Kern High School District elections (2014)
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Four seats on the Kern High School District Board of Trustees were up for general election on November 4, 2014. Incumbents Mike Williams, Martha McCuen Miller and Bryan Batey from Trustee Areas 1, 4 and 5, respectively, were up for re-election.[1][2] The Trustee Area 2 seat was also up for election, due to a vacancy on the board.[3]
Incumbent Mike Williams defeated challenger Aurora Cooper for the Trustee Area 1 seat. Incumbent Martha McCuen Miller ran against challengers Anna Laven and Phillip Peters for the Trustee Area 4 seat, which Peters won. Trustee Area 5 incumbent Bryan Batey and Trustee Area 2 candidate Jeff Flores ran unopposed and won their respective seats. [4][5]
About the district
- See also: Kern High School District, California
Kern High School District is located in Kern County, California. The county seat of Kern County is Bakersfield. Kern County was home to 864,124 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[6] In the 2011-2012 school year, Kern High School District was the 20th-largest school district by enrollment in California and served 37,505 students.[7]
Demographics
Kern County underperformed compared to the rest of California in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 14.9 percent of Kern County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 30.5 percent for California as a whole. The median household income for Kern County was $47,727 compared to $61,400 for the entire state. The percentage of people below poverty level for Kern County was 22.5 percent while it was 15.3 percent statewide.[6]
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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 Kern High School District Board of Trustees consists of five members elected to four-year terms by specific geographic areas. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on November 4, 2014. Seats from Trustee Areas 1, 4 and 5 were up for election to four-year terms in 2014, and the seat from Trustee Area 2 was up for election to a two-year term in 2014. Seats from Trustee Areas 2 and 3 were up for election in 2016.[3][2]
School board candidates had to file with their county elections department during the candidate filing period. The filing period began July 14, 2014, and ended August 8, 2014. To vote in the 2014 general election, voters had to register by October 20, 2014. Voters could request vote-by-mail ballots from October 6, 2014, through October 28, 2014.[9]
Elections
2014
Candidates
Trustee Area 1
- Mike Williams
- Incumbent
- Graduate, California State University at Fullerton
- Business owner and CEO, American Kids
- Aurora Cooper
- Human resources director, Omni Family Health
Trustee Area 2
- Jeff Flores
- Chief of staff for Kern County Supervisor Mike Maggard
Trustee Area 4
- Martha McCuen Miller
- Incumbent
- Graduate, California State University at Chico
- Retired educator
- Anna Laven
- Graduate, University of California at Los Angeles
- Educator and policy analyst
- Phillip Peters
- Business owner, Williams Cleaning Systems
Trustee Area 5
- Bryan Batey
- Incumbent
- President, Bryan Batey Homes
Election results
Trustee Area 1
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Mike Williams Incumbent |
67.4% | 16,886 | |
| Nonpartisan | Aurora Cooper | 32.6% | 8,173 | |
| Total Votes | 25,059 | |||
| Source: Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Official Final Results: November 4, 2014 Consolidated General Election," accessed December 19, 2014 | ||||
Trustee Area 2
This election did not appear on the ballot due to lack of opposition. Newcomer Jeff Flores won the Trustee Area 2 seat by default.[10]
Trustee Area 4
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Phillip Peters |
36.5% | 7,923 | |
| Nonpartisan | Martha McCuen Miller Incumbent | 34.6% | 7,504 | |
| Nonpartisan | Anna Laven | 28.9% | 6,274 | |
| Total Votes | 21,701 | |||
| Source: Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Official Final Results: November 4, 2014 Consolidated General Election," accessed December 19, 2014 | ||||
Trustee Area 5
This election did not appear on the ballot due to lack of opposition. Incumbent Bryan Batey won re-election to Trustee Area 5 by default.[10]
Endorsements
The Kern High School Teachers Association endorsed Trustee Area 4 incumbent Martha McCuen Miller and Trustee Area 1 challenger Aurora Cooper.[11] Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R) endorsed Trustee Area 1 incumbent Mike Williams and Trustee Area 4 challenger Phillip Peters.[12][13]
