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Matthew McDermott (New York)
Matthew McDermott was a candidate for at-large representative on the Rochester City Board of School Commissioners in New York. McDermott ran for the seat in the Democratic primary election on September 10, 2015. He lost that election, but he still appeared on the general election ballot on November 3, 2015, due to cross-filing. In addition to running in the Democratic primary, McDermott also filed to run under the Working Families Party designation in the general election.[1][2][3] He lost the election.[4]
Biography
McDermott and his wife own the store Vittorio Menswear and Tuxedo. They have three children who attend school in the Rochester City School District. McDermott earned a bachelor's degree from St. John Fisher College. He has experience serving in a number of volunteer leadership roles, including as board president for NeighborWorks Rochester, as advisory board chair for NextGen Rochester and as chair of the Parish Council at St. Mary’s Church.[5][6]
Elections
2015
Opposition
Four of the seven seats on the Rochester City School District Board of School Commissioners were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A primary election was held on September 10, 2015. The elections were held at large.[7] The seats held by incumbents Willa Powell, Malik Evans, Melisza Campos and Mary Adams were on the ballot.[8] Adams, Evans and Powell won re-election, while Elizabeth Hallmark (D/WF) joined the board. They defeated Matthew McDermott (WF) in the general election.[4]
Campos did not file to run for re-election, ensuring at least one newcomer would join the board. The other three incumbents faced five challengers in the primary election: Howard Eagle, Hallmark, Mia Hodgins, McDermott and Lorenzo Williams. All eight candidates ran as Democrats, which mandated the primary.[1]
There were several cases of cross-filing in this election. In addition to running as Democrats, Adams and Evans filed to run with the Independence Party, and Powell, Hallmark and McDermott additionally ran with the Working Families Party.[1]
Adams, Evans, Powell and Hallmark won the Democratic primary election, allowing them to advance to the general election. Because he cross-filed with the Working Families Party, McDermott also advanced to the general election.[2][3]
The names of candidates who ran with multiple party designations appeared under each party designation on the general election ballot. The votes from each designation were then pooled together to give a candidate's vote total.
Results
General election
| ELECTORAL FUSION: Rochester City School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Cross-filed (2) |  Malik Evans Incumbent |
24.9% | 14,907 | |
| Cross-filed (2) | Elizabeth Hallmark |
23.8% | 14,239 | |
| Cross-filed (2) | Willa Powell Incumbent |
22.6% | 13,512 | |
| Cross-filed (2) | Mary Adams Incumbent |
22.1% | 13,204 | |
| Working Families Party | Matthew McDermott | 6.2% | 3,738 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.4% | 260 | |
| Total Votes | 59,860 | |||
| Source: Monroe County, "2015 Monroe County General Election Unofficial Results," accessed November 3, 2015. | ||||
| FULL BY-PARTY RESULTS: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Malik Evans Incumbent | 21.8% | 13,066 | |
| Democratic | Elizabeth Hallmark | 19.7% | 11,821 | |
| Democratic | Mary Adams Incumbent | 19.6% | 11,747 | |
| Democratic | Willa Powell Incumbent | 19% | 11,368 | |
| Working Families | Matthew McDermott | 6.2% | 3,738 | |
| Working Families | Elizabeth Hallmark | 4% | 2,418 | |
| Working Families | Willa Powell Incumbent | 3.6% | 2,144 | |
| Independence | Malik Evans Incumbent | 3.1% | 1,841 | |
| Independence | Mary Adams Incumbent | 2.4% | 1,457 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.4% | 260 | |
Primary election
This election was held September 10, 2015.
