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Michael Frontier
Michael Frontier is the District 3 representative on the Racine Unified School District school board in Wisconsin. First elected in 2013, Frontier won a new term in the by-district general election on April 4, 2017. Frontier served as an at-large member from 2013 to 2016.[1]
Biography
Frontier has his bachelor's degree from Loyola University, his master's degree from the University of Illinois and his doctorate in education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He worked for Racine Unified from 1968 until 1999. After retiring in 1999, he founded the San Juan Diego Middle School for low-income students, although it closed in 2009 due to insufficient funds. At the time of his tenure, Frontier was serving as part of the graduate support staff at John XXIII Educational Center.[2]
Elections
2017
Three of nine seats on the Racine Unified School District school board were up for by-district general election on April 4, 2017. Seats in Districts 2, 3, and 7 were on the ballot. District 2 incumbent Dennis Wiser and District 3 incumbent Michael Frontier won re-election unopposed, while District 7 incumbent Don Nielsen did not seek a new term. Brian O'Connell, who lost to Nielsen in 2016, joined Wiser and Frontier on the board.[3]
Results
| Racine Unified School District, District 3 General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Michael Frontier Incumbent (unopposed) |
100.00% | 635 |
| Total Votes | 635 | |
| Source: Racine County, Wisconsin, "Final Unofficial Election Results 4-4-2017," accessed April 4, 2017These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available. | ||
2016
The 2016 election for all nine seats on the Racine Unified School District was the district's first using a by district system rather than electing members at-large. A primary election was held on February 16, 2016, for Districts 6 and 7 with the general election on April 5, 2016. Board candidates were required to live in their election districts. The change was enshrined in state law through legislation sponsored by State Sen. Van Wanggaard (R) and State Rep. Tom Weatherson (R), who represent districts that include Racine. The election districts approved by the school board on October 27, 2015, led to three races in 2016 where three incumbents were assured defeat because they faced fellow board members.[4][5]
Candidates backed by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO won seven of the board's nine seats in 2016. Michelle Duchow in District 1 was not endorsed due to her unopposed race and District 9 winner Robert Wittke was endorsed by The Journal Times as a candidate who would stand up to unions.
District 1 candidate Michelle Duchow was the only unopposed candidate in the race. Dennis Wiser defeated fellow incumbent John Koetz in District 2, while incumbent Michael Frontier ousted fellow board member Pamala Handrow in District 3. Julie McKenna defeated Kim Plache to take the District 4 seat. Challenger Steven Hooper defeated incumbent Chuck Goodremote for the District 5 seat. Newcomer Matthew Hanser narrowly defeated board president Melvin Hargrove in District 8. Incumbent Don Nielsen finished first in the District 7 race against challenger Brian O'Connell. Nielsen and O'Connell defeated Adrienne Moore in the primary. Three newcomers were guaranteed to join the board after this election with no incumbents running in Districts 1, 6 and 9. John Heckenlively defeated Jim Venturini for the District 6 seat, while Robert Wittke defeated Kurt Squire in District 9.[5] Ernest Ni'A was defeated by Heckenlively and Venturini in the District 6 primary. Bryn Biemeck was removed from the ballot in District 6 following a Wisconsin Government Accountability Board appeal by the Racine Education Association.[6]
Results
| Racine Unified School District, District 3 Special Election, 1-year term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Michael Frontier Incumbent |
64.71% | 1,850 |
| Pamala Handrow Incumbent | 35.29% | 1,009 |
| Total Votes | 2,859 | |
| Source: Racine Unified School District, "Racine Board of Education Official Election Results," accessed June 15, 2016 | ||
Endorsements
Frontier received the endorsement of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.[7]
2013
| Racine Unified School District, At-large General Election, 3-year term, April 2, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Michael Frontier |
20.9% | 9,318 | |
| Nonpartisan | Julie McKenna |
20.3% | 9,038 | |
| Nonpartisan | Chris Eperjesy |
18.9% | 8,431 | |
| Nonpartisan | Robert Wittke, Jr. | 15.3% | 6,825 | |
| Nonpartisan | Roger Pfost | 12.6% | 5,620 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kristie Formolo | 11.8% | 5,239 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.2% | 81 | |
| Total Votes | 44,552 | |||
| Source: Racine County Clerk, "Official April 2, 2013 Election Results," accessed February 6, 2014 | ||||
Campaign themes
2016
Frontier answered the following questions from The Journal Times:
| “ |
