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Kansas City Kansas Public Schools elections (2015)
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Four seats on the Kansas City Kansas Public Schools Board of Education were up for election on April 7, 2015. The seats of at-large incumbents George Breidenthal, Brenda Jones, Gloria Willis and Christal Watson were up for election. Watson was the only incumbent not to file to run for re-election.[1]
The three incumbents retained their seats against the following five challengers: Irene Caudillo, Korri Hall-Thompson, Janey Humphries, Valdenia Winn and Maria Ysaac.[1] Winn won her first term on the board as the fourth-highest vote recipient in the election.[2]
The 2015 election marked the last spring election for school boards statewide. House Bill 2104 was signed into law by Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback (R) on June 8, 2015. Another bill, Senate Bill 171, originally proposed moving the school board elections to November of even-numbered years, in line with statewide general elections, and would have made all school boards into partisan offices.
HB 2104 did not change the nonpartisan nature of the boards, but it did move their general elections to November of odd-numbered years. A number of school boards across the state opposed the more drastic changes proposed by SB 171, particularly the possibility of partisan elections.
Election changes were not the only point of contention between the state government and Kansas school boards in 2015; all districts also had to adapt to changes in state funding for education due to budget shortfalls.
Income tax reductions in 2012 and 2013 championed by Brownback were blamed by some as the cause of the state's financial woes and, therefore, the reason cuts to education spending were considered. Supporters of the changes emphasized the state's decade-old education funding formula as being the real reason a funding overhaul was necessary. Regardless of the cause, legislation was passed issuing block grants to public school districts while legislators debated how to replace the repealed 1995 funding formula.
About the district
Kansas City Kansas Public Schools is located in Kansas City, the county seat of Wyandotte County, in northeastern Kansas. The county was home to an estimated 160,384 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[3] Kansas City Kansas Public Schools was the fifth-largest school district by enrollment in Kansas and served 20,914 students in the 2012-2013 school year.[4]
Demographics
Wyandotte County underperformed compared to the rest of Kansas in terms of higher education achievement, median household income and poverty rate in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 15.5 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 30.3 percent for Kansas as a whole. The median household income in Wyandotte County was $39,402 compared to $51,332 for the state. The poverty rate in the county was 23.9 percent compared to 13.7 percent for the entire state.[3]
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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 Kansas City Kansas Board of Education is composed of seven members who are elected at-large to four-year terms. Three or four seats are up for regular election at a time. Four seats were up for election in 2015.
House Bill 2104 made this the last election for the district to be held in the spring of an odd-numbered year. Signed into law by Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback (R) on June 8, 2015, the law changed school board election dates to November of odd-numbered years.
Candidates had to file a petition containing 50 signatures or pay a filing fee of $5 by January 27, 2015. If more than three candidates had filed for any one position up for election, a primary election would have been held on March 3, 2015. The general election was held April 7, 2015.[6]
Voters had to register by March 17, 2015, to vote in this election.
Elections
2015
Candidates
At-large
George Breidenthal 
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Brenda Jones
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Gloria Willis
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Irene Caudillo | ||||
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| Korri Hall-Thompson | Janey Humphries | Valdenia Winn
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Maria Ysaac | ||||
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Election results
| Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2015 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Gloria Willis Incumbent |
17.9% | 3,478 | |
| Nonpartisan | George Breidenthal Incumbent |
15.9% | 3,088 | |
| Nonpartisan | Brenda Jones Incumbent |
15.6% | 3,038 | |
| Nonpartisan | Valdenia Winn |
15% | 2,919 | |
| Nonpartisan | Maria Ysaac | 10.5% | 2,049 | |
| Nonpartisan | Irene Caudillo | 10.3% | 2,003 | |
| Nonpartisan | Janey Humphries | 7.8% | 1,512 | |
| Nonpartisan | Korri Hall-Thompson | 6.7% | 1,294 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.3% | 62 | |
| Total Votes | 19,443 | |||
| Source: Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City Election Office, "Election Summary Report Wyandotte County General Election 04-07-2015," April 13, 2015 | ||||
Endorsements
Irene Caudillo, Maria Ysaac and Valdenia C. Winn were endorsed by MainPAC.[7]
Campaign finance
The Wyandotte County Election Office does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia was able to confirm no contributions or expenditures were reported as of February 12, 2015.[8]
Candidates who intended to receive or expend less than $500.00 in their campaign were allowed to file a K.S.A. 25-904(a) form called an "Affidavit of Exemption" attesting to those intentions. Candidates' contributions to their own campaigns are included in those limits. If a candidate subsequently exceeded these limits after filing as exempt, he or she would be required to comply with the reporting requirements from that point forward.
