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Gary Miller (California school board member)
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Gary Miller was a member of the Roseville City Elementary School District school board At-large in California. Miller assumed office in 2008. Miller left office in 2020.
Miller ran for re-election to the Roseville City Elementary School District school board At-large in California. Miller won in the general election on November 8, 2016.
Biography
Miller has worked for the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency for about 25 years. He is a member of Sacramento Friends.[1]
Elections
2016
Three of the five seats on the Roseville City Elementary School District Board of Education were up for at-large general election on November 8, 2016. Two seats were up for election to four-year terms, and one seat was up for election to a two-year term. The race for the four-year terms featured incumbent Gary Miller and challengers Doyle Radford Jr. and Julie Constant. Miller won re-election, and Constant won election to the other seat. Two candidates—David Larson and Alisa Fong—ran for the two-year term, and Fong won.[2][3]
Results
| Roseville City Elementary School District, At-large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Julie Constant |
38.93% | 21,266 |
| Gary Miller Incumbent |
31.40% | 17,152 |
| Doyle Radford Jr. | 29.36% | 16,037 |
| Write-in votes | 0.32% | 174 |
| Total Votes | 54,629 | |
| Source: Placer County Elections Office, "Election Night Results Official Election Summary Final," accessed December 7, 2016 | ||
Funding
Miller reported $14,080.00 in contributions and $11,247.00 in expenditures to the Placer County Elections Office, which left his campaign with $2,833.00 on hand as of October 22, 2016.[4]
Endorsements
Miller was endorsed by the Placer County Democratic Party and the community organization Evolve.[5][6]
2012
This election was canceled due to lack of opposition. Incumbent Gary Miller and newcomer Jeff Willoughby were the only ones to file as candidates, so they were elected by default.[7]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Gary Miller 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 September 21, 2016:
| “ | I hope to be able to use my almost 30 years of school board experience to: keep the district financially sound; provide best compensation for staff; provide the best education to the children of today who will be the community leaders decades from now[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 |
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Click here to learn more about education policy in California. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
Miller did not answer this question. He said, "I have been on school boards for over 30 years. It is idiotic to try to prioritize what issue is more important than another."[10]
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.) |
|---|
| No. Neighborhood schools are best for children. Children learn from each other. They learn about differences and acceptance of differences. Charter schools take money from the district. Then the district has to cut programs such music, physical education or other important programs. |
| 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 only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. The public elects school board members. Most people in the state have not been in classroom in decades. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Maybe. This is a difficult question to answer because not all children are alike and not all tests are alike. These tests could be used as one criteria, but not necessarily the only criteria |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Mixed. There is an aspect which encourages students to think and explain their process for an answer. This is good. One negative is at times curriculum is not age appropriate. |
| 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? |
| 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. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Not sure what "underperforming" means in this context. If a teacher is having problems keeping the classroom under control, then perhaps a mentor could help. However if the teacher is verbally or physical abusing children, then the teacher needs to be taken out of the classroom immediately. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Merit pay based on what? On what measuring stick? Test scores cant used especially if the teacher has many children with special needs. A good teacher needs the help of parents, so parental involvement is essential. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. The government should not give money for a child to go to a religious school. That would be in conflict with the separation of church and state. We have a police department almost in every city. If a person decides to hire a security detail, the person would not and should not be expected to have the government pay for it. If parents want the child to not go to a public free school, then they have to pay for private or religious schools. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Hopefully other options have been explored first. Parents need to be involved. Expulsion should be used as a last resort. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers However many of these play a part. We have to have the right curriculum that age appropriate, lower class size is important and so is parental involvement. School administrators would not THE most important factor, but certainly their decisions do have impact on the success of the classrooms |
Political philosophy
Miller described the following as his political philosophy.
| “ | I realize that the children of today are the leaders of tomorrow. The only agenda I have is: What is in the best interest of children? Roseville City School District is a K8 district with about 10,000 children. We broke ground for our newest school in West Roseville and hope to have it on line by the 2017-2018 school year. We have other schools on the back burner.
We just hired more music teachers to add to our already existing music program. We are constantly upgrading our technology to allow our children to keep up to date.[9] |
” |
| —Gary Miller (September 4, 2016)[1] | ||
See also
- Roseville City Elementary School District, California
- Roseville City Elementary School District elections (2016)
External links
|
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ballotpedia's Biographical Information Submission Form, "Gary Miller's responses," September 4, 2016
- ↑ Placer County Elections Division, "Qualified Candidate List," aceessed August 15, 2016
- ↑ Placer County, "Election Night Results," accessed November 9, 2016
- ↑ Placer County Elections Office, "Placer County Public Portal for Campaign Finance Disclosure," accessed November 2, 2016
- ↑ Placer County Democratic Party, "2016 General Election Endorsements," accessed October 17, 2016
- ↑ Evolve, "Endorsements: November 8, 2016 General Election," accessed October 13, 2016
- ↑ Roseville & Granite Bay Press Tribune, "Two candidates earn spots on Roseville City School District board," September 18, 2012
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Gary Miller's responses," September 21, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Gary Miller," September 20, 2016
| 2016 Roseville City Elementary School District Elections | |
| Placer County, California | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | At-large (4-year term): • Incumbent, Gary Miller • Julie Constant • Doyle Radford Jr. At-large (2-year term): • Alisa Fong • David Larson |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
