Mark Norton (Washington)

Mark Norton

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Mark Norton was a candidate for District 3 representative on the Edmonds Board of Directors in Washington. Norton ran for the seat in the primary election on August 4, 2015, but placed third. Only the top two vote recipients advanced to the general election on November 3, 2015.

Elections

2015

See also: Edmonds School District elections (2015)

Four seats of the five seats on the Edmonds School District Board of Directors were up for election in 2015.

A primary election for District 3 was held on August 4, 2015. Incumbent Gary Noble faced challengers Mark Norton and Mary Murphy. The top two vote recipients, Nobel and Murphy, advanced to the general election on November 3, 2015; Nobel won re-election on the November ballot.

The District 1 and 5 seats were also up for general election on that day as was a special election for District 4.

District 1 incumbent Kory DeMun did not file to seek re-election to the District 1 seat. Candidates Bill Willcock and Carin Chase faced each other in the race for the open seat, which Chase won. Incumbent Diana White won re-election unopposed in the District 5 race.

Susan Phillips resigned from the District 4 seat in March 2014 after being absent from a number of board meetings due to her husband's health. April Nowak was appointed to the vacant seat May 13, 2014.

In a turn of event, Phillips re-won her seat without opposition. Michael Arendt and Monica Wheaton both initially filed for the seat, but they both withdrew on May 18, 2015. The unexpired term ran until 2017, which is when Phillips would have next been up for regular election.

Results

Edmonds School District Board of Directors, District 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Gary Noble Incumbent	60.6%	12,350
Mary Murphy	23.3%	4,749
Mark Norton	15.1%	3,070
Write-in votes	1.1%	224
Total Votes		20,393
Source: Snohomish County, Washington, "Snohomish County Primary Election Results," August 17, 2015

Funding

Norton reported no contributions or expenditures to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission as of October 30, 2015.

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Norton participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	It's next to impossible to select one, but the safety and security of our schools and the teachers, administrators, and children who spend their days there would probably be my number one priority -- if only because we aren't talking about, or doing much about, it.	”
—Mark Norton (2015)

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Washington.
Education on the ballot

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

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	Modifications are required before they are implemented.
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	No
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	No
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	Only when compared to initial assessments are they useful for determining a curriculum's efficacy or actual student achievement.
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	For starters, we need to equip parents to help their children with homework. Start with the biggest bite of the apple: folks like me. I’m an English-speaking, reasonably well-educated dad who is capable of learning new math and such. When the kids are issued their workbooks, a parent’s guide to the curriculum would be a huge help. When my son comes home with homework and needs help, I could reference the lesson number in the parent’s booklet and provide the help he needs. If you haven’t seen the major differences in the way we do, for example, long-division these days versus when we went to school, then you may not appreciate how helpful a parent’s interpretive booklet would be. So that’s at least half of the households who could provide some sort of at-home help to keep those children out of the educational ditch. Then there are English-as-a-second-language households, some of whom could benefit in the exact same manner with a booklet provided in an alternate language. These are publisher’s prerogatives, and the products exist; we need to avail ourselves of them in every school. For the households where, regardless of language spoken at home, there is little or no parent involvement, we need a more proactive approach. This starts with the teachers who daily see homework not come back, or come back incomplete or not even attempted. How better to create an environment of cooperation and the whole “it takes a village” concept than to enlist upper grades in mentoring and tutoring? There are wonderful models out there where those opportunities, especially for closely-located elementary and high schools, work out beautifully. They even create new generations of teachers, foster empathy, and increase awareness about disenfranchised populations at a young age by giving upperclassmen a chance to be part of the solution. These shouldn’t be one-offs, they should be district-wide, facilitated programs.
How should expulsion be used in the district?	Except for never using explusion, al of the above.*
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	Assess the factors leading to the failure and convene a session to discuss the issues with the resident cadre. Solicit input from them on solutions, offer partnerships with successful mentors in those arenas, and assign SMART goals to assess progress. Monitor and continue the communication cycle. Invite parent partnerships as well. Most of all, communicate about the issues and efforts, as well as progress.
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	Yes
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	Probably a combination of mentorship, training, probation if no improvement, and finally termination if the issue(s) cannot or will not be corrected.
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	Increase communication, offer honest information and transparency, be open about shortcomings and problems, and find ways to improve labor relations at every turn. The public expects their teachers and administrators to get along, set a good example of cooperative management.
* The options Norton referred to were: Expulsion cases must be viewed on a case-by-case basis rather than the district having an overarching policy. Expulsion should be used for serious offenses to ensure the safety of other students as well as the integrity of education at district schools. Students with behavior problems should be sent to alternative schools to remove them from their current environments rather than being expelled. Practices such as positive behavior strategies should be used before expulsion is considered. Expulsion should never be an option.

Voters' pamphlet

Norton provided the following statements for the Snohomish County primary election voters' pamphlet:

“	While my two children might like me to lobby for longer recess, I know there are real problems to fix in our district. A large share of our taxes supports schools, and each of us deserves the confidence that our kids are getting a safe, worldclass education every day. I worry that our current practice of placing portables where vibrant new schools might go and effectively punting some of our more pressing problems is not a solid strategy. Parents or not, we all support our schools. We owe it to one another to invest our taxes wisely, and equip teachers to educate our children well. We owe it to our children to achieve top-tier graduation rates, instilling confidence that we have positioned them to compete on a global scale when they graduate. I bring a voice of reason, a good sense of humor and humility, and the knowledge that as a director, I represent you, your neighbors and children, and I take that trust seriously. Thank you for considering me.	”
—Mark Norton (2015)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Mark Norton Edmonds School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Mark Norton (Washington) - Google News

See also

• Edmonds School District, Washington
• Edmonds School District elections (2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• Edmonds School District