Milwaukee Public Schools elections (2015)

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2015 Milwaukee Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
April 7, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Wisconsin Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee County, Wisconsin ballot measures Local ballot measures, Wisconsin

Five seats on the Milwaukee Board of School Directors were up for general election on April 7, 2015. Four district representatives and the one at-large board member were up for election.

Incumbents Mark Sain in District 1, Jeff Spence in District 2, Michael Bonds in District 3, Meagan Holman in District 8 and Terrence Falk, the at-large representative, were up for re-election. Only Holman did not seek re-election. Carol Voss was the sole candidate to file for the open District 8 seat and was elected to the board without opposition.

Spence was defeated by challenger Wendell Harris Sr. for the District 2 seat, while Stephany Pruitt lost to Bonds for the District 3 seat. Meanwhile, Sain and Falk ultimately faced no opposition to their re-election bids and were re-elected. Brian Eisold had filed a declaration of candidacy to challenge Falk for the at-large seat. However, Eisold did not file the necessary nominating signatures, leaving Falk unopposed.

These Milwaukee Public Schools elections took place on the backdrop of failed attempts to sell empty school buildings to a private voucher school, including sparring with the state legislature, as well as the appointment of a new superintendent. Additionally, Wisconsin and Milwaukee Public Schools had come under renewed scrutiny regarding suspension rates, especially the disproportionate use of the disciplinary action with black, American Indian and Latino students.

See also: What was at stake in the 2015 Milwaukee Public Schools elections?

About the district

See also: Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin

Milwaukee Public Schools is located in Milwaukee County, Wis.

Milwaukee Public Schools is located in Milwaukee County in southeastern Wisconsin. The county seat is Milwaukee. Milwaukee County was home to an estimated 956,023 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau. Milwaukee Public Schools was the largest school district by enrollment in Wisconsin, serving 79,130 students in the 2011-2012 school year.

Demographics

Milwaukee County outperformed the rest of Wisconsin in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 27.7 percent of Milwaukee County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 26.4 percent for Wisconsin as a whole. From 2008 through 2012, the median household income for Milwaukee County was $43,599. During that same time period, the median household income for Wisconsin was $52,627. The poverty rate in Milwaukee County was 20.9 percent from 2008 through 2012. During that same time period, the poverty rate for the entire state was 12.5 percent.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Milwaukee County (%)	Wisconsin (%)
White	65.6	88.1
Black or African American	27.1	6.5
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.9	1.1
Asian	3.8	2.5
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.0	0.0
Two or more races	2.6	1.7
Hispanic or Latino	14.0	6.3

Presidential Voting Pattern, Milwaukee County
Year	Democratic Vote	Green Party Vote	Libertarian Vote	Republican Vote
2012	332,438	1,042	2,623	154,924
2008	319,819	589	1,105	149,445
2004	297,653	319	963	180,287

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Voter and candidate information

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors consists of nine members elected to four-year terms. Eight members are elected by specific geographic districts, and one member is elected at large. Members of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors are elected to four-year terms on a staggered basis every odd-numbered year. Because no more than two candidates filed for any board position, there was no primary election. The general election was held on April 7, 2015.

To be elected to the board, candidates must reside in the boundaries of the school district for 28 days prior to the filing of a "Declaration of Candidacy" form. They must further be a resident of the apportioned area they are elected to at the time of taking office. If redistricting changes the district representatives live in, they may continue to serve the remainder of their terms so long as they continue to reside in the school district at large. Board members are required to take an official oath before taking office which is filed by the city clerk and the board clerk. They must also be 18 years old and citizens of the United States. Unless pardoned, those who have been convicted of a felony are not eligible for election to office in Wisconsin.

Candidates had between December 1, 2014, and January 6, 2015, to collect between 400 and 800 signatures for their nomination papers. The signatures had to come from residents of the district which the candidate sought election to represent, but the petition circulators were not required to reside in the district or municipality. Circulators were required to be U.S. citizens and 18 years or older.

