Janesville School District elections (2015)
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Three seats on the Janesville Board of Education were up for general election on April 7, 2015. A primary election would have been held on February 17, 2015, if more than two candidates had filed per seat.
The terms of at-large incumbents Greg Ardrey, Deborah Schilling and David DiStefano ended in April 2015. Ardrey and DiStefano filed for re-election, while Schilling did not. Two newcomers, Diane Eyers and Carla Quirk, filed for a seat.
DiStefano and Eyers were removed from the ballot on January 13, 2015, due to insufficient information on their nomination papers. Both filed an appeal with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).[1] On February 6, 2015, the GAB announced that the appeals had been denied, and the decision to remove them from the ballot still stands. As a result, the third seat was filled by the write-in candidate with the most votes.[2]
In late February 2015, DiStefano announced that he was running as a write-in candidate, while Eyers withdrew from the race. Retired Janesville School District employee and former board member Steve Huth and receptionist Julieta Henry also ran as write-in candidates.[3][4]
Unofficial vote totals indicated Ardrey, Quirk and Huth triumphing over DiStefano and Henry, with roughly 585 votes separating Huth and DiStefano.[5]
About the district
- See also: Janesville School District, Wisconsin
Janesville School District is located in southern Wisconsin in Rock County. The county seat is Janesville. In 2013, Rock County was home to approximately 160,739 residents according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau.[6] During the 2011-2012 school year, Janesville School District was the ninth-largest school district in Wisconsin and served 10,352 students.[7]
Demographics
Rock County underperformed in comparison to the rest of Wisconsin in terms of higher education achievement in 2010. The United States Census Bureau found that 19.5 percent of Rock County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 26.4 percent for Wisconsin as a whole. Between 2008 and 2012, the median household income in Rock County was $50,316. During that same time period, the median household income for the entire state was $52,627. The poverty rate in Rock County was 13.5 percent from 2008 to 2012, compared to 12.5 percent statewide.[6]
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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.
Voter and candidate information
The Janesville Board of Education consists of nine members who are elected at-large on a staggered basis to three-year terms. If more than two candidates had filed for any board position, a primary election would have been held on February 17, 2015. The general election was held on April 7, 2015.
To be elected to the board, candidates must reside in the boundaries of the school district for 28 days prior to the filing of a "Declaration of Candidacy" form. Furthermore, at the time of taking office, each candidate must be a resident of the apportioned area he or she is elected to represent.[9] Candidates must also be 18 years old and citizens of the United States. Unless pardoned, those who have been convicted of a felony are not eligible for election to office in Wisconsin.[10]
Candidates had between December 1, 2014, and January 6, 2015, to collect between 100 and 200 signatures for their nomination papers. The signatures had to come from residents of the district that the candidate sought election to represent, but the petition circulators were not required to reside in the district or municipality. Circulators were required to be U.S. citizens and 18 years or older.[11]
Residents could register to vote in the election at the polling place on the election day. Proof of residence was required when registering to vote.[12] In March 2015, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Wisconsin's voter ID law allowing it to take effect. However, Wisconsin officials stated they would not enforce the law until after the election on April 7, 2015. No photo identification was required to vote in this election.[13]
Elections
2015
Candidates
At-large
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Election results
| Janesville School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2015 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Greg Ardrey Incumbent |
37.3% | 6,016 | |
| Nonpartisan | Carla Quirk |
24.2% | 3,897 | |
| Nonpartisan | Steve Huth (write-in) |
19.5% | 3,137 | |
| Nonpartisan | David DiStefano (write-in) Incumbent | 13.7% | 2,215 | |
| Nonpartisan | Julieta Henry (write-in) | 5.3% | 858 | |
| Total Votes | 16,123 | |||
| Source: Rock County Clerk, "2015 Spring NonPartisan Election," accessed May 27, 2015 | ||||
Endorsements
Carla Quirk was endorsed by the Janesville Education Association, the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unions (AFSCME). Julieta Henry was also endorsed by COPE.[14][15]
Campaign finance
Candidates were only required to file campaign finance reports if they did one of the following:
- accepted contributions, made disbursements or incurred obligations in an aggregate amount of more than $1,000 in a calendar year
- accepted more than $100 from a single source in the calendar year, except contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns
Past elections
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2014
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What was at stake?
