Davenport Community Schools elections (2017)
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Three of seven seats on the Davenport Community Schools school board in Iowa were up for at-large general election on September 12, 2017. Incumbent Clyde Mayfield and newcomers Allison Beck and Bruce Potts defeated newcomers Rodney Blackwell, Elliott Grier, and David Reke in the race for the three seats.[1][2]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Davenport Community Schools school board consists of seven unpaid members elected to four-year terms. Elections are held on a staggered basis every second Tuesday in September of odd-numbered years. All members are elected at large. There was no primary election, and the general election for three seats was September 12, 2017.
Candidates had to be eligible electors in the school district, meaning they had to meet the requirements for voter registration. These included being citizens of the United States, residents of Iowa, and 18 years or older. Candidates could not be convicted felons, ruled by the court to be incompetent to vote, or registered to vote elsewhere. Candidates were required to file an affidavit of candidacy and a nomination petition for the race by August 3, 2017.[3]
To vote in this election, citizens of the school district had to register by September 1, 2017.[4] Photo identification was not required to vote in this election.[5]
Candidates and Results
At-large
Results
| Davenport Community Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Allison Beck |
26.09% | 1,628 |
| Bruce Potts |
23.30% | 1,454 |
| Clyde Mayfield Incumbent |
18.78% | 1,172 |
| Elliott Grier | 10.82% | 675 |
| Rodney Blackwell | 10.69% | 667 |
| David Reke | 9.84% | 614 |
| Write-in votes | 0.48% | 30 |
| Total Votes | 6,240 | |
| Source: Scott County, Iowa, "2017 School Boards Election - Official Results," accessed September 18, 2017 | ||
Candidates
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, next to a candidate's name indicates his or her participation in Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey. Click the image next to a candidate's name to jump to their page detailing their responses.
Allison Beck 
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Rodney Blackwell | Elliott Grier
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| Clyde Mayfield
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Bruce Potts
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David Reke | |||
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Iowa elections, 2017
The Davenport Community Schools board of directors was scheduled to share the ballot with the Eastern Iowa Community College board of directors Districts 1, 2, and 8.[6]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Davenport Community Schools election:[4][7]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| July 10, 2017 - August 3, 2017 | Candidate filing period |
| September 1, 2017 | Voter registration deadline |
| September 7, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline |
| September 12, 2017 | General election |
| January 19, 2018 | Campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
School board candidates in Iowa were required to file two campaign finance reports. For 2017, campaign finance reports were due on September 7, 2017, and January 19, 2018.[7]
School board candidates had to file reports if they raised or spent more than $1,000. They also had to file reports if they incurred more than $1,000 of debt. Candidates had to file a statement of organization with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board within 10 days of meeting the $1,000 threshold.[8]
Past elections
To see results from past elections in Davenport Community Schools, click here.
What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
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Candidate survey
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2017
Issues in the district
Ethics complaint against district and Superintendent
The Iowa Department of Education sets the per-student spending limit for all school districts in the state. This limit is set by a funding formula on a district-by-district basis, with a minimum district per-student limit set at the state cost per student and a maximum district per-student spending limit of 105 percent of the state cost per student.[9]
Davenport Community Schools Superintendent Arthur Tate claimed that under the state's funding formula, his district was allowed to spend $175 less per student than neighboring districts were allowed to spend. During a board meeting on June 22, 2015, Tate stated,
| “ | As long as I am permitted to be the superintendent of this district, and until the state addresses the funding disparity, I will continue to spend more than the state allocation which is governed by statute. I will no longer accept the state-imposed and state-condoned inequality of student funding for Davenport Community School District.[10][11] | ” |
According to the Quad-City Times, Tate had the school board's support.
In October 2016, the district used $1.6 million of the district's estimated $20 million reserve funds to exceed the district's per-student spending limit.[12][13] The use of the district's reserve funds resulted in the director of the Iowa Department of Education, Ryan Wise, filing an ethics complaint against Superintendent Tate and the Davenport Community Schools on December 14, 2016. The complaint stated that Tate and the Davenport Community Schools unlawfully exceeded the district's spending authority and were set to be investigated by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners.[14]
According to the Quad-City Times, the Board of Educational Examiners found that Superintendent Tate did not comply with state law and "willfully depart[ed] from or fail[ed] to conform to the minimum standards of acceptable and prevailing educational practices in Iowa." He was scheduled to appear before the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners on February 6, 2018.[15] Under these charges, Tate could lose his professional license.
As of August 24, 2017, the Board of Education members and all six board candidates supported Superintendent Tate, the Quad-City Times reported.[12]
About the district
- See also: Davenport Community Schools, Iowa
Davenport Community Schools is located in eastern Iowa in Scott County. The county seat is Davenport. The county was home to an estimated 172,474 residents in 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.[16] The district was the third-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 16,625 students.[17]
Demographics
Scott County overperformed in comparison to the rest of Iowa in terms of higher education achievement from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 32.1 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 26.7 percent of state residents. The median household income in Scott County was $55,114, while it was $53,183 for Iowa. The county poverty rate was 12.4 percent, compared to the state's 12.2 percent.[16]
| Racial Demographics, 2016[16] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | Scott County (%) | Iowa (%) |
| White | 86.2 | 91.4 |
| Black or African American | 7.6 | 3.7 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Asian | 2.8 | 2.5 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Two or More Races | 3.0 | 1.8 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 6.6 | 5.8 |
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.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Davenport Community Schools Iowa election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Davenport Community Schools | Iowa | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Scott County, "September 12, 2017 School Boards Election: Davenport Community School District School Board Director," accessed August 4, 2017
- ↑ Scott County, Iowa, "2017 School Boards Election - Unofficial Results," accessed September 12, 2017
- ↑ Iowa Secretary of State, "Candidate’s Guide to the School Election," accessed August 3, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Iowa Secretary of State, "Three Year Election Calendar," accessed June 1, 2017
- ↑ Iowa Secretary of State, "Election Day FAQ," accessed June 1, 2017
- ↑ Scott County, Iowa, "Sample Ballot," accessed September 1, 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board, "Reporting Dates: School Board/Other Subdivision Candidates," accessed July 6, 2017
- ↑ Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board, "Registering a Committee," accessed July 6, 2017
- ↑ Iowa Department of Education, "Financing Public Education in Iowa," accessed September 11, 2017
- ↑ WQAD 8, "Tate vows to break law and fight state for Davenport schools funding," June 23, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Quad-City Times, "Tate: State ethics investigation of Davenport superintendent finished," August 24, 2017
- ↑ The Quad-City Times, "State files ethics complaint against Art Tate," December 15, 2016
- ↑ WQAD 8, "Overspending in the Davenport School District leads to ethics complaint," December 15, 2016
- ↑ The Quad-City Times, "State sets hearing date for Davenport superintendent," August 28, 2017
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 United States Census Bureau, "Scott County, Iowa," accessed August 8, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
| Davenport Community Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Scott County, Iowa | |
| Election date: | September 12, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-large: Incumbent, Clyde Mayfield • Allison Beck • Rodney Blackwell • Elliott Grier • Bruce Potts • David Reke |
| Important information: | What's at stake? |