1) Last year, the School Board was divided for months on the district’s employee handbook. What role should administrators, unions and the board have in future handbook changes? In many districts throughout the state the school board was involved in meeting with unions and working collaboratively to create handbooks that were fair, respected and representative of both the taxpayers and the teachers. We need to cut through the divisive relations and model the kind of collaboration we expect from our students. The board should identify areas in the handbook language that are open to discussion and get input from the teachers. The board should take a more active role in these important discussions. Act 10 does not prevent us from listening to employees. 2) The district recently entered into a tentative agreement to buy the Sturtevant Sportsplex for $5.2 million, and the district is studying how to use and pay for the complex before the board’s May 10 deadline to approve the deal. If you are elected, under what conditions would you support the district buying the Sportsplex? We are facing a budget shortfall. I feel we should be cautious about large expenditures now. Therefore, I feel the District should lease the complex from real estate professionals. The district, wisely, should expand its early childhood programs and bring our expertise as educators to this important phase of child development. On the other hand, I feel we should leave the managing of the Sportsplex and the space we lease for preschool to local professionals skilled in this area. 3) As the district implements block scheduling in high schools next year in preparation for new career academies, some have criticized the district for moving ahead on the change too fast, most notably employee unions. Should the district go ahead with block scheduling next year? Why or Why not? We have a $300 million budget. It is all directed at creating engaged learners. RUSD under Dr. Haws leadership is focusing on cutting edge methods that will capture student’s passion for learning. I feel block scheduling can create a more engaged learning environment. However, we cannot govern by policy alone. I understand we have four days set aside to train teachers in this method. I would like to learn how much professional development time was provided to teachers in other communities that have successfully made this dramatic change. I have asked for research in this regard and am awaiting feedback. 4) Over the last year, the villages of Caledonia, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant have been weighing whether to fund a study of leaving the Racine Unified School District. Would you support these communities breaking away from Unified? Why or why not? I would not support these separations. The board has been meeting with leaders from surrounding communities and it is clear that they realize “we sink or swim together”. RUSD has imposed change on these communities in the past without garnering any input from them. For example, in Sturtevant, school boundaries using Highway 11 as a divider sent children from that small community to different schools. Superintendent Haws and the board's legislative committee have begun to work to meet and listen to the concerns of these municipalities. Just as we must work more closely with the teachers, the greatness of the larger Racine Community rests on how well we can work together. 5) If elected, what is the most pressing change you would push for the district to make? The Superintendent’s community survey indicated that learning climate concerns are seen as the most significant of all. There is a perception that misbehavior on the part of some students is minimizing learning for others. The administration is implementing several interventions to address this concern. The board needs to build into its’ evaluation stronger, clearer markers that assess learning climate. These markers can indicate over time, if behavior is improving, so we can honestly counter negative perceptions. Therefore, the most critical change the board should pursue is to more intentionally assess the many efforts underway to improve learning climate. What we measure we treasure. |
” |
| —Michael Frontier (2016), [9] | ||
Board membership
2014
The Racine Unified Board of Education voted unanimously on 97.3 percent of its votes between January 1, 2014, and July 1, 2014. Every vote recorded by the board passed.
The voting data indicates that there was no clear governing majority or minority faction on the board. No individual board member's voting record differed significantly from that of the other board members.[10]
See also
- Racine Unified School District, Wisconsin
- Racine Unified School District elections (2017)
- Racine Unified School District elections (2014)
- Racine Unified School District elections (2015)
- Racine Unified School District elections (2016)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedlist - ↑ Journal Times, "Unified candidate Frontier has spent years in schools," March 20, 2013
- ↑ Racine County, Wisconsin, "Final Unofficial Election Results 4-4-2017," accessed April 4, 2017
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namednewmap - ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Journal Times, "Election filings, Racine County school boards," January 6, 2016
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedbiemeck - ↑ Wisconsin AFL-CIO, "2016 Spring Election Candidate Endorsements," March 10, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ The Journal Times, "Mike Frontier on the issues," March 3, 2016
- ↑ Racine Unified School District, "Board of Education Meetings," accessed August 28, 2014
| Racine Unified School District elections in 2017 | |
| Racine County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 4, 2017 |
| Candidates: | District 2: Incumbent, Dennis Wiser District 3: Incumbent, Michael Frontier |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
