015.[1]
On May 19, 2021, Karl contacted Ballotpedia to request his name be changed from Cyrus Vaghar to Cyrus Karl.[2]
Elections
2017
- See also: Newton Public Schools elections (2017)
Eight seats on the Newton Public Schools School Committee were up for general election on November 7, 2017. All nine seats on the board were up for election. The ninth seat on the board was held by the mayor of Newton, but was not covered by Ballotpedia as the city fell outside of municipal elections coverage.[3][4]
In the race for the open Ward 1 seat, Bridget Ray-Canada defeated Kathleen Marchi. In Ward 2, incumbent Margaret Albright won re-election, defeating former candidate Cyrus Vaghar, whom she had previously defeated in 2015. Anping Shen won the race for the open Ward 3 seat, defeating Eileen Sandberg. Incumbents Diana Fisher Gomberg, Steven Siegel, and Ruth Goldman ran unopposed for the Ward 4, 5, and 6 seats, respectively, and newcomer Kathleen Shields ran unopposed for the open Ward 7 seat. The race for the open Ward 8 seat was won by Matthew Miller. He defeated Gail Spector in the general election.[5][6]
Results
| Newton Public Schools, Ward 2 General Election, 2-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Margaret Albright Incumbent |
83.71% | 12,103 |
| Cyrus Vaghar | 16.12% | 2,331 |
| Write-in votes | 0.17% | 24 |
| Total Votes | 14,458 | |
| Source: City of Newton, "11/07/17 Local Election Official Results," accessed December 8, 2017 | ||
Funding
Vaghar reported $1,081.34 in contributions and $1,008.14 in expenditures to the Newton Elections Office, which left his campaign with $73.20 on hand in the election.[7]
Endorsements
Karl was endorsed by members of the community. Click here for a list of his supporters.
2015
- See also: Newton Public Schools elections (2015)
The Newton School Committee consists of nine members, eight of whom are elected to two-year terms. The ninth member and chair of the board is the Mayor of Newton. The other eight members of the board are elected at large, although each member represents a different ward in the school district. The general election was held on November 3, 2015. All eight seats were on the ballot in 2015.[8]
All incumbents sought re-election; only two saw challengers on the ballot. Ward 2 incumbent Margaret L. Albright defeated Cyrus Vaghar, while Ward 5 incumbent Steven Siegel won re-election against Susan Huffman.[1]
The following incumbents won re-election unopposed: Ellen P. Gibson in Ward 1, Angela Pitter-Wright in Ward 3, Diana Fisher Gomberg in Ward 4, Ruth E. Goldman in Ward 6, Matt Hills in Ward 7, and Margie Ross Decter in Ward 8.[1]
Results
| Newton School Committee, Ward 2, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Margaret L. Albright Incumbent |
78.7% | 5,836 |
| Cyrus Vaghar | 21.2% | 1,573 |
| Write-in votes | 0.12% | 9 |
| Total Votes | 7,418 | |
| Source: Newton Election Commission, "November 3, 2015 Official Results," accessed December 17, 2015 | ||
Funding
The Newton Election Commission 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.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify any official endorsements for Karl in the election.
Campaign themes
2017
Karl highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:
| “ | If elected to the School Committee, before making any decisions I will ask myself how students will be impacted by any decision, period! Only then will I factor in parents, faculty and the rest of the community.
