Huntsville City Schools elections (2014)

2014 Huntsville City Schools Elections
General Election date:
August 26, 2014
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Alabama Huntsville City Schools Madison County, Alabama ballot measures Local ballot measures, Alabama

Three seats on the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education were up for general election on August 26, 2014. Beth Wilder defeated Richard V. Buchanan for the District 2 seat and Walker McGinis defeated Kimberly Battle for the District 4 seat. Elisa Ferrell defeated Anson Knowles in a runoff election on October 7, 2014, for the District 3 seat.

Huntsville City Schools continues to deal with repercussions of a desegregation dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice. The dispute occurred when the Department of Justice claimed the district operated a dual school system based on race, despite the district claiming it has complied with all desegregation laws. In June 2014, the case judge decided that the district and the Department of Justice must enter mediation to create a rezoning plan and address all types of racial disparities in the district. Additionally, a petition calling for the resignation of Superintendent Casey Wardynski began circulating in July 2014.

See also: What was at stake in Huntsville City Schools?

About the district

See also: Huntsville City Schools, Alabama

Huntsville City Schools is located in Madison County, Alabama

Huntsville City Schools is located in Madison County, Alabama. The county seat of Madison County is Huntsville. Madison County is home to 346,892 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau. Huntsville City Schools was the seventh-largest school district in Alabama, serving 22,974 students during the 2011-2012 school year.

Demographics

Madison County outperformed the rest of Alabama in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 37.8 percent of Madison County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 22.3 percent for Alabama as a whole. The median household income in Madison County was $58,242 compared to $43,160 for the state of Alabama. The poverty rate in Madison County was 12.4 percent compared to 18.1 percent for the entire state.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Madison County (%)	Alabama (%)
White	69.6	70.0
Black or African American	24.5	26.5
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.8	0.7
Asian	2.5	1.2
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	2.4	1.5
Hispanic or Latino	4.7	4.1

Presidential Voting Pattern, Madison County
Year	Republican Vote	Democratic Vote
2012	90,884	62,015
2008	86,965	64,117
2004	77,173	52,644
2000	62,151	48,199

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.

Voter and candidate information

The Huntsville City Board of Education consists of five members elected to four-year terms by specific geographic districts. There was no primary election and the general election was held on August 26, 2014. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes in District 3, a runoff election was held on October 7, 2014. Three seats were up for election in 2014.

Candidates began filing nominating petitions on July 1, 2014. The filing deadline for school board candidates to get on the ballot in the general election was July 15, 2014.

District 2

• Beth Wilder
  • Graduate, the University of Florida
  • Substitute teacher, stay-at-home mom
• Richard V. Buchanan
  • Architect

District 3

• Ellen Brusick
  • Graduate, Concordia Teachers College, Concordia Junior College, the University of Alabama
  • Educator
• Elisa Ferrell
  • Graduate, Scripps College
  • Educator
• Anson Knowles
  • Tax accountant
• Kathie Rooker
  • Graduate, Georgia Tech, the University of Texas
  • Manager, IT professional
• Pat Sanders

District 4

• Kimberly Battle
  • Graduate, University of Alabama-Huntsville, Naval Postgraduate School, Colorado Technical University
  • Engineer
• Walker McGinis
  • Educator, principal

Election results

Huntsville City Schools, District 3 Runoff Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Elisa Ferrell	54.1%	2,668
	Nonpartisan	Anson Knowles	45.9%	2,260
Total Votes				4,928
Source: "2014 General Election Results," accessed October 7, 2014 These election results are unofficial. They will be updated once certified election results are available.

Huntsville City Schools, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Beth Wilder	58.6%	1,738
	Nonpartisan	Richard V. Buchanan	41.4%	1,226
Total Votes				2,964
Source: Huntsville, AL, "Recapitulation Sheet, General Municipal, City of Huntsville" accessed June 4, 2015

Huntsville City Schools, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Elisa Ferrell	30.3%	1,468
	Nonpartisan	Anson Knowles	24.4%	1,182
	Nonpartisan	Ellen Brusick	18.5%	895
	Nonpartisan	Kathie Rooker	17%	823
	Nonpartisan	Pat Sanders	9.7%	469
Total Votes				4,837
Source: Huntsville, AL, "Recapitulation Sheet, General Municipal, City of Huntsville" accessed June 4, 2015

Huntsville City Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Walker McGinis	57.2%	1,020
	Nonpartisan	Kimberly Battle	42.8%	762
Total Votes				1,782
Source: Huntsville, AL, "Recapitulation Sheet, General Municipal, City of Huntsville" accessed June 4, 2015

Endorsements

Current District 2 school board member David Blair endorsed Beth Wilder, Elisa Ferrell and Walker McGinis. Ferrell was also endorsed by retired district principal BT Drake. McGinis was also endorsed by former Deputy Superintendent Mary Ruth Yates, Columbia High School principal Greg Hicks, attorney and former board member Dough Martinson, former Grissom High School administrator Sonny Rooks, former Huntsville High School principal Jan Harris and former police chief and mayoral assistant Rex Reynolds. Wilder was also endorsed by Huntsville's Committee of 100 and State Board of Education Rep. Mary Scott Hunter. No other candidates received any official endorsements in this election.

