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John "Tony" Villegas
John "Tony" Villegas was a candidate for Trustee Area 4 representative on the Salinas Union High Board of Trustees in California. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[1] He lost the election.[2]
Villegas participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read his responses, check out his 2015 campaign themes.
Elections
2015
Four of the seven seats on the Salinas Union High School District Board of Trustees were up for general election on November 3, 2015. The election was held by district. Trustee Area 1 incumbent Carlos Rubio was up for election to a two-year term after getting appointed to the board in January 2015. Trustee Area 2 incumbent Patricia Padilla-Salsberg and Trustee Area 4 incumbent Kathryn Ramirez were up for re-election to four-year terms. The vacant Trustee Area 6 seat was also up for election to a four-year term.[3][4][5]
Rubio defeated challenger John Fickas to keep the Trustee Area 1 seat. In Trustee Area 2, Padilla-Salsberg won against challenger Raymond Scott Beasley. The Trustee Area 4 race featured Ramirez and challenger John "Tony" Villegas. Ramirez won re-election to the seat. Candidate Sandra Ocampo ran unopposed and won the vacant Trustee Area 6 seat.[1][2]
Results
| Salinas Union High School District, Trustee Area 4, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Kathryn Ramirez Incumbent |
54.5% | 577 |
| John "Tony" Villegas | 45.5% | 482 |
| Total Votes | 1,059 | |
| Source: County of Monterey, "Final Official Report," accessed November 17, 2015 | ||
Funding
Villegas reported $11,461.00 in contributions and $9,916.93 in expenditures to the Monterey County Elections Office, which left his campaign with $1,544.07 on hand in the election.[6]
The first campaign finance reporting deadline was September 24, 2015, and the second one was October 22, 2015. If candidates raised or spent more than $1,000 from a single source, including their own funds, between August 5, 2015, and November 2, 2015, they had to file a campaign finance report within 24 hours.[7]
Endorsements
Villegas received endorsements from the Salinas Chamber of Commerce and the Salinas Valley Leadership group.[8][9]
Candidate themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Villegas 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:
| “ | Stopping the bullying that is detrimental to learning process in the classroom by students, by employees, teachers, administration, and by board members against colleagues throughout the district. To say students are the only bullies in the educational environment is very short sighted in deed.[10] | ” |
| —John "Tony" Villegas (2015)[11] | ||
Ranking the issues
Villegas 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 California. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding arts education | |
Positions on the issues
Villegas 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." | |
| "Yes" | |
| "Yes" | |
| "No, they are used more for political purposes and these test are taught to by the teacher defeating the purpose of critical thinking skills." | |
| "By leveling them to their appropriate learning level, and providing them with all the resources available to provide them with the opportunity to raise their achievement scores." | |
| "Expulsion cases should be case-by-case, for serious offenses that compromise safety, students with behavioral problems should be removed to alternative education environments, and positive strategies should be used before expulsion." | |
| "Assess what the issues are. Does the school have fully credentialed teachers, and is the administration experienced and qualified. There are many facets of a failing school. To pinpoint one exact cause is obtuse to say the least.
I believe that failing schools need to be assessed by qualified peers or consultants to provide recommendations to the board to improve the underlying issues that are the root cause of the schools situation." | |
| "Yes, if the students are distributed equally based upon ability in the classrooms. Some sort of rubric" | |
| "Mentorship programs to assist underperforming teachers, offer additional training options, and put teachers on a probationary period while they seek to improve their deficiencies. After the teacher is provided all those opportunities, and still underperforms, then the district should look to terminate their contract." | |
| "I believe transparency and articulating what the district is doing for the community needs to be well known. The partnership between the two are crucial in improving overall product that is coming out of our schools." | |
| "I strongly believe the only way schools will improve is by test students like they do in college and leveling them to the appropriate learning levels vs having a teacher try to teach to multiple learning levels via differentiated learning. I feel resources could be redirected towards intervention programs that actually work vs ones that don't help the students at all.
The schools must consider the aptitude of the individual student just as they do when they consider intervention programs and place those students in a learning environment where they'll succeed to their maximum potential. We must ensure there is equality of opportunity, not equality of results. For if we focus on the latter, we will fail miserably. We are not all created equal in the sense of skill sets. For each person has their own individual set of skill sets that we hope they'll expand upon in an educational setting, so when they enter the workforce, they can monetize their individual skills to increase their value to their community." |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'John 'Tony' Villegas' 'Salinas Union High School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Salinas Union High School District, California
- Salinas Union High School District 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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Monterey County Elections, "Candidate List," accessed August 10, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 County of Monterey, "Semi-Final Official Report," accessed November 4, 2015 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "results" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Salinas Union High School District, "Board Members," accessed January 29, 2015
- ↑ Monterey County Elections, “November 3, 2015 Cities, Schools and Special Districts Election,” accessed January 29, 2015
- ↑ 2013 California Code, “CA Elec Code § 8403 (2013),” accessed January 29, 2015
- ↑ Monterey County Elections Office, "Viewing filing activity for Villegas, John," accessed December 7, 2015
- ↑ Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 3, 2015," accessed August 5, 2015
- ↑ Facebook, "Tony Villegas: Public Figure," October 8, 2015
- ↑ Salinas Valley Leadership Group, "John Villegas," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "John "Tony" Villegas responses," September 30, 2015
