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Dawn Lenzie
Dawn Lenzie was a candidate for at-large representative on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Board of Education in California. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[1] She lost the election.[2]
Biography
Lenzie's work experience includes teaching high school government and economics and working as the assistant to the town manager and superintendent of schools of Westlake, Texas. In Westlake, she helped build and staff a charter school. After moving to California, she served as president of the Rancho Vista Elementary PTA for two years and now serves on the Miraleste PTA board. She also serves on the GATE Parent Advisory Committee. Lenzie earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Texas Christian University, and she has a master's degree in public administration. She and her husband have one daughter who attends school in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.[3][4]
Elections
2015
Opposition
Two of the five at-large seats on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015.[5][6] The seats held by incumbents Larry Vanden Bos and Linda Reid were on the ballot.[7]
Vanden Bos did not file to run for re-election, which left a seat open to a newcomer. In her bid to win another term, Reid faced three challengers: Dawn Lenzie, Barry Rondinella and Suzanne Seymour.[1] Reid won her bid for re-election, and Seymour won the open seat.[2]
Results
| Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, At-large, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Linda Reid Incumbent |
31.8% | 4,015 |
| Suzanne Seymour |
30.9% | 3,893 |
| Barry Rondinella | 23.3% | 2,934 |
| Dawn Lenzie | 14.1% | 1,775 |
| Total Votes | 12,617 | |
| Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "NOVEMBER 03, 2015 - LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATED ELECTIONS: Final Official Election Returns," accessed November 24, 2015 | ||
Funding
At the time of this election, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staffers requested this information, but the only free method of viewing the files was at their office.
The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk targeted the end of 2018 to make school board candidate campaign finance reports available online for free. From that point forward, Ballotpedia began including campaign finance data for Los Angeles County school board candidates.[8][9][10]
The first campaign finance reporting deadline was September 24, 2015, and the second one was October 22, 2015. If candidates raised or spent more than $1,000 from a single source, including their own funds, between August 5, 2015, and November 2, 2015, they had to file a campaign finance report within 24 hours.[11]
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
Lenzie received endorsements from the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, the 66th Assembly District Republican Central Committee and Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School Board member Malcolm Sharp. She also received endorsements from a number of community members.[12] A list of her supporters can be found here.
Campaign themes
2015
Lenzie highlighted the following Q & A section on her campaign website:
| “ | 1. What is the role of the Governing Board of Education (School Board)? What is the role of an individual member of the Board?
The role of the School Board, to which the Superintendent reports, is to set the policies and the vision for the school district. The Board outlines both for the Superintendent to ultimately facilitate implementation through the staff of administrators. The School Board also thoughtfully reviews the district budget and holds the expectation for fiscally responsible implementation and oversight by the Superintendent and staff. The Superintendent is the day-to-day manager of those who directly manage the schools and regularly reports the progress of vision implementation to the Board. Additionally, the Board agrees to Union contracts and contracts with other vendors as needed. An individual Board member’s responsibility is to steadfastly represent student interests in every decision- passionately challenging themselves to ask “what is the best decision for our students?” Each member must prepare for each meeting by acquainting themselves with every issue on which they may be asked to vote. A properly prepared member can then ask informed questions different from those already answered in the provided packet, ensuring an appropriate level of due diligence on all voting items. Finally, a Board member must understand the rules that govern their actions and know that once elected, all individual member actions reflect directly upon the Board. 2. What criteria would you use to judge the success of a school district? What do you see as the strengths of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District? A school district is successful if student parents are engaged, the students are well-read and their intelligence is consistently fostered and challenged, and graduates are attending their first choice universities. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District excels on all three counts. Regarding engaged parents, the elementary schools have a set of parents who are highly active at each school; middle school parents participate to the allowable limits and the high schools support a wide variety of clubs and boosters where parents always find a way to support them all. Year after year PV students are fortunate to have a variety of parent-led extracurricular activities available, numbers that rival, and often surpass any large district. There is also an active PTA Council made up of parents from every school willing to “do whatever it takes” for their students - from throwing in-home events to donating vacation homes for auction. When it comes to students who are well-read and intelligent, PV students consistently rank at the top on statewide tests. Many students read for pleasure and stand in long lines to attend book fairs and purchase even more books, not to mention clamor to take Scholastic Reading Quizzes and Accelerated Reader Tests to voluntarily test their own comprehension and move to the next-level books. Even with the new state-mandated testing,, our students rise to the occasion and test well. They are smart, deep thinkers; students who are familiar with a STEM lab understand what STEAM is and why performing arts are integral to our school. PV graduates attend their first choice universities. Last year, 104 outstanding colleges and universities enrolled PV graduates, as listed on the