Voters could register to vote in the election at the polling place on the election day. Proof of residence was required when registering to vote. In March 2015, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Wisconsin's voter ID law allowing it to take effect. However, Wisconsin officials stated they would not enforce the law until after the election on April 7, 2015. No photo identification was required to vote in this election.

District 1

Mark Sain
	Incumbent Member from 2011-2015 Retired firefighter

District 2

Jeff Spence		Wendell Harris Sr.
	Incumbent Member from 1999-2015 Director of agency services at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Bachelor's degree in chemistry and business administration, Lakeland College		First vice-chair of the Wisconsin NAACP Veteran, U.S. Air Force

District 3

Michael Bonds		Stephany Pruitt
	Incumbent Member from 2007-2015 Senior fiscal review analyst, City of Milwaukee Associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee M.S., M.P.A. and Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee		Licensed professional counselor Doctorate in Christian counseling, Agape Love Bible College M.S., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

District 8

Carol Voss
	Public relations and marketing director, IndependenceFirst M.S., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee B.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison

At-large

Terrence Falk
	Incumbent Member from 2007-2015 Retired district English teacher and speech coach

Note: Brian Eisold filed a declaration of candidacy for this race, but did not submit nominating petitions.

Election results

District 1

Milwaukee Public Schools, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Mark Sain Incumbent	98.1%	2,740
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	1.9%	53
Total Votes				2,793
Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "April 7, 2015: Spring Election Summary Report," accessed April 22, 2015

District 2

Milwaukee Public Schools, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Wendell Harris Sr.	62.5%	3,467
	Nonpartisan	Jeff Spence Incumbent	37%	2,053
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.5%	26
Total Votes				5,546
Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "April 7, 2015: Spring Election Summary Report," accessed April 22, 2015

District 3

Milwaukee Public Schools, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Michael Bonds Incumbent	71.8%	2,791
	Nonpartisan	Stephany Pruitt	27.6%	1,073
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.5%	21
Total Votes				3,885
Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "April 7, 2015: Spring Election Summary Report," accessed April 22, 2015

District 8

Milwaukee Public Schools, District 8 General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Carol Voss	98.5%	4,491
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	1.5%	69
Total Votes				4,560
Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "April 7, 2015: Spring Election Summary Report," accessed April 22, 2015

At-large

Milwaukee Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Terrence Falk Incumbent	97.4%	22,983
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	2.6%	602
Total Votes				23,585
Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "April 7, 2015: Spring Election Summary Report," accessed April 22, 2015

Endorsements

Harris was endorsed by Wisconsin Progress.

Campaign finance

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2015

Candidates received a total of $39,332.68 and spent a total of $31,438.25 as reports available August 25, 2015, according to the Milwaukee Election Commission. The amounts in the table below reflect any funds candidates had on hand from prior campaigns.

Candidates were only required to file campaign finance reports if they did one of the following:

• accepted contributions, made disbursements or incurred obligations in an aggregate amount of more than $1,000 in a calendar year
• accepted more than $100 from a single source in the calendar year, except contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
District 1
Mark Sain	$0.00	$340.00	$533.49
District 2
Jeff Spence	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Wendell Harris Sr.	$18,260.09	$10,283.19	$7,976.90
District 3
Michael Bonds	$4,675.00	$4,689.21	$25.59
Stephany Pruitt	$415.05	$322.05	$93.00
District 8
Carol Voss	$1,372.47	$869.47	$503.00
At-Large
Terrence Falk	$14,610.07	$14,934.33	$783.44