Campaign finance

No candidates filed a campaign finance report with the Alabama Secretary of State during this election.

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2012 Huntsville City Schools, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Laurie Bone McCaulley 60% 2,623      Nonpartisan Pat King 27.6% 1,205      Nonpartisan Reginald J. Hill, II 7.2% 313      Nonpartisan Gwendolyn-Troup Moore-Ragland 5.3% 231 Total Votes 4,372 Source: Huntsville City, "Elections," accessed July 9, 2014 Huntsville City Schools, District 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Michael Culbreath 59.3% 1,705      Nonpartisan Carlos Mathews 40.7% 1,170 Total Votes 2,875 Source: Huntsville City, "Elections," accessed July 9, 2014 2010 Huntsville City Schools, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan David Blair 49.8% 2,118      Nonpartisan Emily Elam 43.1% 1,831      Nonpartisan Carole Fandre 3.8% 160      Nonpartisan Court Heller 3.4% 144 Total Votes 4,253 Source: Huntsville City, "Elections," accessed July 10, 2014 Huntsville City Schools, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Jeanne Robinson 48.1% 2,732      Nonpartisan Walker McGinis 45.7% 2,599      Nonpartisan Mark Huff 6.2% 352 Total Votes 5,683 Source: Huntsville City, "Elections," accessed July 10, 2014 Huntsville City Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Topper Birney 70.3% 1,174      Nonpartisan Tiffany Garner 29.7% 496 Total Votes 1,670 Source: Huntsville City, "Elections," accessed July 10, 2014

What was at stake?

Issues in the district

Desegregation dispute

In May 2014, Huntsville City Schools faced the U.S. Department of Justice to debate the racial implications of redrawing school zones. The school rezoning has to be approved by a federal judge because of a desegregation lawsuit dating back to 1963, when the federal government sued to end racial segregation in the system. While the district believed it had complied with desegregation laws, the Department of Justice believed the district operated a dual system, since many schools were almost predominantly white or predominantly African American. Huntsville submitted rezoning plans in February 2014, but the Department of Justice rejected the plans.

On June 30, 2014, the case's presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala, ordered both sides enter into mediation to examine all aspects of racial disparities across the school district and create a rezoning plan that both parties can agree on. She said, "the fact that the district integrated the student bodies of many of its schools in the early 1970s does not automatically lead to the conclusion that the district does not currently operate a dual system." Although the schools were integrated in the 1970s, Haikala believes the district has seen a demographic shift since then that has affected school composition. She also believes the Department of Justice's proposed plan might cause risk to the district, such as causing students to leave the public school system for the local private schools. Haikala appointed Chief Magistrate Judge John Ott to oversee the mediation process.

Petition for superintendent resignation

In July 2014, Terri Michal, a self-described education activist, started a petition asking the Huntsville school board to demand Superintendent Casey Wardynski's resignation. Michal says she began the petition to show the board and the superintendent that residents from all over the district disapprove of his policies. Although Michal does not live in Huntsville, she has stayed interested in the school district because of the racial tensions in the district and because she is against corporate education policy. The petition calls for Wardynski's resignation because of his testimony during the desegregation dispute, accusations of disregard for parents, students and citizens and accusations of creating a poor working environment that, Michal says, has resulted in more than 700 employees leaving the district since he arrived in the summer of 2011. School board member Mike Culbreath said that Wardynski and his staff have done a good job with the district's finances, raising students' test scores and improving the schools' graduation rates.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Huntsville City Schools election in 2014:

Deadline	Event
July 1, 2014	Notice of election to be published
July 1, 2014	First day to file nominating petitions
July 15, 2014	Last day to file nominating petitions
July 15, 2014	Last day to register to vote
August 21, 2014	Last day to apply for absentee ballot
August 25, 2014	Last day to return absentee ballot
August 26, 2014	General election day
October 7, 2014	Runoff election

Additional elections on the ballot

In addition to the school board elections, residents of Huntsville City voted in races for city council members in District 2, 3 and 4.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Huntsville + City + Schools + Alabama"

Huntsville City Schools News Feed

See also

• Alabama
• Huntsville City Schools, Alabama
• Alabama school board elections, 2014
• List of school board elections in 2014
• School board elections, 2014
• Madison County, Alabama ballot measures
• Local ballot measures, Alabama
• Florida and Alabama elections lead to runoffs, school boards to welcome newcomers

External links

Suggest a link

• Huntsville City Schools
• Huntsville Election Office
• Alabama Secretary of State