Fairfield Public Schools elections (2015)
|
← 2013
|
 |
Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links |
Fairfield Public Schools Fairfield County, Connecticut ballot measures Local ballot measures, Connecticut |
 |
Five seats on the Fairfield Public Schools Board of Education were up for at-large general election on November 3, 2015. The seats of incumbents Philip Dwyer (D), Paul Fattibene (R), Jessica Gerber (D), Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly (D) and John Convertito (R) were up for election. Dwyer, Gerber and Maxon-Kennelly won re-election, along with two Republican newcomers: Anthony Calabrese and Trisha Pytko. The partisan makeup of the board going into this election was five Democrats and four Republicans; this election did not shift the overall Democrat/Republican split.
Incumbents Dwyer, Gerber and Maxon-Kennelly were nominated to retain their seats by the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee. Also receiving Democratic nominations were Zhanna Funaro and Matthew Hutzelmann; Funaro withdrew from the race prior to the election.[1] Dwyer and Maxon-Kennelly were also endorsed by the Working Families Party.[2]
Meanwhile, the Fairfield Republican Town Committee nominated a field of newcomers for the board: Laura Bernaschina, Anthony Calabrese, Patricia Donavan, Jason Li and Trisha Pytko.[3] Donavan and Bernaschina ran as a slate called "The Team to Move Fairfield Forward."
About the district
- See also: Fairfield Public Schools, Connecticut
Fairfield Public Schools is located in southwestern Connecticut in Fairfield County. The county was home to 945,438 residents in 2014, according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau.[4] Fairfield Public Schools was the ninth-largest school district in Connecticut and served 10,294 students in the 2012–2013 school year.[5]
Demographics
Fairfield County outperformed Connecticut as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2009–2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 44.8 percent of county residents aged 25 and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.5 of state residents. The median household income for Fairfield County was $82,283, compared to $69,461 for Connecticut. The percentage of county residents below poverty level was 9.1 percent, while it was 10.2 percent for the state residents.[4]
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Voter and candidate information
The Fairfield Board of Education is composed of nine partisan members who are elected at-large to four-year terms in odd-numbered years. There was no primary election, and the general election was November 3, 2015. State law required a minimum of one-third of the board's seats to be held by minority parties following each election.[7]
There were several routes by which candidates could get on the ballot, which varied depending on the political affiliation of the candidate seeking office. The timeline below outlines the entire election process. A full written description of these events can be read in the collapsed section below the timeline.
| Click [show] on the right for the written description of Connecticut's method of school board member selection. |
|---|
Convention nominationThe first way major party candidates could get onto the ballot was to receive the nomination of their political party during the endorsement period, which ran from July 21, 2015, to July 28, 2015. These endorsements were made by convention of the local party members, and the candidates had to receive at least 15 percent of the votes cast by convention delegates to be nominated.[8] Parties could endorse as many candidates as there were seats up for election. Major party endorsements were certified on July 29, 2015. Minor parties that were qualified for the board races were also able to endorse candidates. The deadline for minor parties to endorse candidates was September 2, 2015. Primary petitionIf a candidate who wished to run for a major political party did not receive the party's endorsement, he or she was required to file a primary petition to oppose the endorsed candidate by August 12, 2015. In order for the petition to be deemed sufficient and a primary election to be held, the petitioner was required to submit valid signatures totaling 1 percent of the votes cast for the same office at the previous election for that office or 7,500, whichever is smaller. Multiple candidates of a political party could petition for a primary together. Only as many candidates could advance from it for each party as there were seats up for election in the general election. Independent petitioningCandidates who wished to run without a party affiliation had to file in a similar manner to candidates with a partisan affiliation. Such independent candidates, however, could not file in groups like partisan petitioners and had to file individually. They had to meet the same signature requirements as partisan petitioning candidates but without the possibility of a primary election. Write-in candidatesThe deadline for write-in candidates to file for the general election was October 20, 2015. Write-in candidates could not designate an affiliation with a political party, and no candidate who was nominated by a major or minor party or by petition could run as a write-in candidate.[9] |
Elections
2015
Candidates
Philip Dwyer  
|
Jessica Gerber 
|
Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly
|
Laura Bernaschina 
|
Anthony Calabrese
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| Patricia Donavan
|
Zhanna Funaro Withdrawn
|
Matthew Hutzelmann
|
Jason Li
|
Trisha Pytko
|
|
|
|
|
|
Election results
| Fairfield Public Schools, At-Large, General Election, 2015 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Anthony Calabrese |
15.0% | 10,226 | |
| Democratic/WFP | Philip Dwyer Incumbent |
13.2% | 8,973 | |
| Republican | Trisha Pytko |
13.2% | 8,943 | |
| Democratic/WFP | Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly Incumbent |
13.1% | 8,941 | |
| Democratic | Jessica Gerber Incumbent |
12.7% | 8,607 | |
| Republican | Patricia Donavan | 9.8% | 6,683 | |
| Republican | Jason Li | 8.7% | 5,906 | |
| Republican | Laura Bernaschina | 8.3% | 5,647 | |
| Democratic | Matthew Hutzelmann | 5.9% | 4,044 | |
| Total Votes | 67,970 | |||
| Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast at a Municipal Election: Fairfield," Novemeber 3, 2015 | ||||
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the 2015 Connecticut school board elections:[10]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| July 21-28, 2015 | Political parties' candidate endorsement period |
| July 29, 2015 | Political parties' candidate endorsements certified |
| August 12, 2015 | Primary petitions for opposition candidates of a major party due |
| September 2, 2015 | Last day that a minor party may endorse a candidate |
| October 20, 2015 | Write-in candidate filing deadline |
| November 3, 2015 | General Election Day |
| November 4, 2015 | General election results certified |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Connecticut elections, 2015
Fairfield residents also voted for first selectman, selectman, town clerk, board of finance, board of assessment appeals, town plan and zoning commission, zoning board of appeals, constables and representatives for town meetings .[11]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Fairfield Public Schools' Connecticut. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Fairfield Public Schools | Connecticut | School Boards |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
External links
- Fairfield Public Schools
- Town of Fairfield
- Connecticut Secretary of State
- Fairfield Democratic Town Committee
- Fairfield Republican Town Committee
Footnotes
- ↑ Fairfield Citizen, "Democrats back Tetreau, Marmion to lead ticket," July 24, 2015
- ↑ Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Betsy Brown, Fairfield Town Clerk," September 3, 2015
- ↑ Fairfield Citizen, "Kiley dumped by GOP as Tymniak gets nod for top slot," July 22, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 United States Census Bureau, "State & County QuickFacts, "Fairfield County, Connecticut," accessed August 5, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 15, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut Secretary of State, "Election Results," accessed October 9, 2013
- ↑ Connecticut General Assembly, "Chapter 146: Sec. 9-167a. Minority representation," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut Statutes, "Chapter 153, Part III, Section 9-400," accessed February 26, 2014
- ↑ Connecticut Statutes, "Chapter 153, Part I, Section 9-373a," accessed October 31, 2013
- ↑ Connecticut Secretary of State, "NOVEMBER 3, 2015 MUNICIPAL ELECTION CALENDAR – AMENDED," January 5, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut Secretary of State, "Fairfield, Connecticut, Municipal Election November 3, 2015," accessed November 9, 2015
