Emily Kenney
Emily Kenney was a member of the Wauwatosa School Board in Wisconsin, representing Seat 3. Kenney assumed office in 2016. Kenney left office on August 27, 2017.
Kenney ran for re-election to the Wauwatosa School Board to represent Seat 3 in Wisconsin. Kenney won in the general election on April 5, 2016.
Kenney participated in Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey. To see her responses, check out the "Campaign themes" section.
Biography
Kenney is a crisis services coordinator for Milwaukee County. She earned her bachelor's degree from Lawrence University and her master's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Kenney's foster daughter attends school in the district.[1]
Elections
2016
Three of the seven seats on the Wauwatosa School District school board were up for by district general election on April 5, 2016. Incumbent Michael Meier ran unopposed and won re-election to Seat 2, and newcomers Shawn Rolland and Emily Kenney ran unopposed and won Seats 1 and 3, respectively.[2][3]
Seat 1 incumbent Philip Kroner and Seat 3 incumbent Anne Fee filed noncandidacy paperwork, indicating they would not run for additional terms. Because they did not run, Rolland and Kenney were guaranteed to join the board.[2]
Results
| Wauwatosa School District, Seat 3 General Election, 3-year term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Emily Kenney (unopposed) |
99.38% | 12,567 |
| Write-in votes | 0.62% | 79 |
| Total Votes | 12,646 | |
| Source: Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Carla Ledesma, City of Wauwatosa," May 9, 2016 | ||
Funding
Kenney reported $375.00 in contributions and $414.00 in expenditures to the Wauwatosa School District, which left her campaign with $39.00 in debt in the election.[4]
Endorsements
Kenney was endorsed by Grassroots Tosa, Wisconsin Progress, and Emerge America.[5][6][7]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Emily Kenney participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on February 20, 2016:
| “ | I want to fight for public education. I will hold our public schools to a standard of excellence and I want people to know how excellent Wauwatosa Public Schools are.[8][9] | ” |
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 Wisconsin. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | I believe that the role of government is to provide oversight to ensure that the services being provided are adequate and valuable while being responsible with taxpayer dollars. Public schools are the foundation of our community and their role is not only to educate but to prepare children for adulthood. Closing the achievement gap and post-secondary readiness are therefore 2nd and 3rd on this list.[9] | ” |
| —Emily Kenney (February 20, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine 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. I think charter schools can offer a needed alternative in a district. However, I strongly support the oversight involved with public education and would approve public charter schools that are overseen by the school board. |
| 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. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| Yes. In order to benchmark where students are with regard to basic skills they will need to know to be most productive in their communities as adults, some standardized testing is needed and is an accurate metric of the academic achievement of a student. However, public education teachers many other skills that cannot be measured on a test and those should be taken into consideration as well. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| I think standardizing what material we teach our kids makes a lot of sense. However, I am concerned that we are moving in a direction of so much standardization that we are not leaving room for teaching the "untestable" soft skills that are needed for success after high school. Teachers should be given best-practice curricula and given the flexibility to customize based on the students' needs. |
| 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? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Teaching is an art, and much of what makes a good teacher is experience. Mentorship offers the ability for experienced teachers to give some advice to newer teachers. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. All teachers deserve a fair base pay and fair treatment as employees. I think that outstanding teachers should be rewarded. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. Taxpayer dollars should be used for public schools with oversight from the school board. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion should be used only in extreme cases where the safety of other students is involved. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement Children are not taught in a vacuum. Much of a student's success comes from what happens outside the classroom, and parent involvement promotes consistency between what is taught at school and at home. |
Candidate website
Kenney highlighted the following statement on her campaign website:
| “ | As a parent and foster parent, I know how crucial strong public education is to our kids, our families, and our community. My husband and I chose this community for our family partially because of the public schools, and I want to make sure that our schools stay strong.
Unfortunately, public schools are under attack in Wisconsin. As a school board member, I will not be afraid to stand up for public schools! The Wauwatosa School Board needs strong, innovative leaders who can advocate for our kids. I am passionate about our community, and I will use that passion to keep our public schools strong and viable.[9] |
” |
| —Emily Kenney (2016)[10] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Emily Kenney' 'Wauwatosa School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Wauwatosa Now, "Wauwatosa school board candidates: Challengers seek spots," December 15, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedcandidates - ↑ Milwaukee County Election Commission, "Election Summary Final - Unofficial," accessed April 6, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Connie Galante, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent," July 19, 2016
- ↑ Grassroots Tosa, "Vote April 5," March 28, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Progress, "Our Candidates," accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ Emerge America, "2016 Emerge Candidates," accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Emily Kenney's responses," February 20, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Emily Kenney for School Board, "About," accessed February 19, 2016
| 2016 Wauwatosa School District Elections | |
| Milwaukee County | |
| Election date: | April 5, 2016 |
| Candidates: | Seat 1: • Shawn Rolland Seat 2: • Incumbent, Michael Meier Seat 3: • Emily Kenney |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
