Lake Washington School District elections (2017)
2023 →
← 2015 |
|---|
 |
|
|
|
|
| Enrollment (14-15) |
|
|
Two of the five seats on the Lake Washington School District school board in Washington were up for by-district general election on November 7, 2017. A primary election was held for District 3 on August 1, 2017, because more than two candidates filed for the seat.
District 3 candidates Anita Damjanovic and Cassandra Sage moved on to the general by defeating third challenger Christian Cahua in the primary. Sage ultimately won the general. In District 4, board member Mark W. Stuart filed for re-election and ran unopposed, winning another term.[1]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Lake Washington school board is a five-member board with each member elected by district to four-year terms. Members can be compensated $50 per day for district matters with a maximum compensation of $4,800 per year.
In order to run for a school board in Washington, candidates must be U.S. citizens, legal residents of Washington, at least 18 years old by the election day, and registered voters of the district in which they run.[2]
Voter registration
To vote in Washington, one must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of Washington, and at least 18 years old.[3] One may register to vote online, by mail, or in person at a county elections department. Registration must be completed 29 days prior to an election if done by mail or online and eight days prior to the election if done in person.[4]
Washington is a vote-by-mail only state. Ballots are mailed to voters at least 18 days before an election. Voters must postmark their ballots by election day or return them to a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on the election day in order for them to count.[5]
- See also: Voting in Washington and Voter identification laws by state
Candidates and results
District 3
General results
| Lake Washington School District, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Cassandra Sage |
61.23% | 27,048 |
| Anita Damjanovic | 38.77% | 17,129 |
| Total Votes | 44,177 | |
| Source: King County, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017 | ||
Primary results
| Lake Washington School District, District 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Cassandra Sage |
52.89% | 19,058 |
| Anita Damjanovic |
31.34% | 11,294 |
| Christian Cahua | 15.43% | 5,560 |
| Write-in votes | 0.34% | 123 |
| Total Votes | 36,035 | |
| Source: King County, "2017 Results August primary election," accessed August 16, 2017 | ||
Candidates
| Anita Damjanovic | Cassandra Sage 
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
||
Defeated in primary
| Christian Cahua | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
District 4
Results
| Lake Washington School District, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Mark W. Stuart Incumbent (unopposed) |
100.00% | 32,578 |
| Total Votes | 32,578 | |
| Source: King County, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017 | ||
Candidates
| Mark W. Stuart
| |
|---|---|
|
|
|
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Washington elections, 2017
This Washington school board election in 2017 shared the primary ballot with elections for:[1]
- State Senate
- State House
- State judges
- King County Proposition 1
- County executive
- City council
The school board election shared the general ballot with elections for:[1]
- State Senate
- State House
- State judges
- County executive
- Sheriff
- County council
- Court of appeals
- City council
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for this Washington school board election in 2017:
Endorsements
Damjanovic, Sage, and Stuart received official endorsements from the Washington Education Association.[6]
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
Reports
District 3
Cassandra Sage was the only candidate in the race for this district who reported contributions and expenditures as of October 11, 2017, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. She reported $8,002.12 in contributions and $3,472.15 in expenditures, leaving her campaign with $4,529.97 on hand. Both Christian Cahua and Anita Damjanovic opted for mini reporting.[7]
District 4
Mark W. Stuart opted for mini reporting in this race.[7]
General guidelines
Washington school board candidates must file a statement of organization within two weeks of filing for office. A statement of organization establishes a candidate's committee, treasurer, and bank the committee will use for its transactions.[8]
Candidates who raise and spend no more than $5,000 in aggregate and who do not receive more than $500 from any one contributor, including themselves, can participate in mini reporting. These candidates must keep a record of their contributors and expenditures but they are not required to report them unless they exceed the stated thresholds. In those cases, they must switch their filing status from mini to full reporting.[9]
The table below details campaign finance deadlines for 2017 Washington school board candidates:
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015District 1
District 2
District 5
2013District 3
District 4
2011District 1
District 2
District 5
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What was at stake?