Past elections
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2013
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What was at stake?
2015
The KCKPS Board of Education was guaranteed to see at least one new member and could have seen as many as four new members join the board in the 2015 election. The district saw funding changes from the state in early 2015. Additionally, its election system changed from a spring cycle to a fall system.
Issues in the district
State education funding changes
- See also: Kansas state budget and finances
A looming state budget deficit of $600 million led the state legislature to approve a block-grant funding system to replace the state's public school funding formula.[9] Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback (R) had proposed that $44.5 million be cut from state funding for education to make up for budgetary shortcomings on February 5, 2015.[10]
Cuts proposed by governor
Of the total cuts Brownback suggested, $28 million would have come from elementary and secondary education funding, while another $16 million would have been taken from higher education funding. Kansas City Kansas Public Schools was slated to lose about $1.4 million as a result of the cuts.[10]
Kansas City Kansas Public Schools received a pointed note in the governor's announcement of the cuts. In his statement on the matter, Brownbeck's office said, "Recent media coverage of the purchase of a $48,000 grand piano is symptomatic of the inherent flaws in the current formula. That money could and should have been used to hire another teacher to reduce class sizes and help improve academic achievement."[11]
This statement referred to a piano recently purchased by the district to replace a piano used at Sumner Academy. District Superintendent Cynthia Lane responded to the governor's comment saying that the piano that the school replaced could no longer be repaired. The district also responded to the governor's suggestion that the funds should have been used to hire another teacher by noting that it used capital outlay funds to purchase the piano. Those funds, by law, cannot be spent on salaries.[12]
Lane further stated on her blog:
| “ | Recently, the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) has been under attack for replacing a 50-year-old piano, one that was used every day in instruction. Our critics contend that we are wasting taxpayer money. In fact, some have gone so far as to say that our purchase of a grand piano is justification for cutting funding to public schools, and is a reason to change how schools are funded in Kansas. No, I am not kidding! Our piano purchase is under attack. Someone watching all of this grandstanding from afar, might interpret this to mean, stop buying pianos for schools and the state revenue shortfall will be solved![13] | ” |
| —Cynthia Lane, KCKPS Superintendent (2015)[14] | ||
Critics of Brownback have pointed to his campaign promises supporting education in 2013. Kansas State Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D-19) called the move, “just another deception [Brownbeck] put upon the voters of Kansas." Brownback's spokesperson, however, has stated that the governor “has consistently maintained that the education funding formula is broken and reform is needed to ensure more money goes to the classroom to benefit Kansas students."[10]
Income taxes blamed and defended
Some blamed the income tax reductions signed into law by the governor for the significant shortfall looming for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2015. Income tax cuts were championed by Brownback and passed by the Legislature in 2012 and 2013. In 2015, the state had to reassess its spending and consider new forms of revenue. Possible revenue sources that were considered included raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol or changing tax assessments for farmland, gasoline, and sales and passive income.[9] In 2013, the state collected $2.96 billion in individual income taxes, which made up 38.80 percent of the state's tax collections.[15]
Brownback defended the income tax cuts and pushed for consumption taxes to replace lost funds in April 2015. “I still want to get away from the income tax. Over time, I would like to see us move toward the consumption basket of taxes," he stated at that time. He also voiced support for a higher sales tax. The governor remained vague about exactly which consumption taxes might be used but noted his support for tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol.[15]
At the same time, Brownback responded to criticisms over the fact that he shared budget information prior to the legislative session with David Kensinger, his former chief of staff and current lobbyist for Reynolds American tobacco company. Brownback defended the move, saying, “What I try to do is get as much input from people as possible. I’ve tried to operate most of my public career in trying to solicit lots of input. I wish he wasn’t lobbying for that group. He’s free to do what he’s doing.”[15]
