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Emily Allen
Emily Allen was a candidate for Position 4 representative on the Richland Board of Directors in Washington. Allen was defeated in the primary election on August 4, 2015.[1]
Elections
2015
Three seats on the Richland School District school board were up for general election on November 3, 2015. Positions 3, 4, and 5 were on the ballot. Because more than two candidates filed for Positions 4 and 5, a primary election for those races was held on August 4, 2015, with the top two vote-recipients advancing to the general election.
A mandatory recount for Position 4 was necessary due to the narrow margin between the two candidates in the general election. Position 4 incumbent Mary Guay did not file to seek re-election. Her open seat drew the most candidate filings in the district's elections. Brett Amidan, a returning candidate from 2013, Emily Allen, and Jill Oldson appeared on the primary ballot for the seat. Amidan and Oldson triumphed over Allen in that race and competed in the general election. Certified results showed just two votes placed Oldson over Amidan, necessitating the recount for the race. After the recount, the candidates were declared tied. A coin toss was held to break the tie, and Amidan was declared the winner.[2]
Ronald Higgins, a 2012 candidate for Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction, initially filed to run for the Position 4 seat. He withdrew from that race on May 15, 2015, in order to run for the Position 3 seat, instead. He lost to Position 3 incumbent Rick Donahoe in that race.
Position 5 incumbent Phyllis Strickler saw the second highest candidate filings in her race and was ultimately unseated. Returning 2013 candidate Gordon Comfort and Donald Todd ran against her in the primary. Strickler and Comfort advanced to the general election, where Comfort defeated the sitting board member.
Results
Primary
| Richland School District Board of Directors, Position 4 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Brett Amidan |
44.2% | 3,212 |
| Jill Oldson |
33.8% | 2,458 |
| Emily Allen | 22.0% | 1,602 |
| Write-in votes | 0% | 0 |
| Total Votes | 7,272 | |
| Source: Benton County, "August 4, 2015 Primary," accessed August 20, 2015 | ||
Funding
Allen reported no contributions or expenditures to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission in this election.[3]
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Allen participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | My top priority as an educator has always been to do my best to make decisions that will have the best results for student achievement. I am not running with an agenda; I will come to each meeting prepared for discussion as we try to reach consensus about what is best for the kids.[4] | ” |
| —Emily Allen (2015)[5] | ||
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 Washington. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| 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. | |
| If there is sufficient public support for them, they should be considered | |
| No | |
| No | |
| First of all, "equal opportunities" needs to be defined. I understand that to mean that all students are appropriately challenged, not that all students get the same challenges. Low achieving students need continued development of early recognition and intervention so that barriers to achievement can be addressed before they are compounded.
The recent requirement for high achieving students to have access to challenging opportunities has encouraged school districts to try new things. These new efforts need to be reviewed to determine which are effective and which are not. As success is seen in one school, those ideas should be shared with other schools. | |
| Other strategies should be used first, but student safety sometimes demands expulsion | |
| The school board does not get involved in day to day decision making at individual schools. However, policies should be in place to encourage student success. It is important to take in to account a variety of measures of student success, not just end of year tests. For example, MAP tests and samples of student created work should be looked at. | |
| I support bonuses for exceptional performance in all professions | |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. | |
| I appreciate that the school board meetings often highlight student success of some sort. This allows interactions between the community and the school board that are positive. Obviously, many interactions happen when students and parents are unhappy with something and complain to the board. In these cases I will listen actively to the concerns, even though I may not change my mind. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Emily Allen Richland School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedcandidates - ↑ Tri-City Herald, "Amidan wins coin toss for Richland School Board seat," December 8, 2015
- ↑ Washington Public Disclosure Commission, "Search the Database: Local Candidates," accessed October 30, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Emily Allen's responses," July 20, 2015
| 2015 Richland School District Elections | |
| Benton County, Washington | |
| Election date: | Primary - August 4, 2015
General - November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | Position 3 : Incumbent, Rick Donahoe • Ronald Higgins
Position 4 : Brett Amidan • Emily Allen • Jill Oldson Position 5 : Incumbent, Phyllis Strickler • Gordon Comfort • Donald Todd |
| Important information: | Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