Part of what makes a successful team leader is their ability to reach across the aisle to come up with solutions to pressing issues, which is why compromising will be the name of the game. If I have the privilege of serving on the School Committee, my number one goal will be ensuring the health and safety of every student, faculty, parent and community member in the city of Newton. Recently, the YRBS, a survey that the NPS is mandated to give, showed that over 1,300 brave young high school students self-reported that they do not have even one ally at the school who they can talk to if they have a problem. I have never heard this number shared at a School Committee meeting, and it is not hard to figure out why. Instead, the School Committee would prefer to put numbers like the one shared above into graphs to hide the actual number, but show a slight decrease in percentage over many years. The Newton Public Schools have provided me with a great education, but I know solutions to the mounting issues they face are just a former student’s opinion away. I am also in favor of mandatory financial literacy classes for all students. Under my plan, all students must graduate high school with a basic understanding of financial literacy. This includes knowing the difference between APR and APY, how to use a credit card, and how to navigate the world past high school. While the math department at both schools has tried to slowly integrate minor financial literacy knowledge into their curriculum in the months before a student graduates, it is simply not enough. We have world class business teachers (teachers with advanced degrees) in the high schools, who only some of the students get to interact with. Every student deserves a chance to grasp an understanding of basic financial literacy. “For people—especially young people—to survive and thrive in today’s financial environment, knowledge of personal finance is a necessity.” – Annamaria Lusard, Denit Trust chair of economics and accountancy at the GeorgeWashington University School of Business. Keeping on the topic of money, the Newton Public Schools routinely report a deficit in budget proposals for the city. Spending on schools has gone up by exorbitant rates because the School Committee negotiates in a position of weakness and complacency when dealing with smaller unions and contracts. For example, when a custodian makes over $125,000 a year, change in needed. Additionally, if athletic fees were removed from high school sports, Newton could let students playing sports be exempt from their physical education classes, potentially saving the city thousands in teaching costs and helping physical education teachers focus on those who need the support. This type of creative thinking could bring outside the box ideas to the School Committee that are desperately needed to save the city resources and money. This academic year, the School Committee decided to choose Sodexo, a company known for supplying prison food, as the new food supplier in the schools. A current School Committee member recently said, “Sodexo and Whitsons before them have been break-even leaving NPS with $1 million more annually to spend on our core mission, teaching our kids.” Wrong! Healthy eating is vital for all students and is part of a well-balanced education. It is easy to try to nickel-and-dime your way when you do not have to eat food in the schools daily, but many Newton students rely on their breakfast and lunch as their most nutritious meals of the day. Any open-bid contract should include specific healthy options for all students. Newton should be following groundwork laid out by small liberal arts colleges like Bowdoin, which include local and organic options, not outsourcing more jobs just to buy a few more outdated and overpriced textbooks! Just weeks after ending my 2015 campaign, the Newton Public Schools started exploring the option of having later start times. After careful consideration, including talking to students and parents around the city, I have concluded that I am in favor of scenario B, which starts the high schools at 8:30am. That plan is not perfect, far from it actually, but I believe it will have a net positive effect for the residents of Newton. If elected, one recommendation I would have for each School Committee member is to meet with at least one student in the schools and have them present their opinion to the School Committee before deciding on anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if some School Committee members have only been looking at the data and have yet to have a sit down discussion with even a single student. A real travesty! One thing to note, it is very important that whichever start time is instituted stresses that school related sports, clubs, extra help etc. are not to take place before school. Many faculty members are likely to see the late start as a reason students should show up before school to get work done. This would defeat the purpose of pushing back the start time and must be adequately addressed with the implementation of any of the proposals. Please see this feature from the American Psychological Association for more information on this issue. Lastly, one way to make up some time would be to get rid of the yearly six teacher’s development half-days. Many parents are inconvenienced with having to pick up their children in the middle of the day, and many students receive just minutes of actual classroom time. Instead of the current system, three full days could be granted to the teachers for development, with potentially the three other days becoming full days or adding three days at the end of the year. This could free up to 10 minutes daily to start school later. To offset any additional teacher union cost, .2 students could be added for every 20, a very fair sounding compromise to help balance out the start times. Update: It looks like there will be no movement until the 2019/2020 academic year, at the earliest. This is unacceptable. Thank you for reading my opinions on some of the more well known and lesser known issues impacting our students, teachers, faculty, and residents of Newton. If you have any questions and ideas, please feel free to contact me. Your opinion is very important to me. There are more issues than the ones mentioned above and I certainly have opinions on other topics such as college admission standards, the Day Middle School graffiti incident and handling, the overreach of House Deans at the high schools, the lack of outside opportunity to middle schoolers etc.[9] |
” |
| —Cyrus Karl (2017)[10] | ||
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Karl participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ |
Solve the drug crises that is affecting our schools and mandate a basic financial literacy course. Right now, students can graduate high school without learning how a credit card works or how to pick a student loan.[9] |
” |
| —Cyrus Karl, (2015), [11] | ||
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 this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Massachusetts. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "Modifications are required before they are implemented." | |
| "No." | |
| "No." | |
| "No." | |
| "It would be extremely tough to ever reach an equilibrium of opportunity for students in Newton. Unfortunately kids from the METCO program are already at a disadvantage. They lose valuable time from their day, up to three hours, just on getting to and from school. Students with disabilities also are not being treated as well as they could be, but the district as a whole is doing a fair job there.