Williams also received endorsements from the Association of Builders & Contractors, The Bakersfield Californian, the Classified KHSD Employees and Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R).[12] Peters received the further endorsement of Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R).[13]
Trustee Area 4 challenger Anna Laven received endorsements from the Kern County Firefighters, the Bakersfield City Firefighters and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.[14]
Campaign finance
Candidates had to file contribution reports within 24 hours of receiving an aggregate total of $1,000 or more from a single source. The first scheduled pre-election report filing deadline was October 6, 2014. If candidates raised or spent less than $1,000 during the 2013 and 2014 calendar years, they had to file Form 470 at that time. If candidates raised or spent more during that time, they had to file Form 460 by the pre-election report filing deadline.[15]
Candidates required to file Form 460 also had to file a second pre-election report on October 23, 2014, and they had to file termination reports by December 31, 2014. If a termination report was not filed, candidates had to file a semi-annual report by February 2, 2015.[15]
Reports
Candidates for Trustee Area 1 received a total of $36,782.50 in contributions and spent a total of $29,214.62 in expenditures, according to campaign disclosure reports published by the Kern County Registrar of Voters as of October 26, 2014.[16][17]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Williams | $31,641.00 | $18,127.67 | $13,513.33 |
| Aurora Cooper | $5,141.50 | $11,086.95 | -$5,945.45 |
Trustee Area 2 newcomer Jeff Flores reported the following contributions and expenditures to the Kern County Registrar of Voters as of September 30, 2014:[18]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Flores | $28,963.00 | $2,162.34 | $26,800.66 |
Candidates for Trustee Area 4 received a total of $66,601.98 in contributions and spent a total of $47,803.22 in expenditures, according to campaign disclosure reports published by the Kern County Registrar of Voters as of October 26, 2014.[19][20][21]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martha McCuen Miller | $40,722.00 | $35,139.00 | $5,583.00 |
| Anna Laven | $18,679.98 | $10,004.98 | $8,675.23 |
| Phillip Peters | $7,200.00 | $2,659.24 | $4,540.76 |
Trustee Area 5 incumbent Bryan Batey reported the following contributions and expenditures to the Kern County Registrar of Voters as of August 30, 2014:[22]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bryan Batey | $22,000.00 | $22,000.00 | $0.00 |
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2012This election was canceled due to lack of opposition. Incumbents Chad Vegas and Dr. William Perry were re-elected by default.[3] 2010
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What was at stake?
Issues in the election
Candidates talk about expulsion rates and other issues
The five candidates who ran in the contested Kern High School District Board of Trustees races in Trustee Areas 1 and 4 attended a debate hosted by the Bakersfield Californian to discuss issues from college readiness to expulsion rates on October 2, 2014.
All five candidates agreed on the need for collaboration between elementary school districts, high school districts and higher education institutions to improve college readiness. Trustee Area 4 challenger Phillip Peters also emphasized the need for vocational training options at the high school level as not all students needed or desired to go to college and when they did, they were likely to be saddled in debt. Another Trustee Area 4 challenger, Anna Laven, spoke of her concerns on how many students who attended college needed to take remedial courses and the need to collaborate at all levels to ensure students succeed.
On the topic of leadership and communication, Trustee Area 1 incumbent Mike Williams said that through the process of hiring a new superintendent, the board realized they had a reputation of not being communicative. He said that in response, they set new goals to go out and ask for feedback rather than wait for concerns from the community to knock on their door. Williams said that board meetings are not a good place for discussion, but emphasized that the board and the administration needed to go out and have those conversations that were hard to have in a formal board meeting. Trustee Area 1 challenger Aurora Cooper agreed with Williams that communication was key, especially from the many different communities that fed into the Kern High School District.
