John Schroder (Michigan)
John Schroder was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Warren Consolidated Schools school board in Michigan. Schroder was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Elections
2016
Three of the seven seats on the Warren Consolidated Schools school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. Incumbents Megan Papasian-Broadwell and Susan Trombley filed for re-election, while Benjamin Lazarus did not file for the election. Papasian-Broadwell and Trombley faced challengers Jill Forrest, Susan Jozwik, and John Schroder. Trombley, Jozwik, and Papasian-Broadwell defeated Schroder and Forrest.[1]
Results
| Warren Consolidated Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Susan Trombley Incumbent |
29.48% | 24,140 |
| Susan Jozwik |
22.52% | 18,436 |
| Megan Papasian-Broadwell Incumbent |
16.43% | 13,453 |
| John Schroder | 16.15% | 13,221 |
| Jill Forrest | 15.37% | 12,586 |
| Write-in votes | 0.05% | 41 |
| Total Votes | 81,877 | |
| Source: Macomb County, Michigan, "Election Results," accessed December 14, 2016 | ||
Funding
School board candidates in Michigan were required to file pre-election campaign finance reports with their county election offices by October 28, 2016. Post-election reports were due by December 8, 2016.[2]
In Michigan, candidates are prohibited from receiving contributions from corporations or labor organizations. Within 10 days of becoming a candidate, candidates must form a candidate committee. Following the creation of the committee, candidates have an additional 10 days to register the committee with the school district filing official by filing a statement of organization. A candidate committee that does not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000 during the election cycle is eligible to receive a reporting waiver, which allows that committee not to file pre-election, post-election, and annual campaign statements.[3]
October 28 filing
Candidates received a total of $5,401.37 and spent a total of $2,368.80 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Macomb County Clerk/Register.[4]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Megan Papasian-Broadwell (incumbent) | $1,669.62 | $860.90 | $808.72 |
| Susan Trombley (incumbent) | $3,731.75 | $1,507.90 | $2,223.85 |
| Jill Forrest | Exempt | Exempt | Exempt |
| Susan Jozwik | Exempt | Exempt | Exempt |
| John Schroder | Exempt | Exempt | Exempt |
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
John T. Schroder participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on August 22, 2016:
| “ | If I am elected to school board, I hope that when I leave office, I will have assisted in putting the school system in a better position, both in terms of its financial situation and in terms of student academic achievement.[5][6] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Michigan. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. I do not believe the district needs a new charter school at this time. In addition, I generally oppose all private schools that are publicly funded because they siphon funds away from the public school system, which in turn reduces the quality of our public schools. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. While tests may be an important tool in helping to ascertain whether a child is learning, tests simply do not and cannot measure everything a child has learned during their tenure at a school; rather, they only measure whatever is being tested. Furthermore, many students are poor test takers, and some tests may inadvertently contain cultural biases which make students who understand a concept fail to answer a question correctly. As such, while tests can reveal some clues about how some students learning, tests are just not a fully accurate measure of student achievement. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| The common core standards that were adopted in Michigan in 2014 are a set of standards that details what K–12 students should know in the English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade. Having general benchmarks for students is not necessarily a negative thing, but it is still unclear what effect the enactment of these specific standards will ultimately have. Moreover, given that the standards have only been adopted within the last few years, there is little data to interpret whether the standards have had or will have a positive effect on student achievement going forward. Additionally, each classroom, each subject, and each student in every group of students learns differently, whether the student is at-risk, special education, or one who learns at an accelerated pace. As such, it is important that the enactment of these standards does not become a Trojan horse for telling teachers how to teach their unique set of students. Some people have concerns that the common core standards are not specific enough, and others believe that the common core standards focus on English and Math requirements tends to take away from many other important aspects of school. Because so many questions still exist as to the effectiveness of these standards, at this time, I neither fully support nor oppose the common core standards as they are currently implemented. I will continue to look for feedback from students, parents and teachers as to their thoughts and concerns regarding the standards before taking any firm position. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. If a teacher is found to be under-performing, it is incumbent upon the school system to try to help that teacher. A combination of offering additional training options, setting up a mentorship program for the under-performing teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district, and if necessary putting them on a probationary period while they seek to improve should all be utilized to improve that teacher's performance. It may also be useful to have an under-performing teacher participate in team teaching or observations of effective teachers. Nevertheless, we must strive to have the best teachers for our students, and so if efforts to improve the teaching have failed, or if the teacher refuses to participate in remedial measures, and the teacher continues to perform poorly, their employment contract would need to be terminated. