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Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry was a candidate for the Region 1 seat of the Pocono Mountain School District Board of Directors in Pennsylvania. The seat is up for general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015. Henry filed to run in the Republican primary. He was defeated in the primary election.[1]
Henry participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.
Biography
At the time of his candidacy, Henry was a student in the Pocono Mountain School District and has been attending Pocono Mountain schools throughout his life. He serves as the senior vice president in his family's business. He is also an Eagle Scout.[2]
Elections
2015
Five of the nine seats on the Pocono Mountain Board of Directors were up for election in the general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015. All candidates, with the exception of Matthew Henry, filed to run in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. Henry ran in the Republican primary only.
Eddie Coover won election without opposition in Region 1 after defeating Maria Geffers and Matthew Henry in the primary election. Region 2 incumbent Rusty Johnson along with Region 3 incumbents John Davis and Jacquelyn Leonard won re-election without general election opposition. No independent candidates filed to run in the general election.[3][1]
Results
Region 1
| Pocono Mountain School District, Region 1 Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Eddie Coover |
51.3% | 287 | |
| Democratic | Maria Geffers | 48.8% | 273 | |
| Total Votes | 560 | |||
| Source: Monroe County, Pennsylvania, "Monroe County Election Results," accessed June 16, 2015 | ||||
| Pocono Mountain School District, Region 1 Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Eddie Coover |
46.1% | 335 | |
| Republican | Maria Geffers | 32.6% | 237 | |
| Republican | Matthew Henry | 21.2% | 154 | |
| Total Votes | 726 | |||
| Source: Monroe County, Pennsylvania, "Monroe County Election Results," accessed June 16, 2015 | ||||
Funding
Campaign finance information was not available for this election.
Endorsements
Henry received no official endorsements for his campaign during the election.
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Henry 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:
| “ | "My four priorities are as follows: 1). Have a Quality Education to offer to the Students |
” |
| —Matthew Henry (2015)[5] | ||
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 Alaska. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Expanding arts education | |
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 |
|---|---|
| "Modifications are required before they are implemented." | |
| "It depends on the current state of the school district, if funding is available and the new charter school is going to be beneficial then there is no reason as to why they cant be approved. It really does depend on the state in which we are a district are in." | |
| "Only if the public schools are going to get more funding first. tax payers pay massive amounts for PMSD and we schould be getting the state funding before any tuition payed private school." | |
| "While they can be they also sometimes mislead everyone as to how the school is doing. If a student is not capable of taking a class at the same level in which the test material is at then they should not be taking that test. So with proper changes the test will be an accurate measure." | |
| "Our school currently focuses on pushing kids toward advanced classes. Which is not a good choice as many kids will end up failing. Our school turned to this after the 2009/2010 recession. We need to get back on track and rework our schooling systems. Investing money into not only AP and Honors programs but also job related and special education programs should be our Number 1 priority. We as a district push too many people toward college and for many that's good but some never want to do that and might feel more comfortable in a work related environment." | |
| "Expulsion cases must be viewed on a case-by-case basis rather than the district having an overarching policy." | |
| "It all starts with the board. If a school ever gets to the point at which its failing then that will be a major problem but saying that one does get to that point then we can say that they will become our biggest concern. While the schools of PMSD are not "top preforming" they are not "Failing" in the past we have taken action against this and we will continue to do so. With the new Keystone testing have one on one and small classes just for the test is what will have to be done. While it is usually overlooked teacher moral is such a great cause of student preforming poor. Unfortunately the moral has not been great but it should be a goal of ours to fix it. We are here to help the Students, Teachers and Taxpayers not just one party!" | |
| "No" | |
| "Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district." | |
| "Transparency! Our current board is doing a great job but many people are not sure where to find that info. While its there it is very hard to find and it is one of my priorities to make sure that the taxpayers, teachers and students are represented by us! Meet and greets would be a way to expand these relations as even once every other month would pull the voices of the towns in on the concerns of the people in which many times the school board does not know about." |
Candidate website
Henry highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:
| “ | Matthew Priorities:
1). Quality Education 2). Balanced Curriculum 3). Maintain & Lower Taxes 4). Establish a Level of Transparency[4] |
” |
| —Matthew Henry's campaign website (2015)[6] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Matthew Henry Pocono Mountain School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Pocono Mountain School District, Pennsylvania
- Pocono Mountain School District elections (2015)
- Embroiled incumbents see differing outcomes in May 19 school board elections across five states (May 21, 2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Monroe County, Pennsylvania, "Officewide Candidate List 2015," accessed March 18, 2015 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "candidates" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Matthew Henry PMSD School Director, "About Matthew," accessed April 17, 2015
- ↑ Pocono Mountain School District, "Meet the Board," accessed March 16, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Matthew Henry responses," April 17, 2015
- ↑ Matthew Henry PMSD School Director, "Home" accessed April 17, 2015
| 2015 Pocono Mountain School District Elections | |
| Monroe County, Pennsylvania | |
| Election date: | Primary election: May 19, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | Region 1: • Eddie Coover (D/R) • Maria Geffers (D/R) • Matthew Henry (R) Region 2: • Incumbent Rusty Johnson (D/R) |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