Education budget adds $7.3 billion to public school funding
Washington added $7.3 billion over four years to public school funding with the budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on June 30, 2017. The funding was passed to comply with the 2012 McLeary v. State of Washington decision which ruled that the state was violating its state constitutional duty to fund K-12 education.[10]
Under the plan, property taxes were raised in areas with high property values, while taxes in other areas were decreased. These raises accounted for approximately $4 billion of the total $7.3 billion. According to state Sen. Kevin Ranker (D), the property tax increases would add approximately $400 a year to the average Washington household's taxes.[11]
Budget details
Washington teachers can receive two salaries: one from the state government and one from their school district. The new budget provisions included a minimum starting state salary for teachers of $40,000 (with adjustment for inflation and regional discrepancies), which was a 17 percent increase. The average minimum salary for instructional staff was $64,000 under the plan. School districts could also issue a salary over the previous maximum of $90,000 by up to 10 percent for educational staff associates or instructors who teach science, technology, engineering, and math, or in bilingual or special education programs. Below are a few other details of the new measure, according to Q13 Fox:
| “ |
|
” |
Reactions
“It’s absolutely helping the middle class and 73% of Washington,” state Sen. John Braun (R) said about the budget. He also said that it found a solution to comply with the McLeary ruling fairly. State Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) disagreed. “It’s a stressful situation; it looks like property taxes are a major component of this and I think it’s safe to say it’s a Democratic budget with a Republican tax plan,” Carlyle said. He called the budget “the good, bad and the ugly.”[12]
McLeary v. State of Washington
The 2017 budget was passed in light of the McLeary ruling. When the decision was made in 2012, the Washington Supreme Court ordered the state to fully fund K-12 education by 2018. In September 2014, the Court held Washington in contempt for not making adequate progress. After the state still did not make adequate progress and produce a plan to comply with the Court's orders in 2015, the Supreme Court fined the state $100,000 a day until it complied.[10] Those fines totaled $80.3 million as of October 24, 2017.[14]
The State Supreme Court heard oral arguments on that day to determine whether or not the additional funding was enough for the state to be in full compliance with the court's ruling. An attorney for the state argued that the newest education budget was enough to pay for what the state's constitution calls for: a basic education for each child in Washington. The plaintiffs' lawyer argued that the Legislature was still far removed from reaching that goal. As of October 26, 2017, the court had not made a final decision.[15]
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Candidate survey
|
|
Ballotpedia invites school board candidates to participate in its annual survey. |
About the district
The Lake Washington School District is located in King County. The seat of county government is Seattle. King County was home to an estimated 2,149,970 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.[16] The district was the fifth-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 27,059 students.[17]
Demographics
King County outperformed the state of Washington as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 47.9 percent of county residents had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 32.9 percent for state residents. The median household income in the county was $75,302, while it was $61,062 for the state as a whole. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 9.8 percent, while that rate was 12.2 percent for the entire state.[16]
| Racial Demographics, 2015[16] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | King County (%) | Washington (%) |
| White | 69.5 | 80.3 |
| Black or African American | 6.8 | 4.1 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.1 | 1.9 |
| Asian | 16.9 | 8.4 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Two or More Races | 5.0 | 4.6 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 9.5 | 12.4 |
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 Lake Washington School District Washington election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Lake Washington School District | Washington | School Boards |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 King County, "Who Has Filed," accessed May 22, 2017
- ↑ Washington State School Directors' Association, "Running for school board," accessed June 5, 2017
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Voter Eligibility," accessed June 10, 2014
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Voters," accessed June 10, 2014
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Frequently Asked Questions on Voting by Mail," accessed June 5, 2017
- ↑ Washington Education Association, "2017 WEA-PAC Election Endorsements," accessed November 6, 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Washington Public Disclosure Commission, "Local Candidates," accessed October 11, 2017
- ↑ Washington Election Code, "Chapter 42.17A.205," accessed March 10, 2014
- ↑ Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, "New Candidates," accessed June 22, 2017
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, "‘The State has consistently failed to provide adequate funding’," accessed July 3, 2017
- ↑ Seattle Times, "New Washington state budget would provide $7.3B more to public schools over four years," June 29, 2017
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Q13 Fox, "Budget: Biggest education reform in state history will rely heavily on property taxes," June 29, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Seattle Times, "Live updates from Washington State Supreme Court hearing on $7.3 billion education budget," October 24, 2017
- ↑ Union-Bulletin, "Wash. Supreme Court justices appear frustrated at McCleary hearing," accessed October 26, 2017
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 United States Census Bureau, "State & County QuickFacts: King County, Washington," accessed June 5, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
| Lake Washington School District elections in 2017 | |
| King County, Washington | |
| Election date: | Primary: August 1, 2017 General: November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | District 3: Christian Cahua • Anita Damjanovic • Cassandra Sage District 4: Incumbent, Mark W. Stuart |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