District website. PV students acquired the skills needed in order to gain successful acceptance into schools close to home, like Loyola Marymount, and across the country, like Harvard and Emory. World class high school administrators helped students realize that Boston, Georgetown and New York aren’t just cities on a map, but are worthy destinations to further develop life-long aspirations over the next four to five years. The list of 104 varies, each with a distinct specialty, and now PV students are in attendance at a rate of 98% of the graduating class, carrying on the tradition as student leaders and ready to continue their #World Class education. PV families, students and graduates foster our district’s success - each without direct influence by the Board. Yet it is incumbent upon the Board to use the tools available. Funding, the education code, and the needs of the students must all be leveraged to perpetuate the best possible district so that our collective strengths can grow even stronger and our students can reap the benefits, all across the country. 3. What background, skills, and assets would you bring to the Board of Education? I am fortunate to draw from a varied background. I hold a lifetime Social Studies teaching certificate from the state of Texas where I taught Government and Honors Economics to graduating seniors. A perspective from someone who spent time directly in the classroom helps support both the educator and student point of view. After teaching, I held various leadership positions in not-for-profit organizations such as the Junior League and Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, focusing on effective budgeting and forecasting while organizing and executing large events. I hold a Masters in Public Administration and have direct working experience within a city Budget Department as well as having been an Assistant Town Manager. As the Assistant Town Manager, I worked with the Superintendent of Schools as we constructed a new Charter school from the ground up – from physical building creation and public attendance lotteries to Head of School and faculty recruitment. After my Assistant Town Manger role, I became a small business owner, focusing on custom social stationery work for the newly engaged. Trying to please brides-to-be proved even more challenging than navigating city politics. Since moving to Palos Verdes in 2011, I jumped right into the PTA Board of Rancho Vista Elementary where I served for two terms. I am a natural team leader and a hard working role-player when needed. At my core, I naturally question the status quo and know that what got us to where we are may not necessarily get us to where we need to go. If what we’re currently doing is best, then by all means, keep it going - but when was the last time we checked? 4. Why do you want to be a Board member in the Palos Verdes Peninsula USD? I attended my first school board meeting in 1984 when I was a lanky fourth grader. My simple task was to hand a board member a piece of art that had been selected for presentation. Even though I knew some of what a board member represented, I was in awe of the position this person held to help make my school and my district a better learning environment. Eight years later as an inquisitive high school senior, I sat in the front row meeting after meeting, absorbing all the process and information month after month. It was clear to me back then; to make a difference in the education process of your community - invest time and participate not only in the school, but at the Board level. I experienced my parents devotion of countless hours running campaigns for school board members and city council members and participating on the PTA board and city planning commission. It was instilled in me at an early age that civic responsibility doesn’t mean attending a meeting or two to complain; it doesn’t mean hanging out in the parking lot at carpool and bad-mouthing a decision; it means being seriously willing to commit precious time and energy to the cause in which you believe – the cause that will foster the development of education in your community. So today, my sixth grader attends Miraleste Intermediate School, and we all live in a school district faced with the task of selecting a board member who can keep it on a World Class trajectory. Now is the perfect time to raise my hand and declare that I am that person who is willing to make a difference in all of the educational lives of the children of PV. I am willing to give of my time. I am willing to give of my energy. Because this, this is what people who care about their children’s education do. I most certainly care about what happens in PV, I most certainly expect that it be #WorldClass.[13] |
” |
| —Dawn Lenzie's campaign website (2015)[14] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Dawn Lenzie' 'Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, California
- Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District 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 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Candidate List: Local And Municipal Consolidated Elections - 11/3/2015," accessed August 11, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "PALOS VERDES PEN UNIF SCH GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER," accessed November 4, 2015
- ↑ Abbey Smith, Email communication with Dawn Lenzie," September 14, 2015
- ↑ Team Dawn, "About Dawn Lenzie," accessed September 14, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “2015 Scheduled Elections,” accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “Running for Office,” accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, "Board of Education," accessed January 28, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed July 2, 2014
- ↑ Daniel Anderson, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," October 7, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," January 2, 2018
- ↑ Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 3, 2015," accessed August 5, 2015
- ↑ Smart Voter, "Additional Endorsements for Dawn Alayn (Bowman) Lenzie: Candidate for Governing Board Member; Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District," accessed October 29, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Team Dawn, "Q & A with Dawn Lenzie," accessed September 14, 2015
| 2015 Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Elections | |
| Los Angeles County, California | |
| Election date: | November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Linda Reid • Dawn Lenzie • Barry Rondinella • Suzanne Seymour |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
