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Jeffco Public Schools elections (2015)

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 Jeffco Public Schools: 2015 General and Recall Elections

This page is about the 2015 general election for two seats on the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education in Colorado. For coverage on the district's recall election in 2015, click here.

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2015 Jeffco Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Recall status:
All recalled
Table of Contents
About the district
Path to the ballot
Elections
What was at stake?
Candidate survey
Key deadlines
Additional elections
External links
See also
Colorado
Jeffco Public Schools
Jefferson County, Colorado ballot measures
Local ballot measures, Colorado
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Two seats on the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015. The seats of District 3 incumbent Jill Fellman and District 4 incumbent Lesley Dahlkemper were on the ballot.[1][2]

Neither incumbent filed to run for re-election, which guaranteed that two newcomers would join the board. Candidates Kim Johnson and Ali Lasell ran for the District 3 seat. The District 4 race featured candidates Tori Merritts and Amanda Stevens.[3] Lasell and Stevens won the seats.[4]


Ballotpedia's Senior Elections Analyst, Brittany Clingen, recaps the results of the Jeffco Public Schools regular and recall elections.

Julie Williams, John Newkirk, and Ken Witt, the three incumbents whose terms were scheduled to end in 2017, were included in a recall election that was also on the ballot on November 3, 2015. All three members were recalled.[4][5] For more information on Jeffco's recall election, check out our coverage here.

Lasell and Stevens came out in support of the recall, while Johnson and Merritts said they did not support the recall. Lasell and Stevens ran as part of The Clean Slate, which included three candidates who sought to defeat the incumbents in the recall election. All five members of the slate won seats on the board.[6]

Johnson, Lasell, and Stevens participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read their responses, check out the "Ballotpedia survey responses" section.

Jeffco Public Schools: 2015 Election Results
District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5
Recall
targets 		Julie Williams John Newkirk Ken Witt
The Clean
Slate 		Brad Rupert Susan Harmon Ali Lasell Amanda Stevens Ron Mitchell
Non-slate
candidates		 Matt Dhieux Kim Johnson Tori Merritts Regan Benson
Paula Noonan
Pre-election
board: 		Julie Williams John Newkirk Jill Fellman Lesley Dahlkemper Ken Witt
Winners: Brad Rupert Susan Harmon Ali Lasell Amanda Stevens Ron Mitchell

About the district

See also: Jeffco Public Schools, Colorado
Jeffco Public Schools is located in Jefferson County, Colo.

Jeffco Public Schools is located in Jefferson County in central Colorado. The county seat is Golden. The county was home to an estimated 558,503 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau.[7] Jeffco Public Schools was the largest school district in Colorado during the 2012-2013 school year and served 85,542 students.[8]

Demographics

Jefferson County outperformed the rest of Colorado in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 40.7 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 37.0 percent for the state as a whole. The median household income was $68,984, compared to $58,433 statewide. The poverty rate in Jefferson County was 8.6 percent, compared to 13.2 percent for the entire state.[7]

Racial Demographics, 2014[7]
Race Jefferson County (%) Colorado (%)
White 92.2 87.7
Black or African American 1.3 4.5
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.2 1.6
Asian 2.8 3.1
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.1 0.2
Two or More Races 2.3 2.9
Hispanic or Latino 15.2 21.2

Presidential Voting Pattern,
Jefferson County[9]
Year Democratic vote Republican vote Other vote
2012 159,296 144,197 7,559
2008 158,158 131,628 7,055
2004 126,558 140,644 5,550

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

See also: Recall path to the ballot
Jeffco Public Schools logo.png

The Jeffco Board of Education consists of five members who are elected by district to four-year terms. Board elections are held in November of odd-numbered years with two or three seats being up for general election at a time. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on November 3, 2015, for two seats.[1]

Individuals interested in running for the board began circulating nominating petitions on August 5, 2015. The filing deadline for school board candidates to get on the ballot in the 2015 general election was August 28, 2015, and the filing deadline to run as a write-in candidate was August 31, 2015.[2]

Elections

2015

Candidates

District 3

Election results

Jeffco Public Schools, District 3, General Election, 2015
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Ali Lasell 57.7% 89,726
Kim Johnson 42.3% 65,753
Total Votes 155,479
Source: Jefferson County, "Official County Results," November 20, 2015

Candidates

Kim Johnson Ali Lasell Green check mark transparent.png

Kim Johnson.jpg

  • Graduate, University of California at Riverside
  • Former commercial real estate manager

Ali Lasell.jpg

District 4

Election results

Jeffco Public Schools, District 4, General Election, 2015
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Amanda Stevens 66.4% 101,843
Tori Merritts 33.6% 51,586
Total Votes 153,429
Source: Jefferson County, "Official County Results," November 20, 2015

Candidates

Tori Merritts Amanda Stevens Green check mark transparent.png

Tori Merritts.jpg

Amanda Stevens.jpg

  • Former teacher

Endorsements

District 3

Kim Johnson received endorsements from the following officials:[10]

Ali Lasell received endorsements from the following elected officials and organizations:[11][12][13]

District 4

Tori Merritts received no official endorsements in this election.