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2013 District 4 Milwaukee Public Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Annie Woodward Incumbent 97.2% 2,442      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 2.8% 71 Total Votes 2,513 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 2, 2013," accessed September 22, 2014 District 5 Milwaukee Public Schools, District 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Larry Miller Incumbent 97.6% 4,493      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 2.4% 109 Total Votes 4,602 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 2, 2013," accessed September 22, 2014 District 6 General Milwaukee Public Schools, District 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Tatiana Joseph 61.5% 1,047      Nonpartisan Angel Sanchez 38.1% 648      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.5% 8 Total Votes 1,703 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 2, 2013," accessed September 22, 2014 Primary Milwaukee Public Schools, District 6 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Tatiana Joseph 51.6% 491      Nonpartisan Angel Sanchez 34.8% 331      Nonpartisan Jaime Alvarado 12.7% 121      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.8% 8 Total Votes 951 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: February 19, 2013," accessed September 22, 2014 District 7 Milwaukee Public Schools, District 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Claire Zautke 60.1% 3,951      Nonpartisan David Voeltner Incumbent 39.1% 2,571      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.8% 51 Total Votes 6,573 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 2, 2013," accessed September 22, 2014 2011 At-large Milwaukee Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Terrence Falk Incumbent 60% 56,102      Nonpartisan Susan L. Schmidt 39% 36,427      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1% 961 Total Votes 93,490 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 5, 2011," accessed September 22, 2014 District 1 Milwaukee Public Schools, District 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Mark Sain 49.9% 5,785      Nonpartisan Tim Petersons Incumbent 49% 5,678      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1% 120 Total Votes 11,583 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 5, 2011," accessed September 22, 2014 District 2 Milwaukee Public Schools, District 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Jeff Spence Incumbent 69.4% 9,485      Nonpartisan Gerald S. Glazer 29.7% 4,060      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.9% 125 Total Votes 13,670 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 5, 2011," accessed September 22, 2014 District 3 Milwaukee Public Schools, District 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Michael Bonds Incumbent 98.8% 10,407      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1.2% 127 Total Votes 10,534 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 5, 2011," accessed September 22, 2014 District 8 General Milwaukee Public Schools, District 8 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Meagan Holman 66.5% 9,608      Nonpartisan Candy Jo Lesniewski 32.8% 4,734      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.7% 107 Total Votes 14,449 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: April 5, 2011," accessed September 22, 2014 Primary Milwaukee Public Schools, District 8 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Meagan Holman 49.5% 3,523      Nonpartisan Candy Jo Lesniewski 24.7% 1,759      Nonpartisan Ed Heinzelman 24.4% 1,735 Total Votes 7,115 Source: City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "Election Results: February 15, 2011," accessed September 22, 2014

What was at stake?

2015

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors could have seen up to a third of its membership replaced with newcomers in the 2015 election. Incumbents faced challengers in District 2 and 3, and one newcomer ran unopposed for the District 8 seat. Only two of the five seats up for election were guaranteed to see returning incumbents due to unopposed races for the at-large and District 1 seats.

The governing majority of the board lost two members in the 2015 election. The board of directors voted unanimously on 66.7 percent of its votes between January 1, 2014, and July 1, 2014. Out of all votes recorded by the board, 94.2 percent passed. The voting data indicates that Michael Bonds, Terrence Falk, Meagan Holman, Tatiana Joseph, Mark Sain, Jeff Spence and Claire Zautke were the governing majority on the board. With Holman not seeking re-election and Bonds and Spence facing challengers, this governing majority was not guaranteed to continue. Ultimately, Holman and Spence were replaced in the 2015 election, leaving five of the governing majority members in office.

Issues in the district

Educators speak out at budget hearings

Hundreds of protesters joined Wisconsin lawmakers at the second of four public hearings on Gov. Scott Walker's (R) proposed state budget on March 20, 2015. The protesters spoke out against the proposed cuts to education. “It doesn’t matter what city we’re leading. It doesn’t matter the size of the district. What we’re talking about are students. We’re talking about children,” said Milwaukee Superintendent Darienne Driver.

