Leonardo Savage

Leonardo Savage

Education

High school

St. Philips Grammar School

Personal

Profession

Consultant

Leonardo Savage was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools school board in Michigan. Savage was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.

Biography

Savage earned his high school diploma from St. Philips Grammar School in Birmingham, England. He worked as a quality consultant prior to his retirement.

Elections

2016

See also: Plymouth-Canton Community Schools elections (2016)

Four of the seven seats on the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. These seats included three seats with six-year terms and one seat with a four-year term. No incumbents filed for a six-year term, leaving nine candidates to fill three seats: Douglas Brooks, Bharat Malhotra, Patti McCoin, Patricia Mullen, Pete Puzzuoli, Leonardo Savage, Michael Scopone, Girish Tiwari, and Gurunath Vemulakonda. Mullen, Brooks, and McCoin won in the general election. Incumbent Patrick Kehoe won re-election to a four-year term without opposition. Malhotra, Vemulakonda, and Tiwari ran as a candidate slate.

Results

Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, At-Large General Election, 6-year terms, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Patricia Mullen	21.41%	20,434
Patti McCoin	18.30%	17,464
Douglas Brooks	15.06%	14,375
Pete Puzzuoli	10.71%	10,221
Michael Scopone	8.81%	8,408
Gurunath Vemulakonda	7.37%	7,039
Leonardo Savage	6.71%	6,406
Girish Tiwari	5.92%	5,651
Bharat Malhotra	5.10%	4,864
Write-in votes	0.61%	585
Total Votes		95,447
Source: Wayne County, Michigan, "Elections Division-Results," November 22, 2016

Funding

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2016

School board candidates in Michigan were required to file pre-election campaign finance reports with their county election offices by October 28, 2016. Post-election reports were due by December 8, 2016.

In Michigan, candidates are prohibited from receiving contributions from corporations or labor organizations. Within 10 days of becoming a candidate, candidates must form a candidate committee. Following the creation of the committee, candidates have an additional 10 days to register the committee with the school district filing official by filing a statement of organization. A candidate committee that does not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000 during the election cycle is eligible to receive a reporting waiver, which allows that committee not to file pre-election, post-election, and annual campaign statements.

October 28 filing

Candidates received a total of $12,746.00 and spent a total of $10,042.85 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Wayne County Clerk.

Six-year terms

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Douglas Brooks	$3,229.00	$2,972.13	$256.87
Bharat Malhotra	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Patti McCoin	$5,780.00	$3,801.32	$1,978.68
Patricia Mullen	$3,737.00	$3,269.40	$467.60
Pete Puzzuoli	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Leonardo Savage	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Michael Scopone	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Girish Tiwari	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Gurunath Vemulakonda	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Four-year term

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Patrick Kehoe (incumbent)	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Campaign themes

2016

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Leonardo Savage 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 30, 2016:

“

I hope to be part of an effective team that can identify any weak areas and both recommend and implement improvements in the current educational system so that teachers, students and parents can benefit.

”

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 Michigan.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Improving relations with teachers
2	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
3	Improving education for special needs students
4	Improving post-secondary readiness
5	Closing the achievement gap
6	Expanding school choice options
7	Expanding arts education

“	A successful educational program can only work with the full cooperation of teachers. Improving relations with teachers can only benefit the educational system	”
—Leonardo Savage (August 30, 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.)
No.
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.
What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative?
I accept it but would like to see a history of results over a specific period of time
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. The mentorship program should also include additional training as well as expanding the teacher's experience
Should teachers receive merit pay?
Yes. Teachers who consistently exceed expectations should be rewarded for their efforts
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program?
Yes.
How should expulsion be used in the district?
Only in severe cases of misconduct and/or misrepresentation of qualifications and abilities
What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration?
Teachers.

Additional themes

Savage provided the following responses to questions compiled by MLive for its 2016 voter guide:

“	Why are you running for office? I have over 30 years experience in the automotive, gas,food service and economic development industries creating, installing and teaching people how to operate ISO based quality management systems (Chrysler, Porsche Engineering, Canadian Gas, Michigan and Alabama Economic Development Council and Detroit Chamber of Commerce). I have learnt over the years, that to achieve any measure of success, there has to be a considerable amount of cooperation between all the parties involved. I have subsequently tried to put this knowledge and experience in practice, as a docent at the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens, working with K-12 students, their parents and their teachers. I am running for this position as I firmly believe I can contribute towards improving the working relationships between the Board of Education, Teachers, Parents and Students for the overall benefit of PCCS. What are your top three priorities? The priority issues which I see are: a) Raising the level of satisfaction in the teaching population at Plymouth Canton Community Schools, as they are at the pointed end of the educational system. I would need to find out together with other members of the team, if and how this can be done without placing an unacceptable financial burden on the school district. b)I believe that parents should be more involved, to ensure that their students are receiving the best education possible. To do this we need to increase the level of dialogue between all parties, possibly by introducing regular discussion forums, so that everyone's opinions and concerns can be evaluated and acted upon. c) I would like to see PCCS become a better alternative to the charter schools that are springing up in the area. To achieve this we need to examine improvements that need to be made and make them. What is the most pressing issue for this office? I believe that the first of my listed priorities is probably the most pressing issue. Raising the level of satisfaction in the teaching population at Plymouth Canton Community Schools, as they are at the pointed end of the educational system. I would need to find out together with other members of the team, if and how this can be done without placing an unacceptable financial burden on the school district.	”
—Leonardo Savage (2016)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Leonardo Savage Plymouth-Canton Community Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Leonardo Savage - Google News

See also

• Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Michigan
• Plymouth-Canton Community Schools elections (2016)

External links

• Plymouth-Canton Community Schools