Amanda Stevens received endorsements from the following organizations and elected officials:[14][15]

Campaign finance

Campaign Finance Ballotpedia.png
See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2015

Candidates received a total of $155,957.27 and spent a total of $155,687.75 in the election, according to the Colorado Secretary of State.[16]

Candidate Contributions Expenditures Cash on hand
Kim Johnson $12,389.99 $12,389.99 $0.00
Ali Lasell $74,968.28 $74,968.28 $0.00
Tori Merritts $7,100.00 $6,872.30 $227.70
Amanda Stevens $61,499.00 $61,457.18 $41.82

Jeffco school board candidates had to file a total of three campaign finance reports. The first was due October 13, 2015. The second was due October 30, 2015, and the final report had to be filed by December 3, 2015.[17]

Past elections

What was at stake?

2015

Election trends

School Board Election Trends Banner.jpg
See also: Jeffco Public Schools elections (2013)

With two seats up for regular election and three seats up for recall, the entire Jeffco Board of Education changed hands in 2015. The District 3 and 4 incumbents whose seats were up for regular election did not file to retain their seats, guaranteeing that at least two new board members would join the board. Two candidates ran for each seat. Two candidates also ran per seat in 2013. No incumbents ran in that election either, which brought three newcomers to the board. Those three newcomers were targeted for recall in 2015. Because the recall was successful, the election resulted in an entirely new school board for the district.

Issues in the election

Candidates' stances
Pay for performance

Colorado Public Radio asked the candidates in this race whether or not they supported the new merit pay model the district adopted for teachers. Ali Lasell, Kim Johnson, and Amanda Stevens said they did not support Jeffco's current model, but Tori Merritts said she supported it. "Effective teachers need to be rewarded," said Merritts. She said a pay-for-performance model helped all employees, not just teachers, improve their effectiveness.[18]

Ali Lasell

Lasell said she believed some merit pay models worked, but she said they "cannot be punitive." She said pay for performance "cannot pit teachers against each other because the foundation of a good teacher and a good classroom setting is because of teacher collaboration." Johnson also believed the model had to be collaborative, and she did not think Jeffco's model was.[18]

Stevens also said such a pay model had to be collaborative. She said that teachers needed to be able to contribute to the model and that it had to be able to change. “I worry deeply that we have a pay plan now that disincentivizes teachers from choosing to work in tough communities and that’s backwards. I want to make sure we have a compensation and evaluation system that rewards teachers for taking risks that our students need for them to take on for them," said Stevens.[18]

For-profit charter schools
Tori Merritts

In the weeks leading up to the election, Jeffco's school board was considering a new charter school. The school, Doral Academy of Colorado, was part of a for-profit charter management chain based in Florida. Colorado Public Radio asked the candidates what they thought about for-profit charter schools.[18]

All four general election candidates said they supported charter schools, but the for-profit nature of the Doral Academy of Colorado worried some. Lasell and Stevens said they did not support for-profit charter schools, and Johnson had some concerns. Merritts said she did not have enough information about the Doral Academy to have an opinion either way. She said that in her previous experience as a board member, the board voted against a similar for-profit school.[18]

Overcrowding

Colorado Public Radio asked the candidates what they would do to combat overcrowding in the district. The school board voted to use $18 million in operating funds from the previous year's budget to build another elementary school. Some district staff had recommended issuing Certificates of Participation. The certificates would have funded several buildings at once, which some staff members said they thought was needed due to rapid enrollment growth in parts of the district.[18]

Amanda Stevens

Lasell said the board should have approved the Certificates of Participation. "We are now in crisis mode for the northwest corridor and we need three schools up there, not just one," she said.[18]

Kim Johnson

"We are in a state funding crisis. During the recession we created a huge hole in our school funding to the tune of almost a billion dollars a year. JeffCo is short $80 million from the state this year and over the past several years, hundreds of millions," said Stevens. She said she would have approved the Certificates of Participation, but because the board did not approve them, she said she would support a 2016 bond. Merritts said she supported the board's decision, but she said she would have pushed for a larger bond measure if she had been on the board in 2012 to accommodate for future growth.[18]

Johnson said this issue should have been addressed years ago. "We need to not only address where we need new construction but we need to address what we’re going to do with existing facilities that have deficiencies and what we’re going to do with the schools that we’ve already closed. We need to look at a capital bond in 2016. Fiscal responsibility does not include using a large amount of our operating budget to pay for capital expenses," said Johnson.[18]

Issues in the district

Recall effort
See also: Jeffco Public Schools recall, Colorado (2015)
(L-R) Julie Williams, Ken Witt and John Newkirk were named in the recall petitions in Jeffco Public Schools.