Issues in the election
Insufficient nomination papers
On January 13, 2015, it was reported by the GazetteXtra that incumbent David DiStefano and challenger Diane Eyers were removed from the ballot. Dennis Hughes, an AFSCME Council 40 staff member, filed the challenges that resulted in the removal. He said in a written statement, "The nomination process is a competency test for candidates, and both Diane Eyers and David DiStefano failed their test, so they have no business representing the interests of students, parents and employees of the School District of Janesville."[16]
According to the GazetteXtra report, Eyers' nomination papers were deemed insufficient because only three of the signatures on the papers had a printed name next to them. DiStefano's papers were denied because the header information on one of his nomination papers did not include an election date. With those papers removed, both candidates failed to meet the minimum of 100 signatures necessary to file.[1][17] Eyers and DiStefano had 10 days to appeal the decision with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, which resulted in both DiStefano and Eyers filing appeals.[18]
On February 6, 2015, the GAB announced that the appeals had been denied, and the decision to remove them from the ballot still stands. The third seat was filled by the write-in candidate with the most votes.[2]
In late February 2015, DiStefano announced that he was running as a write-in candidate, while Eyers withdrew from the race. Eyers stated that removing herself from the election "will give the voters only two choices on April 7 for write-in candidates" which she feels is ultimately in the best interest of the district. She said she is open to a possible Spring 2016 campaign. Retired Janesville School District employee Steve Huth and receptionist Julieta Henry joined DiStefano as write-in candidates.[3]
Incumbent Greg Ardrey and newcomer Carla Quirk remained on the ballot.
Lawsuit filed by AFSCME representative Dennis Hughes
After spending $65,755 in election-related legal fees, Janesville School District faced a lawsuit filed by labor union representative, Dennis Hughes. The lawsuit came after Hughes alleged that Superintendent Karen Schulte refused to comply with parts of an open records request that was filed on January 16, 2015. Hughes is petitioning for a writ of mandamus that asks the courts to demand the district release the requested documents as well as punitive damages and costs, actual damages and attorney's fees. In a written statement, Hughes said that "the district has already spent thousands of dollars unnecessarily to limit the public's access to information and to initiate frivolous legal actions" and "the superintendent's wasteful spending and obstruction of justice must end." Schulte hired the district's law firm, Nowlan & Mouat, to defend her. Schulte has been advised by her attorney not to speak about the lawsuit, but said it will incur more costs that "are not necessary as far as I'm concerned."
According to documents obtained by GazetteXtra, the existing $65,755 comes from $11,124 to respond to open records requests, $38,076.80 for election issues and $16,555.50 to defend the district against Hughes. In addition, Assistant Board Clerk Deb Blazer initially filed a temporary restraining order against Hughes on January 21, 2015, though it was dropped on February 9.
A court date for the lawsuit has not yet been set. In it, Hughes is seeking verification of the following allegations, according to GazetteXtra:
| “ | — Schulte directed Blazer to add information to DiStefano's nomination papers.