Legislative response
In response to Brownback's proposal, the Kansas State Legislature outlined a plan in March 2015 to fund public schools with block grants for two years while they rewrite the school funding formula. According to The Kansas City Star, the block grants would provide an increase of more than $4.2 billion for the 2016-2017 school year, which would represent a 9 percent increase from the 2013-2014 allocations. Additionally, the block grants would return the 2014-2015 district allocations to the amounts they were set at before Brownback announced his planned budget cuts. Whether or not these funds actually indicate an increase in classroom spending and how the Legislature would pay for the increase in funding remained unclear as of the bill's introduction.[9]
Democratic legislators criticized the bill, arguing that the majority of the additional funding would go toward retirement and meeting the requirements of a 2014 Kansas Supreme Court ruling mandating more funding for schools. Sen. Hensley argued, "Their proposal does not do what they claim it’s going to do. It does not allocate $300 million in new money, nor does it put more money into the classroom.”[9]
In a 64 to 57 vote on March 13, 2015, the House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 7, a plan to overhaul the state's 13-year-old school finance system. State law required at least 63 votes in favor of the measure for it to pass the House. The bill was immediately moved back to the Senate. This prevented any motions to reconsider the House vote. On March 16, 2015, the Senate approved the revised bill 25 to 14. Because the bill sent back from the House had been a Senate bill with additions from the House, senators only had to vote yes or no to the House revisions and were not able to offer amendments. The bill was signed into law by Brownbeck on March 25, 2015.[16][17]
The approved bill replaced the current system with block grants for two years while the funding formula is overhauled. Republican leaders argued that the state's funding formula, which is based on a per-pupil formula and includes weighting for bilingual and low-income students, was broken. Senate President Susan Wagle (R-30), who voted in favor of the old formula in 1992 and in favor of SB 7, said, "We are no longer talking about student outcomes and student achievement. We’re fighting for money."[17]
Not all of her colleagues agreed that SB 7 was a solution to education funding woes. Some senators objected to how quickly the bill was passed and to the lack of discussion before the final Senate vote on the matter. Sen. Tom Holland (D-3) voted against the measure and said:
| “ | While Charles and David Koch may have won this particular battle, Kansas families can at least take some small measure of comfort in knowing that our Kansas courts — as yet uncorrupted by the supply-side ideology cancer that has metastasized Kansas’ legislative and executive branches of government — that they are keeping a watchful eye on this Legislature’s actions.[13] | ” |
| —Sen. Tom Holland (D-3) (2015)[17] | ||
Judicial response
Holland was referencing judicial action taken the same day the House passed SB 7, when a three-judge district court panel ordered the reopening of a school funding lawsuit that had been settled in 2014. The lawsuit was settled after the Legislature equalized funding between districts through increased allocations, but the new court order reopened the equity portion of the case. It also added new state officials to the list of defendants in the case, including the state treasurer and revisor of statutes. The panel announced that it might issue temporary orders blocking the recent legislative action if necessary "to preserve the status quo and to assure the availability of relief, if any, that might be accorded should the Court deem relief warranted.”[17][18]
Election date changes
Early legislative action in 2015 could have made all Kansas school board elections into partisan races held in November of even-numbered years. Those changes were not approved, but a smaller change was signed into law on June 8, 2015; House Bill 2104 changed all school board election dates to November of odd-numbered years.
HB 2104
HB 2104 was introduced to the Kansas House of Representatives on January 23, 2015, and sponsored by the House Elections Committee. The house approved the measure 69 to 54 on February 26, 2015. Following the withdrawal of a similar senate bill, HB 2104 was approved by the senate by a vote of 28 to 12.[19]
The portion of the Conference Committee Report of the bill relating to the election date changes states:
| “ | The bill would move all elections for office holders of local governments currently held in the spring of odd-numbered years to the fall of odd-numbered years, with one exception (described below). In general, the elections would remain nonpartisan, although a city could choose to make its elections partisan. Sections to be added to the law, Sections 7, 8, and 13 through 16, would be cited as the Help Kansas Vote Act.