To solve this problem we need to limit redistricting. We also need to wait before separating students into "lower" and "higher" level classes before they are at the high school level." | |
| "Expulsion cases must be viewed on a case-by-case basis rather than the district having an overarching policy." | |
| "Newton's district rank has been steadily slipping. To solve this we need to work on the budget which has almost doubled over the last ten years and also is approaching $200,000,000." | |
| "No." | |
| "Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district." | |
| "Right now, no one knows what the School Committee is doing. They violated the Massachusetts open meeting laws and the Superintendent plagiarized a speech and tried to cover it up.
The first way to solve this is to elect new members to the School Committee." |
Candidate website
Karl's campaign website listed the following themes for 2015:
| “ |
There are number of issues facing students in Newton, Mass today. However, I would be lying if I said as a sole member on a nine person board, I could get more than a few issues solved during my 2 years on the School Committee. The 3 things I would fight to solve are: 1. Later Start Times: My approach: Newton’s high schoolers have to start school each day at 7:50am and 7:40am. This is absurd. Our students are sleep deprived and our current start times must be pushed back so high schoolers can get more sleep. Instead of having our elementary aged students start last, they should start first. Our high school aged students should start last. It only makes sense to flip the start times considering that elementary aged students generally get to bed well before high school aged children. The Current SC’s Approach: Turn late start times into a debate. Act as if it is not proven that starting school later, and letting kids get enough sleep, is a fact. The current SC would like to hide behind money instead of actually implementing a fix. 2. Drugs in our schools My approach: Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin etc. I was there, they are all a problem. The immediate first step is to change the way we deal with drug offenders. Instead of penalizing kids who do drugs, we need to try to get rid of drugs before they become a problem. The first step is to ABOLISH the no smoking within 900ft of our schools zone. It is used purely as a way “bully” students who smoke within that zone. The school administration never go against adults who smoke, they only go against kids. Step two of the plan would be to start drug prevention early. Bring in experts into our schools not to just say “don’t do drugs,” but to discus why people get into drugs and how we, as a community, can stop drug use before it starts. The Current SC’s Approach: Talk about surveys conducted in regards to drug use. Not much else. 3. Smart Spending My approach: No more overrides. We need to spend smarter. There is a lot of wasted money in the Newton Public Schools. Whether is be custodians getting $100,000+ a year when some of our teachers are making a fraction of that, or our superintendent getting $250,000 a year, there are places to save money. I will handle this on a case by case basis if in charge. On the student side of the spectrum, it is time basic financial literacy becomes mandatory for all students. It is ridiculous that students at the high school level have to take four years of mandatory english and three years of math to graduate, yet do not even have to find out how to balance a check book, write a check, or use a credit card. The Current SC’s Approach: Generally, try to get more money into the schools via overrides, then distribute through pilot programs first, then eventually a full on program. I have heard no talk about a plan to make even basic financial literacy mandatory.[9] |
” |
| —Cyrus Karl (2015)[12] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Cyrus Karl' 'Newton Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Newton Public Schools, Massachusetts
- Newton Public Schools elections (2017)
- Newton 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)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 City of Newton, "Elections," accessed September 10, 2015
- ↑ Ballotpedia staff, "Email communication with Cyrus Karl," May 19, 2021
- ↑ City of Newton, "2017 Municipal Election Calendar," accessed February 2, 2017
- ↑ Newton Public Schools, "About School Committee," accessed July 24, 2017
- ↑ City of Newton, "Elections: Local Election - November 7, 2017," accessed July 26, 2017
- ↑ City of Newton, "Unofficial Results November 7, 2017," accessed November 7, 2017
- ↑ Newton Elections Office, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed October 31, 2017
- ↑ Daniel Anderson, "Email correspondence with the Newton Election Commission," March 6, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Vote Cyrus for Newton School Committee, "Pressing Issues," accessed November 1, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Cyrus Karl's responses," October 6, 2015
- ↑ Cyrus Vaghar for School Committee, "The Issues," accessed October 26, 2015
| Newton Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Middlesex County, Massachusetts | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | Ward 1: • Kathleen Marchi • Bridget Ray-Canada Ward 2: • Incumbent, Margaret Albright • Cyrus Karl Ward 3: • Eileen Sandberg • Anping Shen Ward 4: • Incumbent, Diana Fisher Gomberg Ward 5: • Incumbent, Steven Siegel Ward 6: • Incumbent, Ruth Goldman Ward 7: • Kathleen Shields Ward 8: • Matthew Miller • Gail Spector |
| Important information: | What's at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
