D. B. Dody Stottlemyer
D. B. Dody Stottlemyer was a candidate for Shawnee District representative on the Frederick County Public Schools school board in Virginia. Stottlemyer was defeated in the by-district general election on November 7, 2017.
Stottlemyer participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to read her responses.
Elections
2017
Three of the seven seats on the Frederick County Public Schools school board in Virginia were up for general election on November 7, 2017. Incumbent Jay Foreman defeated challenger D. B. Dody Stottlemyer for the Shawnee District seat. Newcomer Shontya' Washington won the race for the open Redbud District, defeating Linda Fenner. Incumbent Frank E. Wright ran unopposed and won re-election to the Stonewall District seat.[1][2]
Results
| Frederick County Public Schools, Shawnee District General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jay Foreman Incumbent |
55.02% | 2,067 |
| D. B. Dody Stottlemyer | 44.58% | 1,675 |
| Write-in votes | 0.4% | 15 |
| Total Votes | 3,757 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 November General," accessed November 21, 2017 | ||
Funding
Stottlemyer reported $3,484.00 in contributions and $3,131.68 in expenditures to the Virginia Department of Elections, which left her campaign with $352.32 on hand in the election.[3]
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia survey responses
D.B. "Dody" Stottlemyer participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates.[4] In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on October 18, 2017:
| “ | I hope to have an impact on the educational sucessful of our students here in Frederick County. I work in the private sector, and see how we are not preparing our children for a sucessful adulthood.[5][6] | ” |
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 Virginia. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| “ | A very misleading question, these are ALL important items. There are many balancing acts that have to happen in order to achieve any of these goals. Left out were parent and community involvement, which includes discipline, teacher support, administrative budget review etc. This particular question, I feel has no answer, because all these factors are important.[6] | ” |
| —D.B. "Dody" Stottlemyer (October 18, 2017) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer eight 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. If there were charter schools asking for approval, they should be given the chance to open if they meet the standards that are required by all educators. It will soon be obvious whether they will meet the needs of the Community. I think the public schools are afraid they will come up short in comparison. |
| 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 defer to school board decisions in most cases. There are no cookie cutter answers, and the local situation may not fit the standardized platform for the state. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. As we can see with teaching for the SOLS, standardized testing doesn't provide accurate measurement for learning. It hampers both teaching, and the retention of information. |
| 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? |
| Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. Excellence should be rewarded, not everyone deserves a raise. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| Yes. The public school system is failing when compared to the private and charter schools, along with homeschooling. The state needs to allow the parents who choose to educate their children elsewhere, the ability to take those monies allocated to their public system to use in their choices. Competition benefits everyone. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Wisely. Most situations should be viewed individually. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| The curriculum. Again, these are ALL important. |
Candidate website
Stottlemyer highlighted the following issues on her campaign website:
| “ | The school board needs to implement more long term planning. Attention should be given to locating schools and choosing designs that are simple, not all the latest trends that are expensive, untested, and don’t improve student performance.
If you have children or grandchildren attending our schools they are directly affected by the decisions of the school board and the Administrator. It is all about the spending, if tax money is wasted on high-priced new schools or unnecessary elements, that leaves less for student and teacher directed spending. Long term goals that we are facing as a community involve responsible planning for the future. There are challenges we are facing in regards to the anticipated student growth but most of our recent population growth has been seniors that don’t impact schools. So growth may not be the most pressing issue. An issue that must be faced is the failing discipline and the lack of support that teachers receive from the Administrators. When asked what the biggest problem they face teachers say it is not getting the backing they need to maintain order in their classrooms. Some of the current learning issues in our schools can be traced to the state and federal mandates regarding the standards of learning and data collection. The emphasis given these two items has, not only reduced the retention of information for the students because so much time is spent in fulfilling these requirements, but has taken a lot of the joy out of learning and teaching. Changes need to be made![6] |
” |
| —D. B. Dody Stottlemyer (2017)[7] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms D. B. Dody Stottlemyer Frederick County Public Schools school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Abbey Smith, "Phone communication with Frederick County Voter Registration," June 16, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 November General," accessed November 21, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports: Search Committees," accessed January 17, 2018
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2017, "D.B. "Dody" Stottlemyer's responses," October 18, 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Dody Stottlemyer for School Board, "Issues," accessed October 16, 2017
| Frederick County Public Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Frederick County, Virginia | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | Redbud District: • Linda Fenner • Shontya' Washington Shawnee District: • Incumbent, Jay Foreman • D. B. Dody Stottlemyer Stonewall District: • Incumbent, Frank E. Wright |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
