Your monthly support provides voters the knowledge they need to make confident decisions at the polls. Donate today.
Melissa Bandong Bowman
Melissa Bandong Bowman was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Vallejo City Unified School District school board in California. Bowman was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Bowman participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 school board candidate survey. Click here to read her responses.
Elections
2016
Three of the five seats on the Vallejo City Unified School District Board of Education were up for at-large general election on November 8, 2016. Two of the seats were up for election to four-year terms, and the third seat was up for election to a two-year term due to an appointment on the board. No incumbents filed to run for the four-year terms, guaranteeing at least two newcomers were elected to the board. The race for the two open seats featured candidates Melissa Bandong Bowman, Susan Burton, John Fox, Marianne Kearney-Brown, Bob Lawson, Jeanette McCree-Goudeau, and Chidale O'Hara. Kearney-Brown and Lawson won election to the seats. In his bid for re-election to a two-year term, incumbent Ruscal Cayangyang defeated challenger Hazel Wilson.[1][2][3]
Results
| Vallejo City Unified School District, At-large General Election, 4-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Marianne Kearney-Brown |
25.82% | 17,807 |
| Bob Lawson |
20.06% | 13,833 |
| John Fox | 18.70% | 12,895 |
| Melissa Bandong Bowman | 11.34% | 7,821 |
| Jeanette McCree-Goudeau | 9.85% | 6,791 |
| Chidale O'Hara | 8.23% | 5,678 |
| Susan Burton | 5.72% | 3,943 |
| Write-in votes | 0.28% | 196 |
| Total Votes | 68,964 | |
| Source: Solano County Registrar of Voters, "Final Official Results," accessed December 5, 2016 | ||
Funding
At the time of this election, the Solano County Registrar of Voters did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staff directly requested this information, but the county did not provide it.
Endorsements
Bowman was endorsed by the community organization Evolve.[4]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Melissa Bandong Bowman 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 October 29, 2016:
| “ | My plan is to make our district one where families move to to send their students to school. Specifically, at the eend of my four year term we will earn six-year accreditation at all of our schools, work our facilities master plan to ensure safe and attractive campuses, and involve our parents, grandparents and guardians through outreach efforts.[5][6] | ” |
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 California. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | These are all important. Regarding arts education, I would like to point out that our high school band programs do much with very little and still manage to achieve high placement at local contests.[6] | ” |
| —Melissa Bandong Bowman (October 29, 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. At this time, I believe we have enough charter school choices in our small city. We should partner with what we do have and build alliances. |
| 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 only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| Yes. They measure some things well, but not all things. They measure how one compares to a particular standard on the day of the test. They don't measure improvement. A portfolio is a more complete measure of what a student accomplishes. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Common Core organizes learning tasks and skills on a continuum. Strong teachers already cover these things instinctively. It's a decent checklist to refer to for ensuring students are engaged toward mastery of content and skills. |
| 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. A restorative model is most effective for students and staff. Let's build a culture of empathy and equity. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. Pay them a fair wage to begin with so they can concentrate on their important work. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion should only be used for extreme cases, such as a federal offense. This is covered in Education Code. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Parent involvement Parents (and Grandparents and Guardians) are the first teachers. Let's find ways to kerp them connected throughout the education process. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Melissa Bandong Bowman Vallejo City Unified School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Vallejo City Unified School District, California
- Vallejo City Unified School District elections (2016)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Solano County Registrar of Voters, "Candidate Filed Log (On The Ballot) - November 8, 2016 General Election As Of 08/22/2016," accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ Vallejo City Unified School District, "Meet Our Board," accessed July 12, 2016
- ↑ Solano County, "2016 GENERAL ELECTION," accessed November 9, 2016
- ↑ Evolve, "Endorsements: November 8, 2016 General Election," accessed October 13, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Melissa Bandong Bowman's responses," October 29, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