Along with the general election, a recall election for three of the district's five board members was on the ballot on November 3, 2015. Julie Williams, Ken Witt, and John Newkirk, members of the board majority, were the focus of the recall.[19] A majority of voters cast ballots approving the recall, and the three members were removed from office.[4]

District 3 candidate Ali Lasell and District 4 candidate Amanda Stevens came out in support of the recall. They ran as a slate with three candidates who sought to replace the recalled board members. Brad Rupert ran for Williams' seat, Susan Harmon ran to unseat Newkirk, and Ron Mitchell sought Witt's seat.[6] Rupert, Harmon, and Mitchell, all members of The Clean Slate, were elected to replace the recalled board members.[4]

Kim Johnson and Tori Merritts, who ran against Lasell and Stevens in District 3 and 4, respectively, did not support the recall. Johnson said the recall “increases the level of influence of special interest groups in politics.”[6]

A group called Jeffco United for Action filed the petitions against Williams, Witt, and Newkirk in the summer of 2015. All three members said they had no intentions of resigning from the board.[20]

Jeffco United for Action alleged that the three board members had attempted to censor AP U.S. history classes, pushed out over 700 district educators due to their new policies, wasted district funds, violated open meeting laws, limited public input at board meetings, bullied students and parents, and released private student information without consent.[21] In response, all three board members highlighted what they saw as positive changes they had helped bring about in the district, including raising teacher salaries, making union negotiations transparent, providing free full-day kindergarten to families in need, and bringing greater equality in how the district funded its schools.[22]

Ballotpedia survey responses

Candidate Connection Logo - stacked.png
See also: Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Three of the four candidates in this race participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display the responses to the survey questions from Kim Johnson, Ali Lasell, and Amanda Stevens.

Top priorities
Kim Johnson

When asked what her top priorities would be if elected, Johnson stated:

“ We must change the tone of the discussion about our schools. We can allow disagreement and still work together to make our schools the best they can be. We can treat educators like the professionals they are and set expectations everyone can agree on. We can include all community stakeholders in a meaningful, respectful dialog that doesn’t boil down to “which side are you on” as if that defines the totality of any person’s opinion about our schools. Jeffco must raise the level of respect that the board table. Reasonable people can disagree, engage in respective conversation, find common ground, and come to common sense solutions.[23] ”
—Kim Johnson (2015)[24]

When asked what her top priority would be if elected, Lasell stated:

Ali Lasell
“ If elected, my top priority will always be student success.

1. For students to be successful we need a great teacher in every classroom. We need to stop the exodus of great teachers and leaders in Jefferson County. We can do this by earning the trust and respect of our teachers and leaders again. We earn this by collaborating with them; listening to their voice- engaging them in the process once again.
2. We need to be diligent and thoughtful with our tax dollars to ensure accountability and transparency to all stakeholders. Strong fiscal management requires thoughtful ling range planning and collaboration.
3. We must make a fiscally responsible plan to accommodate the growth in NW Arvada and West Lakewood.
4. We must earn the respect and trust of ALL stakeholders in Jeffco. There has been a great division among communities the past two years and we need to work together, work hard to mend those divisions and move forward.[23]

”
—Ali Lasell (2015)[25]

When asked what her top priority would be if elected, Stevens stated:

Amanda Stevens
“ My top priority will always be the success of all Jeffco students--to see them thrive as whole, whole-hearted learners, earners, and citizens. The most critical priority to be addressed is adequate funding, as Colorado is a sad $2,700 below the national average every year for every child. My platform is a three-pronged approach to refocusing school board leadership on nonpartisan service to all students and our community rather than polarizing agendas:

1. Excellence (assess and improve students' academic learning, enrichment opportunities, and safety & connection, while rebuilding Jeffco as the destination district for passionate, professional educators who want long-term, sustainable careers)
2. Transparency (terminate the school board lawyer's position, develop a school board email retention policy, and reinvigorate pathways for listening to the community like the Citizens' Budget Academy, representative committee membership, community survey input, and a functional feedback loop between school accountability teams and the district)
3. Cooperation (respectful engagement with all stakeholders through purposeful listening, aiming for consensus & compromise in students' best interests; ongoing Interest Based Bargaining that centers decisions on student success; healthy debate and dialogue among leaders and community members even and especially when disagreement exists). None of this work can happen in isolation because each piece is interdependent, and it must be won anew every year for every child we serve.[23]

