Kenosha Unified School District elections (2016)
 |
Presidential • U.S. Senate • U.S. House • State Senate • State Assembly • State judges • Local judges • State ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • Recalls • Candidate ballot access |
 |
2017 →
← 2015 |
|---|
 |
|
|
|
|
| Enrollment (13–14): |
|
|
Two of the seven seats on the Kenosha Unified School District school board were up for general election on April 5, 2016. Incumbent Rebecca Stevens filed for re-election, while fellow board member Kyle Flood opted not to seek a new term. Newcomers David Arrington, Lance W. Gordon, Todd Jacobs and Ismael Torres all filed in the race as did past candidate Tony Garcia. A primary election was held February 16, 2016. Stevens, Jacobs, Garcia and Gordon received the most votes, and advanced to the general election, where Stevens and Garcia ultimately won the two seats.[1]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Kenosha Unified Board of Education consists of seven members elected at large to three-year terms. Because the number of candidate filings was more than double the number of seats up for election, a primary election was held on February 16, 2016. The candidates with the largest proportion of votes appeared on the ballot in the general election on April 5.
To be elected to the board, candidates must reside in the boundaries of the school district for 28 days prior to the filing of a "Declaration of Candidacy" form. [2] They must also be 18 years old and citizens of the United States. Unless pardoned, those who have been convicted of a felony are not eligible for election to office in Wisconsin.[3]
Candidates had between December 1, 2015, and January 5, 2016, to collect between 100 and 200 signatures for their nomination papers. The signatures had to come from residents of the district which the candidate sought election to represent, but the petition circulators were not required to reside in the district or municipality. Circulators were required to be U.S. citizens and 18 years or older.[4]
Voters could register to vote in the election at the polling place on the election day. Proof of residence was required when registering to vote.[5]
Candidates and results
At-large: Primary
Results
| Kenosha Unified School District, At-Large Primary Election, 3-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Rebecca Stevens Incumbent |
32.55% | 3,924 |
| Todd Jacobs |
16.60% | 2,002 |
| Tony Garcia |
16.53% | 1,993 |
| Lance W. Gordon |
13.73% | 1,656 |
| David Arrington | 12.38% | 1,493 |
| Ismael Torres | 8.03% | 968 |
| Write-in votes | 0.17% | 21 |
| Total Votes (100) | 12,057 | |
| Source: Kenosha County Wisconsin, "Kenosha County Election Results," accessed February 16, 2016 | ||
Candidates
Rebecca Stevens 
|
David Arrington | Lance W. Gordon | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Todd Jacobs | Ismael Torres | Tony Garcia
| |||
|
|
|
|
| ||
At-large: General
| Kenosha Unified School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Rebecca Stevens Incumbent |
39.49% | 19,474 |
| Tony Garcia |
25.52% | 12,584 |
| Todd Jacobs | 19.51% | 9,621 |
| Lance W. Gordon | 14.73% | 7,265 |
| Write-in votes | 0.74% | 367 |
| Total Votes | 49,311 | |
| Source: Kenosha County, "Kenosha County Election Results," April 6, 2016 | ||
Candidates
| Rebecca Stevens | Tony Garcia | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| Lance W. Gordon | Todd Jacobs | ||
|
|
|
||
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2016
The Kenosha Unified School District election ballot also included the state's presidential primary, and races for state and county courts.[6]
Key deadlines
The following dates are key deadlines for Wisconsin school board elections in 2016:[7]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| January 5, 2016 | Candidate filing deadline |
| January 26, 2016 | Referendum submission deadline |
| February 8, 2016 | Pre-primary election campaign finance deadline |
| February 16, 2016 | Primary Election |
| March 28, 2016 | Pre-general election campaign finance deadline |
| April 5, 2016 | Election Day |
| April 25, 2016 | Board members take office |
| July 15, 2016 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
Tony Garcia and Rebecca Stevens were endorsed by the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.[8]
Campaign finance
No contributions or expenditures were reported during the election, according to the Kenosha School District's Office of the Superintendent.[9]
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015
2014General
Primary
2013
2012
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What was at stake?
2016
Issues
Wrestling coach fired, reinstated
Jerril Grover, a wrestling coach and art teacher with Kenosha Unified School District, was fired in November 2015 after the district received complaints from parents concerning comments made by Grover during a meeting. Parents stated that Grover intimated guardians could use false addresses to enroll students in a different school if they did not like his coaching methods. After district administrators received these complaints, Grover’s employment was terminated. Grover said that his comment was not meant to condone this practice but that he did acknowledge that it was happening. After a meeting with the Kenosha Unified School District’s Superintendent Sue Savaglio-Jarvis, the district announced that Grover’s position would be reinstated on Sunday, November 8.[10]
Voucher program expanded in Kenosha County
In 2011, the Wisconsin State Legislature passed the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (WPCP) giving families the option to send their children to private schools using publicly funded school vouchers. During the 2015-2016 school year, three religious schools in Kenosha County received roughly $1.2 million in tuition through the voucher program. These schools included Friedens Lutheran School, St. Joseph Catholic Academy and Shoreland Lutheran High School. These three schools enrolled a total of 160 voucher students.
