Jessy Briton Hamilton
Jessy Briton Hamilton was a candidate for District 4 representative on the Adams 12 Board of Education in Colorado. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[1] Jessy Briton Hamilton lost the general election on November 3, 2015.
Biography
Hamilton earned his masters in public administration from the University of Central Florida in 2011. He received a graduate certificate in gifted education from the University of South Florida in 2007 and had a fellowship in American history at Oxford University in 2007. He received his B.A. in social studies education from Northern Kentucky University in 2002. Hamilton is a council member with Adams County Cultural Council, a delegate with the Colorado Education Association and a board member of the Colorado Alliance for HIV Prevention.[2]
Elections
2015
Four of the five seats on the Adams 12 Board of Education were up for election on November 3, 2015. Seats in Districts 1, 2, 4, and 5 were on the general election ballot.
Incumbent Norm L. Jennings faced challenger Seth "Isaiah" Thomas in District 1. The District 2 race included candidates Daniel Garcia and Jamey Lockley. District 2 incumbent Robert M. Willsey did not file for re-election. Jeff Jasica, Stephanie James, Laura P. Mitchell, and Teresa Thomson Walsh sought the District 5 seat held by Mark Clark, who did not file for re-election.[3]
A special election for the District 4 seat previously held by Rico Figueroa included incumbent Brian Batz, Amira Amal Assad-Lucas and Jessy Briton Hamilton. Figueroa served on the board from December 2013 to March 2015 after 2013 winner Amy Speers was found ineligible to serve because she lived outside of District 4. On March 2, 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court concurred with a decision by Broomfield District Court Judge Chris Melonakis declaring the seat vacant.[4] Brian Batz was appointed to fill the vacancy in District 4 on April 29, 2015, and ran to serve the remaining two years on Speers' term.[5]
Jennings was successful in securing the District 1 seat. In District 2, Lockley won the seat. Batz was successful in being re-elected to the District 4 seat, and Mitchell won the seat in District 5.
Results
| Adams 12 Five Star Schools, District 4, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Brian Batz |
44.7% | 12,856 |
| Jessy Briton Hamilton | 41.9% | 12,053 |
| Amira Amal Assad-Lucas | 13.4% | 3,856 |
| Total Votes | 28,765 | |
| Source: Adams County Clerk & Recorder, "Official County Results," and City and County of Broomfield, "Official Certified Results", accessed December 17, 2015 | ||
Funding
Hamilton reported no contributions or expenditures to the Colorado Secretary of State as of October 29, 2015.[6]
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Hamilton participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | We have to address equity in our schools. We will never achieve the other goals we have set before us (closing the opportunity gap, moving our emerging bilingual students forward, or getting beyond mere proficiency to mastery of standards) if we do not begin to have serious conversations about equity. Every parent, community leader, and district employee should be invited to dialogue. There are professional facilitators at Colorado universities who are specially trained to lead these conversations. It would be a wise investment for the board to look into deepening our district’s commitment to equity.
