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Nampa School District elections (2015)
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Two seats on the Nampa School District Board of Trustees were up for general election on May 19, 2015. Incumbents Daren Coon and Jocabed Veloz faced voters for the first time since the school district experienced a financial crisis in 2012 that left the district facing a $5 million deficit. They were defeated by Mandy Simpson in Zone 1 and Janelle Stauffer in Zone 2.
The candidates for the Zone 1 seat were incumbent Jocabed Veloz, Mandy Simpson and Jac Webb. Zone 2 incumbent Daren Coon faced Isaac B. Moffett and Janelle Stauffer in the election.[1][2][3]
One of the six candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 school board candidate survey. Check out the "Ballotpedia survey responses" section to see Mandy Simpson's answers.
About the district
- See also: Nampa School District, Idaho
The Nampa School District is located in southwestern Idaho in Canyon County. The county seat is Caldwell. The county was home to 203,143 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau in 2014.[4] In the 2012-2013 school year, the Nampa School District was the third-largest school district in Idaho and served 16,073 students.[5]
Academic performance
In the 2012-2013 school year, the Nampa School District had a graduation rate of 86.3 percent, outperforming the state's rate of 84.1 percent but missing the target percentage of 90 percent. Nampa's graduation rate lowered 10.2 percentage points from the 2011-2012 school year compared to the rate for the previous year. The graduation rates for Idaho schools dropped across the board in 2013. This was attributed to a change in the method of measurement for graduation rates. Previously, Idaho schools based their graduation rates on the percentage of seniors who started the school year. The 2012-2013 school year graduation rate metrics based the rates on students who started the school in the ninth grade.[6][7]
Idaho 11th-graders are required to take one of three types of college entrance exams. They can choose from the ACT, the Compass or the SAT. Nampa School District had the highest participation in the SAT with 96 percent of its 11-graders taking the test. The state average overall score was 1363 while it was 1296 for the district.[8]
| Nampa School District SAT performance 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | Math | Writing | Total | |
| Nampa School District | 445 | 439 | 412 | 1296 |
| State average | 464 | 461 | 438 | 1363 |
Demographics
Canyon County underperformed compared to the rest of Idaho in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 16.8 percent of county residents age 25 and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 25.1 percent for Idaho as a whole. The median household income in the county was $42,105 compared to $46,767 for the state. The poverty rate in the county was 20.4 percent compared to 15.5 percent for the entire state.[4]
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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 Nampa School District Board of Trustees consists of five members elected to four-year terms. Each member represents and are elected by one of the five geographical zones in the district. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on May 19, 2015. The Zone 1 and Zone 2 seats were up for election in 2015. [2]
School board candidates had to file for this election with Canyon County by March 20, 2015. Those wishing to run as a write-in candidate had until April 3, 2015, to file. To vote in the election, residents had to register by April 24, 2015.[10]
Elections
2015
Candidates
Zone 1
| Jocabed Veloz | Mandy Simpson 
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Jac Webb | |||
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Zone 2
| Daren Coon | Isaac B. Moffett | Janelle Stauffer
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Election results
Zone 1
| Nampa School District, Zone 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Mandy Simpson |
47.8% | 77 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jac Webb | 29.2% | 47 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jocabed Veloz Incumbent | 23% | 37 | |
| Total Votes | 161 | |||
| Source: Canyon County, "Election Abstracts," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. | ||||
Zone 2
| Nampa School District, Zone 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Janelle Stauffer |
44.6% | 111 | |
| Nonpartisan | Isaac B. Moffett | 29.7% | 74 | |
| Nonpartisan | Daren Coon Incumbent | 25.7% | 64 | |
| Total Votes | 249 | |||
| Source: Canyon County, "Election Abstracts," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. | ||||
Endorsements
No candidate received any official endorsements for his or her campaign during the election.
Campaign finance
School board candidates in this election were not required to file any campaign finance reports, but the election in May 2015 was the last election for which there were no reporting requirements. On April 3, 2015, Gov. Butch Otter (R) signed SB 1072 into law which requires school board candidates in districts with an enrollment of 500 students or more to comply with campaign finance reporting requirements.[11] A majority of Idaho's school districts have an enrollment below this threshold. Of the 149 districts in the state tracked by the National Center for Education Statistics, 74 had an enrollment of 500 or greater in the 2012-2013 school year.[12] The law took effect on July 1, 2015.
Past elections
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What was at stake?
2015
The Zone 1 and Zone 2 seats on the Nampa Board of Trustees were up for election in 2015.[1] Zone 1 incumbent Jocabed Veloz and Zone 2 incumbent Daren Coon faced challengers. Both incumbents faced voters for the first time since the school district experienced a financial crisis in 2012.
Issues in the election
Incumbents face questions after financial crisis in the district
The incumbents of the Nampa Board of Trustees faced questions from voters and challengers regarding the financial crisis experienced by the district in 2012. Due to several accounting errors, the district faced a $5 million deficit that resulted in eliminating transportation services to a magnet school, closing an elementary school and cutting 45 teaching jobs in the 2013-2014 school year to make up for the deficit.