The budget meeting was held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The group Parents for Public Schools requested an extension for the meeting to allow parents and educators a chance to join after school hours, but the Joint Finance Committee did not respond to their request. Milwaukee educators, parents and students entered the meeting together at 4:30 p.m. to express their concerns about funding cuts to public education. The Milwaukee school district was expected to lose more than $12 million if the proposed budget was passed. The first public hearing on the proposed state budget held on March 18, 2015, also drew hundreds of attendees.

District and state suspension rates examined

While on average 10 percent of high school students nationwide were suspended in the 2011-2012 school year, Wisconsin had the highest suspension rate of black students according to a report published by The Civil Rights Project at UCLA on February 23, 2015. The high suspension rate of black students, however, did not translate to higher overall suspension rates in the state. Wisconsin also ranked in the top 20 districts for highest suspension rates of Latino and American Indian students, but the state was not in the top 20 district for overall suspension rate. Additionally, the study found at the same time Milwaukee Public Schools had the highest overall K-8 suspension rate among districts with at least K-8 enrollments of at least 3,000 and at least 100 black, Latino and white students.

Black, American Indian & Latino students suspended more frequently
Specifically, 2 percent of elementary students and 7 percent of secondary students in Wisconsin were suspended in the 2011-2012 school year. The national average was 2.6 percent for elementary students and 10.1 percent for secondary students. Of the suspended elementary students in Wisconsin, 12.2 percent were black, 2.7 percent were American Indian, 2.0 percent were Latino, 1.0 were white and 0.4 were Asian American. The black/white percentage point gap of 11.2 was the second highest in the nation; only Missouri experienced a higher gap in elementary suspension rates between black and white students at 12.5 points. Wisconsin, however, had the highest point gap, 30 points, when it came to secondary student suspensions; 34 percent of the secondary students suspended were black, 12 percent were American Indian, 11 percent were Latino, 4 percent were white, 2 percent were 2 percent were Asian Americans and 2 percent were Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

MPS suspension rates decrease; still higher than average
In addition to Milwaukee Public Schools high suspension rate for elementary students, the district's secondary student suspension rate of 33 percent was more than triple the national average. The rate still represented an overall decline in the usage of suspension in the district. In the 2007-2009 school year, Milwaukee Public Schools suspended 56 percent of its black students; the study of 2011-2012 data showed that number dropping to 43 percent, and 2012-2013 state data indicated that 26 percent of black high school students were suspended that year.

Spokesperson for the district Tony Tagliavia responded to the data, saying, "These trends reflect our continued work to make sure discipline is appropriate." According to the Journal Sentinel, some district teachers have reported that the reduction in suspensions has not translated into better classroom behavior, including saying that they have been told not to send students out of the classroom for issues such as swearing.

In the conclusion of The Civil Rights Project study, the authors stated:

“	A school’s or district’s excessive use of exclusionary discipline should raise alarms about the negative impact on the learning environment, student achievement, graduation rates, and rates of juvenile crime and delinquency in the larger community. Elementary schools that suspend one out of ten students every year and secondary schools that suspend over a quarter of their enrollment—whether overall rates or for a major subgroup—are far out of line with most schools across the nation. This is made clear by looking at the distribution of suspension rates at both school levels. Specifically, there are more schools and districts at the low end of the suspending spectrum than at the high end. However, we do not suggest that slightly lower rates are healthy or that racial disparities within lower-suspending schools and districts are not problematic.	”
—Daniel Losen, Cheri Hodson, Michael A. Keith II, Katrina Morrison and Shakti Belway (2015)

New superintendent appointed

Dr. Darienne Driver was appointed the new superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools in October 2014, after serving as interim superintendent for three months. Driver is the district's first permanent female superintendent. She replaced Dr. Gregory Thornton, who left the district in July 2014 to serve the Baltimore City Public School System.

Driver had worked in the district since July 2012. She served as the chief innovation officer, and was the first to hold such a role in the district, before taking on the position of interim superintendent. Before coming to Milwaukee, Driver served as the deputy chief of empowerment schools for the School District of Philadelphia.