"What we are in dire need of is a transparent government process," said Laven, adding that the board needed to engage the public, the students, the parents and the communities and that those who attended board meetings needed to feel that they were heard instead of receiving a "bureaucratic response."
When the topic moved to the district's expulsion rates in recent years, Trustee Area 4 incumbent Martha McCuen Miller said that attention was brought to the district's high expulsion rates three years ago and that the board and the administration had worked to dramatically lower the number from thousands to dozens. Instead of expelling students for serious offenses, the district began sending them to alternative schools. Laven did not agree with the district's policy to transfer students with behavior problems. She said shifting students to different schools did not solve the problem, only moved the problem to a different school. According to Laven, transferring those students lost the district money. She emphasized the need to implement positive behavior intervention strategies.
Peters said he thought the transfer of students was better than expelling them but that it did not solve the issue. He agreed with Laven on the need to implement positive behavior intervention strategies and said that implementing more options in the district, such as charter schools, could help students with behavior problems. Trustee Area 1 challenger Aurora Cooper also agreed with Laven on implementing positive behavior intervention strategies and said that the problems needed to be addressed immediately. She also voiced her concern that not all those who had been transferred had committed serious offenses.
Williams said the board had to consider the safety and right to uninterrupted education of those students who did not have behavior problems when looking at expulsion and transfer cases, but he said the board continued to improve, research and experiment with new tactics to help students with behavior problems.[23]
Issues in the district
Lawsuit alleging racial discrimination filed against district
A lawsuit alleging that the Kern High School District's discipline policies discriminated against Latino and African American students was filed in the Kern County Court on October 8, 2014. The lawsuit sued the Kern High School District and its board of trustees, and also sued Tom Torlakson, the California Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the California Department of Education, claiming those agencies should have forced the district to change its discipline policies. The California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Dolores Huerta Foundation and Faith in Action Kern County were all involved with the lawsuit in addition to 10 individuals who were affected by the alleged discrimination.[24][25]
The lawsuit challenged the district's expulsion, suspension and involuntary transfer policies, alleging that African American and Latino students were more likely to be suspended, expelled or pushed into alternative schools and for more minor infractions than their white student counterparts. Before filing the lawsuit, a letter was sent to the district asking for the adoption of positive behavior interventions and support, restorative justice, the hiring of an independent consultant to analyze the information presented, the organization of a community monitoring system and taking out "willful defiance" from the district's discipline code. According to Sahar Durali, the plaintiff's attorney from CRLA, they received no response from the district.[24]
During the 2009-2010 school year, the Kern High School District reported 2,205 expulsions, the highest number of expulsions in the state. The district said it had cut the number of expulsions since then and had been working on the concerns. The CRLA called the falling number of expulsions "smoke and mirrors," and pointed to the district's use of involuntary transfers to alternative schools in place of expulsions. According the lawsuit, students at such alternative schools received inferior educations. In some cases, the alternative schools were far away from where the students lived and they were told to work independently at home. Many dropped out in such circumstances. The lawsuit asked the court to force the district to change its student discipline policies in order to end discrimination and to pay remediation services for students who were affected by the former policies.[25][26]
The district did not comment on this lawsuit. According to Kern High School District's public information and communications manager Lisa Krch, they could not comment on pending litigation.[26]
District receives magazine pouches for semi-automatic rifles
During the 2013-2014 school year, the Kern High School District received 30 magazine pouches for M4 assault rifle ammunition to add to its 25 AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. The weapons were received through the Department of Defense Excess Property Program, or 1033 Program, and the district said it hoped it never had to use them.[27]
The semi-automatic rifles were purchased in early 2014 as a precautionary safety measure, according to the district's spokeswoman Lisa Krch. The district's safety officers carried handguns, and the rifles were only to be used in a worst-case scenario. With the number of school shootings on the rise, the district was worried that the handguns' 25-yard range might hinder a safety officer's ability to neutralize a threat to students. The rifles had a range of 430 to 650 yards.[27]