The challengers said the board incumbents did not listen to the community. The biggest concern was cutting the bus services to New Horizons Dual Language Magnet School. Zone 1 incumbent Jocabed Veloz and Zone 2 incumbent Daren Coon both insisted they did take the community's concern seriously when making their decision. Veloz recalled a special committee that was created to come up with alternatives. Coon mentioned board meetings that lasted until midnight that gave the public an opportunity to suggest ideas and solutions. Ultimately, the busing to the magnet school was cut since there were other schools available for district children to attend. The school went from over 500 students to less than 400 after the bus services were cut.[13]
Veloz and Coon were the last of the five board members to face election after the financial crisis in 2012. Veloz was appointed to the board a few months before the financial crisis. Coon was in his third term as a board member during that time. Only one of the former board members has been re-elected. One former member choose not to run, and another member was defeated in an election in 2013. Challengers Mandy Simpson and Jac Webb ran against Veloz. Coon faced Isaac B. Moffett and Janelle Stauffer.
By the end of the 2013-2014 school year, the district overcame its deficit and had $1.8 million in the general fund. The district was also able to improve its credit rating by two spots according to a credit report completed in April 2015.[14] Due to the recent improvement in the district's financial outlook, the board voted to bring back the bus services in a limited way to New Horizons Magnet School. Veloz and Coon voted against the proposal to bring back the buses.[15]
Veloz and Coon lost their bids for re-election on May 19, 2015. In Zone 1, Mandy Simpson defeated Veloz and challenger Jac Webb. Zone 2 candidate Janelle Stauffer defeated Coon and challenger Isaac B. Moffett. After the defeat of Veloz and Coon, four of the five board members have been replaced since 2013.
Ballotpedia survey responses
One of the six candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates as of May 6, 2015. The following sections display the responses to the survey questions from Mandy Simpson.
Top priorities
When asked what her top priorities would be if elected, Simpson stated:
| “ | As a Nampa School Board trustee, I would be dedicated to the education of our students, supporting our employees, and the success of our schools[16] | ” |
| —Mandy Simpson (2015)[17] | ||
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 the candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Issue | Simpson's Ranking | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | ||||
| Closing the achievement gap | ||||
| Expanding arts education | ||||
| Expanding career-technical education | ||||
| Expanding school choice options | ||||
| Improving college readiness | ||||
| Improving education for special needs students | ||||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 multiple choice and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. Links to the candidate's responses can be found below.
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Nampa School District election in 2015:[18]
| Deadline | Event |
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| March 20, 2015 | Last day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| April 3, 2015 | Last day for write-in candidates to file declaration of intent documents |
| April 3, 2015 | Last day for candidates to withdraw |
| April 24, 2015 | Last day to register to vote in the general election |
| May 19, 2015 | Last day to return absentee ballots |
| May 19, 2015 | Election Day |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Idaho elections, 2015
This election shared the ballot with elections for library board trustees.[2]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Nampa School District Idaho. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Nampa School District | Idaho | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nampa School District, "Nampa School District #131 Board of Trustees," accessed February 24, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Tiffany Rouse, "Email communication with Canyon County Elections Technical Specialist Nick Toves," April 15, 2015
- ↑ Canyon County, "Election Results," accessed May 20, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 United States Census Bureau, "Canyon County, Idaho," accessed May 26, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "Nampa School District," accessed February 25, 2015
- ↑ Idaho State Department of Education, "Report Card, Nampa School District," accessed May 18, 2015
- ↑ Idaho Education News, "What happened to the class of 2013?" September 24, 2014
- ↑ Idaho State Department of Education, "School Day Reports," accessed May 18, 2015
- ↑ Canyon County, "Election Results," accessed December 27, 2014
- ↑ Idaho Secretary of State, "Elections-2015 Election Consolidation Calendar," accessed February 25, 2015
- ↑ Open States, "64th Legislature, 1st Regular Session (2015): Idaho Senate Bill 1072," accessed April 24, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 24, 2015
- ↑ Idaho Statesman, "Four candidates challenge two Nampa trustee incumbents," April 17, 2015
- ↑ Idaho Press-Tribune, "Nampa schools bond rating jumps two spots to positive," May 1, 2015
- ↑ Idaho Press-Tribune, "Nampa School District ends year with positive balance," October 14, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Mandy Simpson's responses," May 2, 2015
- ↑ Idaho Secretary of State, "Elections-2015 Elections Consolidation Calendar," accessed February 24, 2015
| 2015 Nampa School District Elections | |
| Canyon County, Idaho | |
| Election date: | May 19, 2015 |
| Candidates: | Zone 1: • Incumbent, Jocabed Veloz • Mandy Simpson • Jac Webb Zone 2: • Incumbent, Daren Coon • Isaac B. Moffett • Janelle Stauffer |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