Debate over the fate of empty school buildings

Milwaukee Public Schools has a number of empty school buildings and a number of interested buyers, but what sounds like an easy solution for both parties is at odds with a so-called "funding flaw" that has made the district wary of selling.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett

St. Marcus Lutheran School is a private voucher school in Milwaukee looking to expand. The school offered to pay the district $880,000 for one of its empty buildings. Though the offer was equal to the appraised value of the building, Mayor Tom Barrett countered with a deal that would require St. Marcus to pay around $1.3 million over the next 10 years for the building. The increased price would help cover the cost of vouchers the city's taxpayers would have to pay over the next decade for students attending St. Marcus. The school's administrators declined the deal, claiming that the school brings a net benefit to taxpayers. In August 2014, St. Marcus announced a deal to lease space not owned by Milwaukee Public Schools in order to open an early childhood education center.

The dispute between private voucher school and district laid in a "funding flaw." If the district had sold a building, St. Marcus would have been able to broaden its enrollment, and more students might have left Milwaukee Public Schools to attend the private voucher school. The decrease in enrollment in the district would then have meant less state funding, but because the district is responsible for paying a portion of per-pupil vouchers, the district would have had to pay more money to schools like St. Marcus even though less money would be coming in. This "funding flaw" was corrected when state lawmakers expanded the voucher program statewide in the last state budget, but it was a correction that would take years to come to fruition. The disadvantage to Milwaukee Public Schools and the city's taxpayers would be corrected in 10 to 12 years time, but until then, the district was trying to avoid placing a larger tax burden on the city's residents.

The district did find one way to avoid selling buildings to private voucher schools. It approved plans to turn one vacant school into a three-part space, including a renovated, International Baccalaureate school, low-income apartments and a commercial space. To do so, developers would have bought the building and made the renovations. Then the district would have leased back the reopened school, paying back the developers for the renovations. At the end of the lease, the district would have paid an additional $1 to buy the school. Though the plans were on track to have the newly renovated school open in the fall of 2015, very little progress was made the year after the deal was approved in the fall of 2013. In September 2014, the district severed ties with its developer. Instead of building a new International Baccalaureate school, the district announced plans to move an existing middle school into the empty building in fall 2016, after renovating the school on its own. The move was expected to cost the district $100,000.

In response to the failed development plan, the Milwaukee Common Council approved new ordinances to allow the council to sell or lease unused Milwaukee Public Schools buildings. This is a power that they had already been given from the Wisconsin State Legislature, but the new ordinances create a process to solicit and evaluate proposals for city-owned buildings.

The slow progress toward renovation and the district's resistance to selling its property to competitors helped aggravate the issue to a state level. Republican lawmakers tried twice to pass a bill that would have required the city of Milwaukee to sell unused Milwaukee Public Schools property to non-district operators. State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-15) promised a third attempt to pass the bill would coming up in the next legislative session.

Key deadlines

The following were key deadlines for Milwaukee Public Schools 2015 elections:

Deadline	Event
December 1, 2014	Candidate signature gathering period began
January 6, 2015	Signature submission deadline
February 9, 2015	Campaign finance report deadline
March 30, 2015	Campaign finance report deadline
April 7, 2015	Election Day
July 20, 2015	Final campaign finance report deadline

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Wisconsin school board elections, 2015

Two municipal judicial seats and one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court were up for election on April 7, 2015. Statewide, a constitutional amendment question regarding the selection of the state's supreme court chief justice was on the ballot.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Milwaukee Public Schools. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Milwaukee Public Schools elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Milwaukee Public Schools	Wisconsin	School Boards
List of school districts in Wisconsin	Wisconsin school board elections, 2015 Public education in Wisconsin Local ballot measures, Wisconsin	School board elections, 2015 School board elections, 2014 School board election data analysis, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Milwaukee Public Schools
• City of Milwaukee Election Commission