Since the inception of the WPCP, the number of students receiving vouchers increased by roughly 149 percent from 1,008 in 2011 to 2,514 in 2015. The amount received by participating private schools for each student voucher was $7,214 for elementary school students and $7,860 for high school students in the 2015-2016 school year.
The legislature approved changes to the program that took effect during the 2016-2017 school year. Funding for vouchers were taken directly from a school district’s state aid funding for each student that opted into the program. There was longer be a cap of 1,000 students allowed to participate in the voucher program statewide. Instead, the cap for the 2016-2017 school year was one percent of each school district’s total enrollment. This cap will continue to rise by one percent each year over the following ten years. At that point, the cap will be eliminated. The estimate in state taxpayer dollars going to private school vouchers was $600 million to $800 million for this ten-year period.[11]
Teacher pay frozen in 2015-2016
During the 2015-2016 budget meeting held in October 2015, the school board unanimously voted to freeze teacher wages in Kenosha Unified School District. The Kenosha Education Association requested a 1.62 percent raise for teachers during the 2015-2016 school year. This amount was the maximum allowed under Wisconsin law. After two negotiation sessions between the district and the Kenosha Education Association, the district declared an impasse.
District representative Tanya Ruder cited future fiscal concerns as the reason for the decision. The interim executive director of the Kenosha Education Association, Scott Farnsworth, reported that the union members were disappointed. Farnsworth said that other districts were able to negotiate wage increases and that the Kenosha Unified School District fund balance had grown from $17 million in 2011 to $42 million in 2015. Multiple teachers picketed outside of the school district’s headquarters during the school board meeting, despite inclement weather. “We work hard. We deserve a 1.6 percent raise, and the district has the money,” said a speech therapist working in the district.[12] "The board is working to do what they can for employees of the district," stated Ruder.[12]
Candidate survey
|
|
Ballotpedia invites school board candidates to participate in its annual survey. |
Campaign finance
Candidates were only required to file campaign finance reports if they did one of the following:[13][14]
- accepted contributions, made disbursements or incurred obligations in an aggregate amount of more than $2,000 in a calendar year
- accepted more than $100 from a single source in the calendar year, except contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns
About the district
Kenosha Unified School District is located in Kenosha County in southeastern Wisconsin. The county seat is Kenosha. In 2014, Kenosha County was home to approximately 168,068 residents according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau.[15] Kenosha Unified School District is located in Wisconsin. The district was the third-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 22,602 students.[16]
Demographics
Kenosha County underperformed in terms of higher education achievement, compared to Wisconsin as a whole. The United States Census Bureau found that 23.2 percent of Kenosha County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 26.8 percent statewide in 2013. The median household income in the county was $54,930 in 2013, compared to $52,413 for the state as a whole. The 2013 median household income for the entire United States was $53,046. The 2013 poverty rate in Kenosha County was 14.0 percent, compared to 12.5 percent for the entire state and 15.4 percent for the country as a whole.[15][17]
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Kenosha Unified School District' 'Wisconsin'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Kenosha Unified School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Mandy Gillip, "Email communication with Stacy Busby, Executive Assistant/School Board Secretary, Kenosha Unified School District," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Wisconsin Candidate Eligibility," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Candidates: Getting on the Ballot," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "State Statutes: CHAPTER 8," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Voter Registration," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "2016 Spring Election and Presidential Preference Vote," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Campaign Finance Report Dates 2016, 2017 and 2018," accessed January 25, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, "2016 Spring Election Candidate Endorsements," March 3, 2016
- ↑ Mandy Gillip, "Email communication with Stacy Busby, Kenosha secretary to the superintendent," February 11, 2016
- ↑ http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/unified_reinstates_embattled_wrestling_coach_485186753.php Kenosha News, "Unified reinstates embattled wrestling coach," November 8,2015]
- ↑ Kenosha News, "Schools capitalize on voucher program," October 28,2015
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Kenosha News, "Unified declares impasse; no raises this year", October 27,2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Campaign Finance Overview: State Candidates," May 2010
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "11.0104 Reporting exemptions: limited activity," accessed January 26, 2016
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 United States Census Bureau, "Kenosha County, Wisconsin," accessed January 15, 2016
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
- ↑ United States Census Bureau,"State & County QuickFacts," accessed January 15, 2016
- ↑ Kenosha County Clerk, "Previous Election Results," accessed January 31, 2014
| 2016 Kenosha Unified School District Elections | |
| Kenosha County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 5, 2016 |
| Candidates: | At-large: Incumbent, Rebecca Stevens • David Arrington • Lance W. Gordon • Todd Jacobs • Ismael Torres • Tony Garcia |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