| Rochester City School District, At-Large, Democratic Primary, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Malik Evans Incumbent |
19.2% | 4,910 |
| Mary Adams Incumbent |
16.2% | 4,137 |
| Elizabeth Hallmark |
14.2% | 3,637 |
| Willa Powell Incumbent |
14.2% | 3,629 |
| Lorenzo Williams | 10.4% | 2,652 |
| Howard Eagle | 9.9% | 2,517 |
| Mia Hodgins | 8.1% | 2,065 |
| Matthew McDermott | 7.5% | 1,923 |
| Write-in votes | 0.28% | 72 |
| Total Votes | 25,542 | |
| Source: Monroe County Clerk, "Democratic Primary Final Summary," accessed September 23, 2015 | ||
Funding
According to the Democrat & Chronicle, incumbent Willa Powell and challengers Howard Eagle, Mia Hodgins, and Lorenzo Williams reported spending less than $500 on their campaigns for the first campaign finance filing deadline for the primary election. The newspaper also reported that out of the eight candidates in the election, challenger Elizabeth Hallmark spent the most money on her campaign at $1,714, and incumbent Malik Evans raised the most at $9,125, which included a $5,000 personal loan.[9]
Reporting requirements
School board candidates were required to file campaign finance disclosure reports with the clerk of the Rochester City School District. No disclosure reports were required from candidates who raised or spent less than $500, but those candidates did have to file a sworn statement to that effect with the school district clerk.[10] Three reports were required per election from those over the $500 threshold. Campaign finance reports for the primary election were due August 12, September 5, and September 30, 2015. The general election campaign finance reports were due October 4, October 29, and November 23, 2015.[11]
Endorsements
McDermott was endorsed by the Monroe County Democratic Committee and the Working Families Party.[12][13]
Campaign themes
2015
McDermott highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:
| “ | Campaign Issues: School Choice
Charter Schools originated as a way to provide choice to parents in areas with failing schools and also as a way to pilot innovations that could then be translated back to district schools. Our district currently has 13 charter schools educating about 4,000 students at all grade levels. As a school board member tasked with providing governance for our district, we can't avoid the fact that school aid funding that flows to charter schools removes resources from our school district that could be used to improve our schools. That said, our kids deserve access to high quality schools regardless of who runs them. We need to forge effective partnerships with charters that create win-win solutions, rather than fostering animosity. The only real way to compete with charter schools is by creating strong district schools that parents want to send their kids to and that are effective at teaching and graduating students. We have examples of high performing district schools, like World of Inquiry School 58 and others, that can serve as models to replicate in other buildings. Student Safety Middle and high school students (my oldest son included) utilize RTS buses rather than yellow school buses to travel to and from school each day. Unfortunately, some students have gotten into fights -- previously at the Liberty Pole and now at the newly opened transit center. The Rochester Police Department has pointed to the School District, the District has responded that this is simply an example of broader problems in society playing out. As a candidate and as a father of a student who transfers buses there, I believe the recently announced partnership to increase the number of students bypassing the transit center and taking express buses directly from school to home is a good start and will help improve the situation. The bottom line is that students who feel safe traveling to and from school are less likely to be absent and have lower stress levels. This creates a much better atmosphere for learning. Campaign Issues: Summer Learning Loss Our present school calendar has evolved from a time when we were largely an agricultural economy. Summers were designated as a break period to allow students to help their families on the farm. Needless to say, not many of our students spend their summers farming. What does happen with long school breaks is a loss of learning from the previous year and an exented period of time in the fall to get kids back up to where they were the previous June. There are examples of modifed school schedules that could allow us to stem this summer learning loss through shorter breaks and more instructional time. These breaks could provide enrichment opportunities to bring students up to grade level if needed. Some studies have shown significant impact, especially for students on the margins. To be clear, this is not something that could be easily changed, but it needs to be part of the conversation around improving student performance and I intend to raise it. Campaign Issues: District Finances Our district has an annual operating budget of nearly $800 million dollars - a lot of money by any measure. That budget pays for a variety of things including compensation and benefits for about 5,600 employees, food service for students, transportation, central administration, debt service and annual maintenance activities on 50+ district school buildings. The priority is to drive as much revenue as possible to the classroom and reduce administrative spending as a percentage of the total. There continues to be untapped opportunities to collaborate with other districts as well as the City of Rochester to reduce spending on non-instructional activities. [14] |
” |
| —Matthew McDermott's campaign website (2015)[15] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Matthew McDermott' 'Rochester City School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Rochester City School District, New York
- Rochester City School District elections (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 1.2 Monroe County Board of Elections, "Listing of Candidates for Public Office 2015," accessed July 22, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Monroe County Clerk, "2015 Monroe Primary Unofficial Results," accessed September 10, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Democrat & Chronicle, "Incumbents, Hallmark prevail for city school board," September 10, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Monroe County, "2015 Monroe County General Election Unofficial Results," accessed November 3, 2015
- ↑ Democrat & Chronicle, "Four in, four out for city school board Democrats," May 23, 2015
- ↑ Matt McDermott for Rochester City School Board, "About the Candidate," accessed August 13, 2015
- ↑ New York State Board of Elections, "2015 Filing Calendar," accessed July 24, 2015
- ↑ Rochester City School District, "Board Member Biographies," accessed July 16, 2015
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedfinancenews - ↑ Monroe County Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Disclosure Filings," May 11, 2015
- ↑ New York State Election Law, "NY Code - Section 1529: Times for filing statements," accessed August 12, 2015
- ↑ Monroe County Democratic Committee, "2015 MCDC Designating Convention Results," May 22, 2015
- ↑ Working Families Party, "2015 Candidates: Rochester Area," accessed September 8, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Matt McDermott for Rochester School Board, "Campaign Issues," accessed August 13, 2015
| 2015 Rochester City School District Elections | |
| Monroe County, New York | |
| Election date: | Primary election: September 10, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Mary Adams (D, I) • Incumbent, Malik Evans (D, I) • Incumbent, Willa Powell (D, WF) • Howard Eagle (D) • Elizabeth Hallmark (D, WF) • Mia Hodgins (D) • Matthew McDermott (D, WF) • Lorenzo Williams (D) |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