”
—Amanda Stevens (2015)[26]
Ranking the issues

The candidates were asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays the candidates' rankings:

Issue importance ranking
Issue Johnson's ranking
(District 3) 		Lasell's ranking
(District 3) 		Stevens' ranking
(District 4)
Expanding arts education
7
6
6
Expanding career-technical education
3
4
4
Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
1
1
3
Improving college readiness
5
3
1
Closing the achievement gap
2
2
2
Improving education for special needs students
4
5
5
Expanding school choice options
6
7
7
Positions on the issues

The candidates were asked to answer 10 multiple choice and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. A link to their responses can be found below.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Jeffco Public Schools general election.[2][17]

Deadline Event
August 5, 2015 - August 28, 2015 Candidate filing period
August 31, 2015 Deadline for write-in candidates to file an affidavit
October 13, 2015 Campaign finance report due
October 26, 2015 Voter registration deadline
October 30, 2015 Campaign finance report due
November 3, 2015 General Election Day
December 3, 2015 Campaign finance report due

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Colorado elections, 2015

This election shared the ballot with a recall election for three other members of the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education.[19] It also shared the ballot with the Colorado Marijuana TABOR Refund Measure, an $8,860,000 ballot measure for the Jefferson County Public Library System and several municipal elections.[27]

See also

Jeffco Public Schools Colorado School Boards
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External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jeffco Public Schools, "Board Members," accessed January 27, 2015
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Colorado Secretary of State, "Colorado elections & campaign finance calendar," accessed January 27, 2015
  3. ↑ Jeffco Public Schools, "Board of Education Election 2015," accessed August 31, 2015
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Jefferson County, "Unofficial County Results," November 3, 2015
  5. ↑ Lakewood Sentinel, "Jefferson County School Board elections could force imminent change," October 6, 2015
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Colorado Public Radio, "In JeffCo, Recall Vote Brings Years Of Turmoil To A Head," October 19, 2015
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 United States Census Bureau, "Jefferson County, Colorado," accessed September 23, 2015
  8. ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 15, 2015
  9. ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "Election Results Archives," accessed February 11, 2015
  10. ↑ Kim Johnson for Jeffco Schools, "Endorsements," accessed October 7, 2015
  11. ↑ Ali Lasell for Jeffco Schools, "Endorsements," accessed October 7, 2015
  12. ↑ Jeffco Students for Change, "Announcement of the 2015 JSFC Endorsements for the Regular School Board Election," September 13, 2015
  13. ↑ Support Jeffco Kids, "SJK Endorsements 2015," accessed October 14, 2015
  14. ↑ Amanda Stevens for Jeffco Schools, "Endorsements," accessed October 8, 2015
  15. ↑ Jeffco Students for Change, "Announcement of the 2015 JSFC Endorsements for the Regular School Board Election," September 13, 2015
  16. ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "TRACER: Candidate Search," accessed December 7, 2015
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Colorado Secretary of State, "2015 Jefferson County School Board Elections Calendar (Regular and Recall)," accessed October 7, 2015
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 Colorado Public Radio, "JeffCo School Board Recall: Where The Candidates Stand," October 20, 2015
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chalkbeat Colorado, "Clerk: Jeffco school board recall will be on November ballot," September 3, 2015
  20. ↑ High Timber Times, "Recall of 3 school board members likely to move forward," July 14, 2015
  21. ↑ Jefferson County Elections, "Election Information - What's on the 2015 Coordinated Election Ballot?" accessed October 9, 2015
  22. ↑ 9 News, "JeffCo recall effort gets underway," July 9, 2015
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  24. ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Kim Johnson responses," October 11, 2015
  25. ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Ali Lasell responses," October 27, 2015
  26. ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Amanda Stevens responses," October 26, 2015
  27. ↑ Jefferson County Elections, "Election Information - What's on the 2015 Coordinated Election Ballot?" accessed October 9, 2015
2015 Jeffco Public Schools General Election and Recall Election
Jefferson County, Colorado
Election date:November 3, 2015
Candidates:General Election Candidates
District 3: • Kim Johnson • Ali Lasell
District 4: • Tori Merritts • Amanda Stevens
Recall Election Candidates
District 1: • Incumbent, Julie Williams • Brad Rupert
District 2: • Incumbent, John Newkirk • Matt Dhieux • Susan Harmon
District 5: • Incumbent, Ken Witt • Regan Benson • Ron Mitchell • Paula Noonan
Important information:Issues in the general election • Recall supporters • Recall opponents • Key general election deadlines • Recall path to the ballot
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