Keith Powell
Keith Powell was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Richland School District Two school board in South Carolina. Powell was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Biography
Powell works as a solo practitioner at Powell Counsel LC. He received his J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School and his bachelor's from Tulane University. [1]
Elections
2016
Three of the seven seats on the Richland School District Two school board were up for at-large general election on November 8, 2016. Incumbent Monica Elkins filed for re-election and faces eleven challengers: Lindsay Agostini, Anthony Bracy, Henry Counts, Kay Harvey, Evangelina Hemphill, Bill McCracken, James Mobley, Keith Powell, James Shadd, Shelley Williams, and Milton Wright. Elkins won re-election and was joined in her victory by Agostini and Shadd.[2][3]
Results
| Richland School District Two, At-Large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Monica Elkins Incumbent |
18.27% | 21,126 |
| Lindsay Agostini |
18.05% | 20,868 |
| James Shadd |
9.91% | 11,455 |
| Bill McCracken | 9.21% | 10,655 |
| Shelley Williams | 9.11% | 10,532 |
| Evangelina Hemphill | 7.59% | 8,771 |
| Keith Powell | 5.96% | 6,893 |
| Anthony Bracy | 5.17% | 5,974 |
| James Mobley | 4.88% | 5,641 |
| Milton Wright | 4.11% | 4,747 |
| Kay Harvey | 3.72% | 4,303 |
| Henry Counts | 3.65% | 4,224 |
| Write-in votes | 0.38% | 439 |
| Total Votes (100) | 115,628 | |
| Source: South Carolina Election Commission, "Election Results," accessed November 21, 2016 | ||
Funding
Powell reported $700.00 in contributions and $649.00 in expenditures to the South Carolina State Ethics Commission, leaving his campaign with $51.00 cash on hand as of October 28, 2016.[4]
The following are the guidelines provided by the South Carolina State Ethics Commission for campaign finance reporting:[5]
Initial report: School board candidates were required to file this report within 10 days of spending or receiving the first $500 of campaign funds. A subsequent report was not required until additional funds were raised.
Pre-election report: This report had to be filed by all candidates, whether or not there was any financial campaign activity. The report had to be filed no later than 15 days, and no earlier than 20 days, prior to the general election. The pre-election report was due on October 24, 2016.
Quarterly report: All candidates with contributions on hand were required to file this report. It was required of all candidates once they had begun to file, whether or not there was financial activity. The fourth quarter campaign finance report was due on October 10, 2016.
Final report: This was due after the campaign account was closed.
Election themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
Keith R. Powell 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 7, 2016:
| “ | The office is "trustee" which has a meaning different from "representative". A trustee owes a duty of care and loyalty to the entity to carry out its responsibilities. You cannot have a "platform" and be a trustee. SC is likely to enter a period of changes in state policy on account of the "Abbeville" case, and I hope to use my extensive knowledge of the financial and regulatory structure of our school system to help R2 navigate these changes.[6][7] | ” |
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 South Carolina. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | R2 is doing a good job in many of the areas cited for "improving" or "expanding" in this list; it's not that they are not important.[7] | ” |
| —Keith R. Powell (August 7, 2016) | ||
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.) |
|---|
| Yes. I think R2 has done so much to be "competitive" as a provider that non-district-created charter schools have not appealed to our parents they way that they have in other districts. There may be specific programs or approaches to education that are suitable for a charter school, especially if they fill a niche where the program can bear down on a particular issue such as at-risk students or experiments in nontraditional pedagogy from which we can all learn. |
| 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? |
| Yes. To the extent the assessment is valid for the particular subject it tests. There is no way a standardized test will be able to capture many of the components of SC's "Profile of a Graduate." |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Remember this was a ground-up initiative from the states, trying to identify what a sound publicly educated student would be capable of doing at different stages. Most of the standards we have for an educated child are going to be very similar to those in the common core, regardless of name. How you get there - curriculum, pedagogical techniques, etc..., are not dictated by these standards, which is where much confusion exists. |
| 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? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. We have so many excellent teachers and resources that I'm sure nearly any struggling new teacher can be helped. I would hate to drive someone out of the profession prematurely when it is such a struggle to get good people to become teachers. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. I think there ought to be opportunities for incentives and rewards for extraordinary work, just as there are in private enterprise. However, this has to be a local decision or local option, because only those closest to the teacher will know when that teacher has gone above and beyond. Statistics on student performance are insufficient, because some of the most valuable lessons learned and skills imparted are intangible. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. The state constitution requires a system of free public schools, which the General Assembly is under court order to do much better than it has done to date. Until and unless those obligations are met, the resources for the free system of public schools are spoken for. If we get so good at public ed that we have extra resources, then we can talk about other projects. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| I think we need to backstop all our students and find a setting in which they can find how they are smart and realize the value and joy of learning. Punishing kids by not trying to convey these skills and character traits does nobody in our society any favors. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Keith Powell Richland School District Two. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ballotpedia's Biographical Information Submission Form, "Keith Powell's responses," August 7, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina Election Commission, "Candidate Listing for the 11/8/2016 Statewide General Election," accessed August 18, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina Election Commission, "Election Results," accessed November 8, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina State Ethics Commission, "Individual Reports," accessed October 28, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina State Ethics Commission, "Campaign Practices," accessed October 6, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Keith R. Powell's responses," August 7, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| 2016 Richland School District Two Elections | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | At-Large: Incumbent, Monica Elkins • Lindsay Agostini • Anthony Bracy • Henry Counts • Kay Harvey • Evangelina Hemphill • Bill McCracken • James Mobley • Keith Powell • James Shadd • Shelley Williams • Milton Wright |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