— Schulte directed Sodemann to submit multiple retaliatory public records requests. — DiStefano was not in the United States on Jan. 9 when Jensen notarized an affidavit signed by DiStefano regarding his nomination papers. — Schulte knew or should have known the affidavit signed by DiStefano could not have been signed in Rock County as attested to by Jensen. — Schulte willfully and intentionally permitted the affidavit to be filed to alter the ballot.[19] |
” |
| —GazetteXtra's website (2015)[20] | ||
Quirk's hit-and-run conspiracy
On the morning of March 1, 2015, Carla Quirk contacted Janesville police to report a hit-and-run that allegedly happened earlier that day at Woodman's, a grocery store near her home. Quirk claimed her car had been struck by someone at the store. The responding officer reviewed the store's surveillance footage and found that no vehicle was anywhere near Quirk's that day at Woodman's. Investigators subsequently arrived at her home and noticed another damaged vehicle on the street outside Quirk's residence. Quirk initially denied having any knowledge about the vehicle's damage, but when investigators warned they could match the parts, Quirk confessed to hitting the car before she left for the store. She was issued a citation for hit-and-run and for driving too fast for conditions. Following an interview with WISC-TV on March 26, 2015, Quirk said she has hired her campaign treasurer to be her attorney and fight the charges. She claimed in the interview that the incident was part of ongoing bullying attempting to prevent her from running for the Janesville board. The allegations were unsubstantiated as of March 2015.[21]
Request for information on Quirk, claims of partisanship
In January 2015, board member Bill Sodemann made an open records request on candidate Carla Quirk, which included time cards, a description of her job duties and access to her email. In that request, Sodemann also named 17 people of interest who may have communicated with Quirk during work hours. Quirk is an administrative assistant for Rock County General Services at the Rock County Courthouse, and some assume that the request is to make sure Quirk was not campaigning on work time. If that were true, it could have potentially introduced partisanship into the election. Sodemann said he filed the request to make sure "nothing is out of the ordinary." According to Quirk, she had done nothing on government time to elicit the request.
The Rock County Clerk's website stated that the records must be dispensed "as soon as practicable and without delay." If the request was denied, Sodemann would have received a response about the decision in writing.[22]
Key deadlines
The following were key deadlines for the Janesville School District election in 2015:[11][23]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| December 1, 2014 | Candidate signature gathering period began |
| January 6, 2015 | Signature submission deadline at 5 p.m. |
| February 9, 2015 | Campaign finance report due |
| February 17, 2015 | Primary election day |
| March 30, 2015 | Campaign finance report due |
| April 7, 2015 | Election Day |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2015
One seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court was up for election on April 7, 2015. The general election for city and county offices was also on that date. Statewide, a constitutional amendment question regarding the selection of the state's supreme court chief justice was on the ballot.
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Janesville + School + District + Wisconsin"
See also
| Janesville School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GazetteXtra, "DiStefano, Eyers nomination papers rejected for Janesville School Board ballot," January 13, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 GazetteXtra, "Janesville School Board candidates off the ballot," February 6, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 GazetteXtra, "Retired Janesville School District employee Steve Huth running as school board write-in, Diane Eyers withdraws," February 24, 2015
- ↑ GazetteXtra, "Julieta Henry adds her name to list of write-ins for the Janesville School Board," March 30, 2015
- ↑ GazetteXtra, "Ardrey, Quirk elected to Janesville School Board; Huth leading among write-ins," April 7, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 United States Census Bureau, "Rock County, Wisconsin," accessed September 10, 2014
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed January 27, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Wisconsin Election Results," accessed January 28, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Wisconsin Candidate Eligibility," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Candidates: Getting on the Ballot," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Wisconsin State Legislature, "State Statutes: CHAPTER 8," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Voter Registration," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ The New York Times, "Wisconsin Decides Not to Enforce Voter ID Law," March 23, 2015
- ↑ Right Wisconsin, "School Board Candidate Pledging 'Honest Leadership' Lies to Police about Hit-and-Run Accident," March 30, 2015
- ↑ AFL-CIO, "April 2015 COPE Endorsed Candidates," accessed April 1, 2015
- ↑ GazetteXtra, "Janesville School Board candidates off the ballot," February 6, 2015
- ↑ WCLO, "Two Janesville School Board candidates have names removed from ballot," January 13, 2015
- ↑ WCLO, "School board candidates file elections appeal," accessed January 26, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ GazetteXtra, "Janesville School District spent more than $65,000 in election-related legal fees," March 27, 2015
- ↑ Media Trackers, "School Board Candidate Claims Conspiracy in Hit-And-Run She Caused," March 27, 2015
- ↑ GazetteXtra, "Names from records request voice disapproval at Janesville School Board meeting," January 28, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT DATES," accessed September 22, 2014
| 2015 Janesville School District Elections | |
| Rock County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | General election - April 7, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Greg Ardrey • Incumbent, David DiStefano • Diane Eyers • Julieta Henry • Steve Huth • Carla Quirk |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