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Even though I generally support pay based upon a person's merit, I generally oppose it when it comes to teachers. The problem with merit pay as it pertains to teachers is how you measure who is the most "meritorious" and deserving of that pay. If a teacher is provided additional compensation because that person takes extra time to mentor other teachers, for example, or because that teacher has been awarded a higher degree, or because the teacher has received recognition for their excellence, additional pay could be warranted. The difficulty comes, however, when one tries to determine teacher pay based upon student's test scores. Some students may have learned the materials, but are simply poor test takers. Students with learning disabilities, those who require special education, or those students in an alternative school setting will perform much more poorly than students in regular classes, but a teacher should not be penalized for teaching that group of students, in fact they should be rewarded for taking on the challenge. Moreover, in certain years some tests may have just been designed to be more difficult, or a test was simply designed poorly. It is unfair to penalize a teacher based upon that test. Finally, it is also important to note that merit pay based upon test scores would incentive teachers to teach test taking strategies to students or they may teach material only relevant to the test instead of making sure that the students understand the material and concepts surrounding it. In summary, there are some circumstance where merit pay could be worthwhile, but I do not support merit pay based upon the test scores of students. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. I do not believe the district needs a new charter school at this time. In addition, I generally oppose all private schools that are publicly funded because they siphon funds away from the public school system, which in turn reduces the quality of our public schools. The state should not give public money to private schools because it will undercut the public school system. Normally, everyone pays taxes into the school system. However, if you allow tax write-offs, tax credits, vouchers, or other form of payment to people or schools outside of the public education system, then you will reduce the funding to the public school system. This reduced revenue occurs even though the costs to maintain the school buildings, the grounds and all the other fixed costs remain, so as a result the total amount of money to the school is reduced. This is turn means less money for the class materials, less money to pay good teachers, and an overall reduced quality of education. When the quality of public education is degraded, even more people will leave the free public school system and join the private school systems, which in turn causes less funding and an even worse public school system. So this begs the question: Why not simply eliminate the public school system and have everyone go to the private school system? Because not everyone can afford it. If a person is poor or middle class, they are just as entitled to a good education as someone who is wealthy. You can still have school choice within the publicly funded school system, and if we can't support a strong education system for all income levels then we will end up in a society where the poor or middle class cannot break out of their income bracket because they can't get a better education than their parents. Our children are the future of this country. Instead of putting public dollars into a private school system and leaving many Americans behind, we should instead fully fund our public school system and then focus on ways to make the public school systems better. If we focus on making our public school system better for all students, then every child will have an opportunity to succeed. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| The expulsion of a student is an extremely serious matter because it means a student will no longer be able to get a chance at Education within their school system. Because schools exist to educate all our students, expulsion should generally only be used in certain serious circumstances. Occasionally, a student has regularly and continually caused such extreme disruption as to prevent other students from learning despite attempts at intervention by the school staff. Prior to expulsion, it usually worth considering sitting down with the student and simply working on positive behavior strategies, or if this fails, sending that student to an alternative school rather than immediate expulsion. Nevertheless, each case should be viewed individually to determine what the best course of action is, and there will still exist cases where expulsion is necessary, and in some rare circumstances immediate expulsion may be warranted, such as those that endanger the well being of other students. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Success in the classroom depends on all of the above. Student-teacher ratios, the curriculum, good teachers, parent involvement, and support from the school administration are all important for success in the classroom. |
Additional themes
Schroder provided the following response to a question by the League of Women Voters Oakland Area regarding his top three priorities for the district:
| “ |
The financial well being, student achievement and graduation rates, and improving education opportunities for special education, at-risk students, and also for advanced students and those who desire technical training are all top priorities. I want to ensure well funded programs and classes for at-risk or special education students, special technical training, or even college level classes and opportunities for students to gain college credits in their senior year of school. When someone is struggling, we need programs to aid them, and when they are succeeding, we need programs to push them even further. The ultimate goal should be for every child to reach their maximum potential. I also support new measures to fund the school system at all levels, including the local levels, and will attempt to improve salaries for the school system employees, including teachers, because the best teachers come to stay with the district that best supports them[7][6] |
” |
| —John Schroder (2016) | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms John Schroder Warren Consolidated Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Oakland County Elections Division, "Unofficial Candidate List," August 19, 2016
- ↑ Michigan Bureau of Elections, "2016 and 2017 Campaign Finance Filing Schedule," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Genesee County, "Filing Requirements under Michigan's Campaign Finance Act," February 7, 2014
- ↑ Macomb County Clerk/Register, "Campaign Finance Reporting," accessed October 30, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "John T. Schroder's responses," August 22, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ League of Women Voters Oakland Area, "Voter Guide-November General Election," accessed October 24, 2016
| 2016 Warren Consolidated Schools Elections | |
| Macomb County, Michigan | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | At-large: Incumbent, Megan Papasian-Broadwell • Incumbent, Susan Trombley • Jill Forrest • Susan Jozwik • John Schroder |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