Beginning in 2017, the election dates for the specified units of local government would mirror the election dates for the elections held in even-numbered years. That is, the primary election would be held on the first Tuesday in August, and the general election would be held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. The elections, to be administered by the county election officers, would be consolidated into one ballot, which would be prescribed by the Secretary of State through rules and regulations. Those entities currently with district method elective offices (i.e., cities and school districts) would retain that authority.[13] |
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| —HB 2104 Conference Committee Report (2015)[20] | ||
SB 171
On February 9, 2015, Sen. Mitch Holmes (R-33) introduced Senate Bill 171 to the Ethics, Elections and Local Government Committee. The bill, as it was initially introduced, would have moved school board and other local elections to November in even-numbered years, in addition to changing school boards from their current nonpartisan status by requiring candidates to declare party affiliations.[21]
Supporters claimed that moving the school board elections to a date when there are more elections would increase voter turnout for such races as well as reduce the costs of printing the number of current ballot variations. Others questioned whether or not a move would actually improve turnout, as it would place school board elections on an already lengthy ballot.[22]
The bill was amended before being approved 21 to 18 by the Senate on February 26, 2015.[21] The approved version would move school board and other local elections to the November general election date in odd-numbered years. It removed the language that would have made those elections partisan. During the debate of the revised version, Holmes expressed frustration with the resistance to moving local elections. He argued that such a move would increase voter turnout and bring greater transparency to local government, saying that such offices are "elected on a day that nobody notices."[23]
Holmes also argued that the disproportionately white city council of Ferguson, Mo., was caused by holding off-year elections and postulated that "minorities vote better in on-cycle elections than off-cycle elections." Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D-29), the first African American woman elected to the State Senate and one of the two African American members of the body, dismissed this argument, saying, “I don’t live in Ferguson. I don’t know anybody who lived there. ... We’re here in Kansas."[23]
On March 4, 2015, the revised Senate bill was introduced in the House of Representatives. The House Elections Committee recommended the revised bill be approved with some amendments regarding date changes in the law on March 19, 2015. The measure was withdrawn from the Senate calendar shortly thereafter.[21]
Key deadlines
The following were the key deadlines for the 2015 Kansas school board election cycle:[24]
| Deadline | Event |
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| January 27, 2015 | Candidate filing deadline |
| March 17, 2015 | Voter registration deadline |
| March 28, 2015 | In-person advance voting begins |
| April 2, 2015 | Last campaign finance deadline before the election |
| April 7, 2015 | Election Day |
| May 7, 2015 | Last campaign finance deadline for the election cycle |
| July 1, 2015 | Election winners begin terms |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Kansas elections, 2015
County, municipal and other local offices were also up for election on April 7, 2015. The election included races for United Government Commissioners, Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, Kansas City Kansas Community College Board of Trustees, Drainage District Board of Directors and other local government races.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Kansas City Public Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Kansas City Kansas Public Schools | Kansas | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City Election Office, "2015 City/School Election Unofficial Candidate List," January 27, 2015
- ↑ Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City Election Office, "Unofficial 2015 City General Election Results," accessed April 7, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 United States Census Bureau, "Wyandotte County, Kansas," accessed December 30, 2014
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 15, 2015
- ↑ Wyandotte County/Kansas City Unified Government, "Election Results," accessed December 30, 2014
- ↑ Justia US Law, "2013 Kansas Statutes: Chapter 25 ELECTIONS, Article 20 SCHOOL DISTRICT ELECTIONS," accessed January 6, 2015
- ↑ MainePAC, "MainPAC Endorsements," accessed March 25, 2015
- ↑ Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Frances D. Sheppard, Wyandotte County Election Office Assistant Election Commissioner," February 12, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 The Kansas City Star, "Legislative leaders unveil plan to fund Kansas schools with block grants," March 5, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 The Kansas City Star, "Gov. Sam Brownback is cutting aid to Kansas schools by $44.5 million," February 6, 2015
- ↑ Kansas Office of the Governor, "Media Releases: Governor Sam Brownback outlines additional budget actions," accessed February 12, 2015
- ↑ 41 Action News, "Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback cites Sumner Academy's $47K piano in announcing cuts," February 6, 2015
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Kansas City Kansas Public Schools Blog, "Journal of a Superintendent: The Piano," February 6, 2015
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 The Kansas City Star, "Brownback advocates consumption tax as income tax alternative in Kansas," April 2, 2015
- ↑ Open States, "SB 7 - Kansas 2015-2016 Regular Session," accessed March 26, 2015
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Lawrence Journal-World, "Kansas Senate passes Brownback’s school funding overhaul," March 16, 2015
- ↑ The Wichita Eagle, "Court reopens lawsuit as Kansas House narrowly passes school finance overhaul," March 14, 2015
- ↑ Open States, "HB 2104 - Kansas 2015-2016 Regular Session," accessed June 4, 2015
- ↑ Kansas State Legislature, "Second Conference Committee Report Brief: House Bill No. 2104," accessed June 4, 2015
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Kansas State Legislature, "Bills and Resolutions: SB171," accessed June 4, 2015
- ↑ Lawrence Journal-World, "Lawrence school board opposes moving local elections to November," February 9, 2015
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 The Wichita Eagle, "Moving local elections from spring to fall approved by Kansas Senate," February 26, 2015
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2015 City & School Election Calendar," accessed January 6, 2015
| 2015 Kansas City Kansas Public Schools Elections | |
| Wyandotte County, Kansas | |
| Election date: | April 7, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, George Breidenthal • Incumbent, Brenda Jones • Incumbent, Gloria Willis • Irene Caudillo • Korri Hall-Thompson • Janey Humphries • Valdenia Winn • Maria Ysaac |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