The district received grant money from the Kern County Law Enforcement Foundation to buy the rifles and ammunition, paying approximately $22,150 total. The Kern High School District was not the only school to have received such weapons through the 1033 Program. It was one of at least six in California as of 2014.[27]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Kern High School District election in 2014:[1][15]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| July 14, 2014 | First day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| August 8, 2014 | Last day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| October 6, 2014 | First day to request vote-by-mail ballot |
| October 6, 2014 | First pre-election report due |
| October 20, 2014 | Last day to register to vote |
| October 23, 2014 | Second pre-election report due |
| October 28, 2014 | Last day to request vote-by-mail ballot |
| November 4, 2014 | Election Day |
| December 31, 2014 | Termination report due |
| February 2, 2015 | Semi-annual report due |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: California elections, 2014
This election shared the ballot with municipal elections and other school district elections.[1] It also shared the ballot with general elections for several state executive offices, two U.S. House seats, two state Senate seats and four state Assembly seats.[28] Additionally, six statewide ballot measures were also on the general election ballot.[29]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Kern + High + School + District + California"
See also
- California
- Kern High School District, California
- California school board elections, 2014
- List of school board elections in 2014
- School board elections, 2014
- Kern County, California ballot measures
- California ballot measures
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Candidate's Handbook of Procedures," accessed July 22, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kern High School District, "2013-14 Kern High School District Trustee Boundaries Areas," accessed July 22, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Kern High School District, "Trustees," accessed August 29, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Contest/Candidate Proof List Consolidated General Election," accessed August 29, 2014
- ↑ The Bakersfield Californian, "Slates for school board elections shape up," August 8, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 United States Census Bureau, "Kern County, California," accessed July 14, 2014
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 22, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Elections, "Election Results," accessed July 14, 2014
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Summary of November 4, 2014, General Election Calendar," accessed July 14, 2014
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Bakersfield Californian, "Slates for school board elections shape up," August 8, 2014
- ↑ Bakersfield Californian, "KHSD teachers back newcomer in board race," August 14, 2014
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Mike Williams Kern High School District Trustee Facebook page, "About," accessed October 23, 2014
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Phillip Peters for KHSD Trustee, "Endorsements," accessed October 23, 2014
- ↑ Anna Laven for Kern High School District Trustee Area 4, "Endorsements," accessed October 23, 2014
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 4, 2014," accessed August 19, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: MIKE WILLIAMS - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT-GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER AREA 1," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: AURORA COOPER - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT-GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER AREA 1," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: JEFF FLORES - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT - GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: MARTHA MILLER - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT-GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER AREA 4," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: ANNA LAVEN - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT-GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER AREA 4," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: PHILLIP PETERS - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT-GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER AREA 4," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Documentos en el archivo para: BRYAN BATEY - KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT - GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER," accessed October 26, 2014
- ↑ The Bakersfield Californian, "ICYMI Video: Candidates forum for KHSD, KCCD," October 2, 2014
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Courthouse News Service, "Kern County Schools Blasted as Biased," October 13, 2014
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Bakersfield Now, "Lawsuit claims discipline discrimination at Kern High School District," October 9, 2014
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Truthout, "Suit Against Kern County Schools Alleges Disproportionate Discipline for Students of Color," October 21, 2014
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 The Bakersfield Californian, "KHSD gets magazine pouches for semi-automatic rifles," October 6, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "Kern County Election Results: June 3, 2014 Primary Election," accessed July 14, 2014
- ↑ Kern County Registrar of Voters, "List of Ballot Measures," accessed September 3, 2014
| 2014 Kern High School District Elections | |
| Kern County, California | |
| Election date: | November 4, 2014 |
| Candidates: | Trustee Area 1: • Incumbent, Mike Williams • Aurora Cooper Trustee Area 2: • Jeff Flores Trustee Area 4: • Incumbent, Martha McCuen Miller • Anna Laven • Phillip Peters Trustee Area 5: • Incumbent, Bryan Batey |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
