Fort Bend Independent School District elections (2016)
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Two of the seven seats on the Fort Bend Independent School District school board were up for general election on May 7, 2016. Position 3 incumbent Jim Rice was the sole candidate to file in the race. Position 7 incumbent David Rosenthal faced challengers James Davidson Jr., Sonja Leonard, Laura Ramirez, and Shirley Rose-Gilliam. There was no primary.[1] Rice won his unopposed re-election bid for the Position 3 seat while Rosenthal defeated Davidson, Leonard, Ramirez, and Rose-Gilliam to secure the seat in Position 7.[2]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees is composed of seven members who are elected at large to three-year terms in specifically numbered seats. Positions 3 and 7 were scheduled for general election on May 7, 2016. There was no primary election.[3]
Candidates running for the school board had to be a United States citizen, a resident of Texas for at least 12 months, and a resident of the district for at least six months. Candidates also had to be 18 years of age or older and registered to vote.[3]
Candidates and results
Position 3
Results
| Fort Bend Independent School District, Position 3 General Election, 3-year term, 2016 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Jim Rice Incumbent (unopposed) |
100.00% | 11,146 |
| Total Votes | 11,146 | |
| Source: Fort Bend County, "FORT BEND COUNTY, TEXAS May 7, 2016 City School MUD Elections," accessed May 7, 2016 | ||
Candidates
Jim Rice 
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Position 7
Results
| Fort Bend Independent School District, Position 7 General Election, 3-year term, 2016 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| David Rosenthal Incumbent |
33.97% | 4,639 |
| Shirley Rose-Gilliam | 23.74% | 3,242 |
| Laura Ramirez | 17.94% | 2,450 |
| James Davidson Jr. | 15.75% | 2,151 |
| Sonja Leonard | 8.60% | 1,175 |
| Total Votes | 13,657 | |
| Source: Fort Bend County, "FORT BEND COUNTY, TEXAS May 7, 2016 City School MUD Elections," accessed May 7, 2016 | ||
Candidates
| David Rosenthal
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James Davidson Jr. | Sonja Leonard | |||
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| Laura Ramirez | Shirley Rose-Gilliam | ||
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Additional elections
- See also: Texas elections, 2016
The Fort Bend ISD school board election shared the ballot with the municipal elections in Fort Bend County.[4]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Texas school board elections in 2016:[5][6]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| February 19, 2016 | Candidate filing deadline |
| February 23, 2016 | Deadline for write-in candidates |
| April 7, 2016 | Pre-general election campaign finance deadline |
| April 19, 2016 | Campaign finance report due |
| May 7, 2016 | Election Day |
| May 18, 2016 | Final day for canvassing of votes |
| July 15, 2016 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
There were no official endorsements in this election during the election.
Campaign finance
No contributions or expenditures were reported as of April 19, 2016, according to the Fort Bend County Elections Department.[7]
Past elections
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What was at stake?
Issues in the district
District explores alternative discipline methods
When Jerrie Kammerman became Missouri City Middle School's principal in the spring of 2014, she faced a school year in which 186 fights campus fights were reported and 1,789 discipline referrals were issued just in the first semester at the school, which had an enrollment of about 1,200.[8] In response to the Fort Bend ISD school's need for better interventions, Kammerman attended a conference focusing on an alternative way to handle discipline, called "restorative discipline." Its emphasis was on preventing bad behavior instead of punishing it. The principal then decided to use these methods whenever she and other administrators interacted with students. The results spoke for themselves when, during the 2014-2015 school year, fights reported were reduced by 27 percent at Missouri City, down to 136. During the 2015-2016 school year, all teachers at the school have begun to use the methods of restorative discipline, and as of January 2016, there were only a reported 27 fights.
Around the same time as Kammerman innovated Missouri City's discipline procedures, Fort Bend ISD officials were planning to implement the same alternative discipline methods in sixth-grade at nearly every middle school in the district. The district has been looking for ways to address bad student behavior after Fort Bend ISD's "disproportionate disciplining of some groups of minority students sparked the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to begin a compliance review. According to a U.S. Department of Education spokesman, the investigation is ongoing."[8] Fort Bend ISD staff attended six training sessions in restorative discipline between March and April of 2015. In August 2015, district administrators held trainings for bus drivers, teachers, cafeteria managers and middle school police officers.
According to the Houston Chronicle, since 2012, the district has seen disciplinary referrals decrease across grade levels: "Since the 2012-13 and the 2014-15 school years, the number of in-school suspensions, in which a student is removed from the classroom but stays at school, dropped by more than half, from 8,642 to 4,170 at the high school level and by 3,772, from 7,243 to 3,471, at the middle school level. Its out-of-school suspensions, when a student is removed from the campus for up to three days, also dropped during the period, from 3,181 suspensions at the high school level to 2,152 and from 2,609 at the middle school level to 2,073."[8] According to district Superintendent Charles Dupre, the drop occurred due to "the district's increased awareness of overdisciplining its students." He added that restorative discipline is also an important tool.
About the district
Fort Bend Independent School District is located in Sugar Land, a city in Fort Bend County, Texas. Sugar Land was home to 86,777 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau.[9] The district was the seventh-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 70,931 students.[10]
Demographics
Sugar Land outperformed Texas as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2010 to 2014. The United States Census Bureau found that 54.2 percent of city residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 27.1 percent for the state. The median household income in the city was $105,400 compared to $52,576 for the state. The poverty rate in Sugar Land was 5.1 percent compared to 17.2 percent for Texas as a whole.[9]
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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 'Fort Bend Independent School District' 'Texas'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Fort Bend Independent School District | Texas | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Fort Bend Independent School District, "May 7, 2016 Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees Election Information," accessed February 20, 2016
- ↑ Fort Bend County, ""FORT BEND COUNTY, TEXAS MAY 7, 2016 CITY SCHOOL MUD ELECTIONS,"" accessed May 7, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Fort Bend Independent School District, "Board Members Eligibility and Qualifications," accessed February 24, 2016
- ↑ Fort Bend County Elections, "May 7th Sample Ballot," accessed April 27, 2016
- ↑ Texas Ethics Commission, "2016 Filing Schedule for Reports Due in Connection with Elections Held on Uniform Election Dates," accessed April 4, 2016
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "May 7, 2016 Election Law Calendar," accessed April 4, 2016
- ↑ Fort Bend County, "Financial Reports," accessed April 19, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Houston Chronicle, "FBISD approaching discipline in a new way," accessed April 19, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 United States Census Bureau, "Sugar Land, Texas," accessed April 19, 2016
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
- ↑ Fort Bend County Elections, "Election Results," accessed February 21, 2014
| 2016 Fort Bend Independent School District Elections | |
| Fort Bend County, Texas | |
| Election date: | May 7, 2016 |
| Candidates: | Position 3: Incumbent, Jim Rice Position 7: Incumbent, David Rosenthal • James Davidson Jr. • Sonja Leonard • Laura Ramirez • Shirley Rose-Gilliam |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