We face significant budget challenges. Our facilities in the southern part of the district are older, many have pressing maintenance needs, and some should be renovated or replaced altogether. Teachers in Adams 12 do not always have the resources educators in more affluent school districts take for granted. This is unacceptable. We have to think outside the box, and we cannot be afraid to ask for help. The financial challenges facing our district are much bigger than anything five school board directors can tackle on their own. With that reality in mind, I have tirelessly built relationships with city council members, county commissioners, and state legislators over the course of the last year. Each of them has expressed to me a willingness to collaborate with Adams 12 to find ways to get the resources we need. Some council members mentioned specific programs (sports and extracurricular activities) that we might provide for students at a shared cost. Help exists. We need to begin asking. Our neighborhoods are only as strong as our schools. People in some relatively high places understand that, and they’re willing to be a part of the solution. Likewise, we need to involve our nonprofit and business communities. We are all in it together."[7] |
” |
| —Jessy Briton Hamilton (2015)[8] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidate was 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 this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Colorado. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "Modifications are required before they are implemented." | |
| "No." | |
| "No." | |
| "No." | |
| Candidate did not respond to this question. | |
| "Expulsion cases must be viewed on a case-by-case basis rather than the district having an overarching policy." | |
| "We first need to examine what it means to be "failing". Often schools, teachers, and students are labeled "failing" to justify the privatization of our neighborhood schools. Let's be clear: our schools, teachers, and students are not failures. The real failure is the system that shames our kids and professional educators in an effort to make public education look more like a for-profit business." | |
| "No." | |
| "Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district." | |
| "As I travel around the district knocking on doors, I have learned that a key reason our bond and levy issues failed last year is that voters do not trust that our school board will use increased revenue to benefit students. I do not know if this concern is based in reality, or merely perception, but I do know that our board has an image problem. I intend to bring greater transparency and a spirit of collaboration to our board. I will propose a re-imaging campaign to sell the Adams 12 brand to the wider community, and the next time we place a request for increased revenues on the ballot, it will pass because we have improved relationships with voters and key stakeholders." |
Bid for office
Hamilton issued the following statement regarding his bid for office:
| “ | I am running for school board to make a difference in the lives of children. I believe every child can live up to his or her God-given potential if only we remove the barriers to equity. I want to see a competent, highly qualified teacher in every classroom. After we reach that benchmark, I want to step out of the way so those teachers can shine. I have three priorities to move our district forward during my tenure:
1. Reducing the testing burden. Most testing mandates come from the state or federal level, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing our school board can do to reduce the testing burden for the average student. Upon my election, I will immediately reach out to other fair-minded school board directors throughout our region to form a lobby to help guide our legislators to author bills that will restore time for teaching and learning. Adams 12 has the potential to be a leader in the counter-reform movement. 2. Creating a safe, equitable learning environment for ALL students. Our students have a right to a fair, inclusive, and safe learning environment. I believe every child can be college and career ready by the end of high school. As your school board director, I will work to promote an equitable learning environment with equal opportunity as the cornerstone. No student, teacher, or support professional should experience a barrier to success based on an immutable characteristic. To put it simply, I want to level the playing field. I want Adams 12 to be a district that celebrates the rich diversity in our schools, and becomes a system that fosters original thinking and a love of learning. 3. Transitioning our STEM programs to STEAM programs. The arts are the heart and soul of a learning community. When asked to defund the arts and close cultural venues in Britain to provide for the war effort in World War II, Winston Churchill is said to have famously asked, “Then what are we fighting for?” Our children deserve a passionate learning environment filled with awe. STEAM programs add the “A” (for arts) to an already rigorous STEM curriculum to produce well-rounded students. [7] |
” |
| —Jessy Briton Hamilton, August 31, 2015, [2] | ||
Candidate survey on charter schools
The Colorado League of Charter Schools issued a candidate survey for all candidates of the Adams 12 school board. Hamilton elected not to respond to any of the questions.[9]
- To read other candidate responses, visit What's at Stake for Adams 12 Five Star Schools?
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Jessy Briton Hamilton' OR 'Adams 12 Five Star Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Colorado
- Adams 12 Five Star Schools elections (2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Adams 12 Five Star Schools, "STATEMENT OF SUFFICIENCY," August 26, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Information submitted through Ballotpedia's biographical submission form on August 31, 2015
- ↑ Adams 12 Five Star Schools, "2015 election," accessed August 30, 2015
- ↑ Adams 12 Five Star Schools, "Director District 4 Election Update," March 6, 2015
- ↑ The Denver Post, "Adams 12 school board votes to appoint Brian Batz to board vacancy," April 29, 2015
- ↑ Tracer, "Search Results", accessed October 29, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ ’’Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey, 2015’’, “Jessy Briton Hamilton’s responses,” September 23, 2015
- ↑ Colorado League of Charter Schools, "Adams 12 Five Star Schools Board Candidate Survey", accessed October 26, 2015
