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Kay Ketzenberger
From Ballotpedia
Kay Ketzenberger was a candidate for Position 7 representative on the Ector County Independent School District school board in Texas. Ketzenberger was defeated in the by-district general election on May 6, 2017.
Ketzenberger participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to read her responses.
Elections
2017
Four of the seven seats on the Ector County Independent School District board of trustees in Texas were up for general election on May 6, 2017. In her bid for re-election to Position 2, incumbent Teri Ervin was defeated by Delma Abalos. Position 4 incumbent Doyle Woodall and Position 5 incumbent Steve Brown ran unopposed and won re-election by default. The race for the Position 7 seat included incumbent Nelson Minyard and challenger Kay Ketzenberger. Minyard won re-election to the seat.[1][2][3]
Results
| Ector County Independent School District, Position 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Nelson Minyard Incumbent |
54.87% | 439 |
| Kay Ketzenberger | 45.13% | 361 |
| Total Votes | 800 | |
| Source: Ector County, Texas, "Cumulative Report–Official: Joint General Election, May 6, 2017," accessed June 6, 2017 | ||
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia survey responses
Kay Ketzenberger participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates.[4] In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on February 25, 2017:
| “ | While I would like to see all our students and schools improve their test performances over the next several, I would especially like to see our elementary schools get to at least the 40th percentile in reading and math performance. That would give students a reasonable chance at success at junior high and high school, and eventually college. I believe this will involve a concerted effort at recruitment of more highly qualified teachers, particularly teachers that are certified before they graduate and start teaching.[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 Texas. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | These rankings were difficult - they are all important.[6] | ” |
| —Kay Ketzenberger (February 25, 2017) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer eight 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. The schools in our district cannot afford to have money siphoned off to charters if we are to help our schools close the achievement gaps in student reading and math skills. Also, most charter students do no better than public school students on standardized testing. Charters and private schools should not be supported at the expense at the expense of public schools, which educate over 90% of the children of this country. |
| 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 defer to school board decisions in most cases. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. 1) State-wide achievement tests hardly ever have a strong correlation between what is tested and what is taught. It is enough to compare students' achievement compared to their own achievement levels from the year before, and compared to their age mates, but that is not the same as the educational effectiveness of a school district, a school, or a teacher. Unless the test has a VERY strong match between what is taught and what is tested, it cannot test the effectiveness of a teacher. And these tests do not have that level of match. 2) A good test has items that 40-60% of students get right. If 80-90% of students get an item right, it doesn't do a good job of differentiating student knowledge, and so is unlikely to be included on the test. Teachers have obviously done a good job of teaching that content, but it won't be tested, so educational effectiveness is not served by achievement testing. 3) Students learn in lots of ways, of which school is only one. There are many other factors than school that go into a test score than how well their teachers taught them. |
| 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. Offer additional training options. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Merit pay is almost always based on standardized test results, which is a terrible one-shot method for measuring success. Until there is a reliable way to measure teacher success and skill, we should not do merit pay. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. Tax money is public money. It should be spent on strengthening public schools so they can do the best possible job of educating every child, not just the wealthy. A voucher rarely covers the full tuition of private or charter schools, leaving the parents to cover the rest. Low income parents rarely are able to make up the difference between the amount covered by the voucher and the actual price. Thus, the frequent support of vouchers as a way to give low income parents the ability to "escape poorly functioning schools" is very rarely true. Vouchers are most commonly used by the middle class and the well-to-do that do not need them, and that would put their children in charters or private schools anyway. But they do siphon money out of poorly financed public schools that certainly cannot afford to lose even one dollar. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion should be fairly rare, as well as on a case-by-case basis. It should be primarily based on safety and disruption concerns also. One thing I feel strongly about is that expulsion decisions should be based on the behavior only - there should be no racial judgment. If a school district or school has a disproportionate percentage of expulsions for racial groups, but for the same offenses, then the district needs to take a look at what that's about. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement A child who knows that their parents are active and interested in their learning will be active and interested in their own learning. If school is important to mom and dad, or mom or dad, to the point that they help with homework or attend parent/teacher nights or school activities, a child is much more engaged and interested in school themselves. That's not to say other factors aren't important, but parent involvement, I believe, is tops. |
See also
- Ector County Independent School District, Texas
- Ector County Independent School District elections (2017)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ OA Online, "Several contested municipal races this year," February 17, 2017
- ↑ CBS 7, "ECISD board members cancel May 6th elections," March 8, 2017
- ↑ Your Basin, "Election Results: May 6, 2017," accessed May 6, 2017
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2017, "Kay Ketzenberger's responses," February 25, 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| Ector County Independent School District elections in 2017 | |
| Ector County, Texas | |
| Election date: | May 6, 2017 |
| Candidates: | Position 2: • Incumbent, Teri Ervin • Delma Abalos Position 4: • Incumbent, Doyle Woodall Position 5: • Incumbent, Steve Brown Position 7: • Incumbent, Nelson Minyard • Kay Ketzenberger |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
