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Palo Alto Unified School District elections (2014)
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Two seats on the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 4, 2014.[1][2] Candidates Ken Dauber, Catherine Crystal Foster, Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera, Gina Dalma and Terry Godfrey ran for election. No incumbents filed for re-election.[3]
Dauber and Godfrey won the two open seats in the general election.
About the district
Palo Alto Unified School District is located in Santa Clara County, California. The county seat is San Jose. Santa Clara County is home to 1,862,041 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau.[4] In the 2011-2012 school year, Palo Alto Unified School District was the 134th-largest school district by enrollment in California and served 12,205 students.[5]
Demographics
Santa Clara County outperformed the rest of California in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 46 percent of Santa Clara County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 30.5 percent for California as a whole. The median household income for Santa Clara County was $90,747 compared to $61,400 for the entire state. The percentage of people below poverty level for Santa Clara County was 9.7 percent while it was 15.3 percent statewide.[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 Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education consists of five members elected at-large to four-year terms. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on November 4, 2014. Two seats were up for election in 2014, and three seats will be up for election in 2016.[1][2]
School board candidates had to file with their county elections department during the candidate filing period. The filing period began July 14, 2014, and ended August 8, 2014. To vote in the 2014 general election, voters had to register by October 20, 2014. Voters could request vote-by-mail ballots from October 6, 2014, through October 28, 2014.[7]
Elections
2014
Candidates
At-large
- Ken Dauber
- Software engineer
- Catherine Crystal Foster
- Education nonprofit consultant
- Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera
- Gina Dalma
- Education officer
- Terry Godfrey
- Finance director
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Ken Dauber |
29.5% | 10,709 | |
| Nonpartisan | Terry Godfrey |
27.1% | 9,837 | |
| Nonpartisan | Catherine Crystal Foster | 26.6% | 9,637 | |
| Nonpartisan | Gina Dalma | 14% | 5,077 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera | 2.8% | 998 | |
| Total Votes | 36,258 | |||
| Source: Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Official Final Results," accessed December 23, 2014 | ||||
Endorsements
The Santa Clara County Democratic Party endorsed Catherine Crystal Foster, Gina Dalma, Ken Dauber and Terry Godfrey.[8]
Campaign finance
Candidates had to file contribution reports within 24 hours of receiving an aggregate total of $1,000 or more from a single source. The first scheduled pre-election report filing deadline was October 6, 2014. If candidates raised or spent less than $1,000 during the 2013 and 2014 calendar years, they had to file Form 470 at that time. If candidates raised or spent more during that time, they had to file Form 460 by the pre-election report filing deadline.[9]
Candidates required to file Form 460 also had to file a second pre-election report on October 23, 2014, and they had to file termination reports by December 31, 2014. If a termination report was not filed, candidates had to file a semi-annual report by February 2, 2015.[9]
Reports
According to the first pre-election reports submitted to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, candidates received a total of $107,557.34 in contributions and had $63,555.10 in expenditures as of September 30, 2014. Only one candidate, Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera, filed Form 470 to indicate he would not be spending or receiving more than $1,000 in this election. Because of that, Cabrera did not have to file any additional campaign finance reports.[10][11][12][13]
| Candidate | Existing balance | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gina Dalma | $0.00 | $20,992.00 | $12,168.78 | $10,519.33 |
| Ken Dauber | $5,785.23 | $29,580.00 | $16,905.62 | $12,674.38 |
| Catherine Crystal Foster | $13,384.00 | $29,039.34 | $15,986.22 | $13,254.07 |
| Terry Godfrey | $0.00 | $27,946.00 | $18,494.48 | $9,451.52 |
| Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera | N/A | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Past elections
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2012
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What was at stake?
2014
Issues in the district
Board cites errors in OCR bullying case
During the 2012-2013 school year, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that a middle school in the Palo Alto Unified School District had mishandled a bullying case involving a special education student. At the time, district officials agreed to sign a resolution agreement with the OCR to avoid any government intervention, but a few months after signing, district officials reported investigation errors in the agreement and asked the OCR for further review. After a year of expressed willingness from the OCR without any response other than to deny the district access to investigation records, the Palo Alto Unified Board of Education passed what was deemed a "controversial" resolution by local media outlets to advance the district's appeal for review in June 2014. The full resolution can be found here.[14][15][16]
At a candidate forum on September 11, 2014, the five candidates who ran for the two open at-large seats on the Palo Alto Unified Board of Education weighed in on the decision to pass the resolution. Catherine Crystal Foster was in the minority when she said she did not feel she was in a position to have an opinion on the decision, but that if the allegations listed against the OCR were true, she would have reluctantly voted to pass it. Ken Dauber, Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera, Gina Dalma and Terry Godfrey all said they would have rejected the resolution.[15]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Palo Alto Unified School District election in 2014:[9][17]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| July 14, 2014 | First day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| August 8, 2014 | Last day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| October 6, 2014 | First day to request vote-by-mail ballot |
| October 6, 2014 | First pre-election report due |
| October 20, 2014 | Last day to register to vote |
| October 23, 2014 | Second pre-election report due |
| October 28, 2014 | Last day to request vote-by-mail ballot |
| November 4, 2014 | Election Day |
| December 31, 2014 | Termination report due |
| February 2, 2015 | Semi-annual report due |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: California elections, 2014
This election shared the ballot with general elections for a number of state executive offices, four seats in the U.S. House, one state Senate seat, six state Assembly seats and several judicial and municipal elections.[18]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Palo + Alto + Unified + School + District + California"
See also
- California
- Palo Alto Unified School District, California
- California school board elections, 2014
- List of school board elections in 2014
- School board elections, 2014
- Santa Clara County, California ballot measures
- California ballot measures
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Palo Alto Unified School District, "Board of Education," accessed July 31, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Contest/Candidate Proof List Gubernatorial General Election," accessed July 31, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Contest/Candidate Proof List Gubernatorial General Election," accessed August 14, 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 United States Census Bureau, "Santa Clara County, California," accessed July 3, 2013
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 22, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Past Election Results," accessed July 3, 2014
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Summary of November 4, 2014, General Election Calendar," accessed July 14, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Democratic Party, "Endorsements," accessed October 16, 2014
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 4, 2014," accessed August 19, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Gina Dalma for PAUSD 2014 FPPC 460," October 4, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters FPPC 460, "Ken Dauber for School Board 2014," October 6, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Catherine Crystal Foster for School Board 2014 FPPC 460," October 5, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters FPPC 460, "Terry Godfrey for School Board 2014," October 6, 2014
- ↑ The Stanford Daily, "Palo Alto middle school accused of mishandling bullying case," February 11, 2013
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 San Jose Mercury News, "Palo Alto: School board candidates weigh in on controversial decision," September 12, 2014
- ↑ Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, "Resolution Regarding Office for Civil Rights Case Review/Appeal," June 17, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "Abbreviated Gubernatorial General Election Calendar," accessed July 3, 2014
- ↑ Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, "June 3, 2014 Primary Election Official Final Results," accessed July 3, 2014
| 2014 Palo Alto Unified School District Elections | |
| Santa Clara County, California | |
| Election date: | November 4, 2014 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera • Gina Dalma • Ken Dauber • Catherine Crystal Foster • Terry Godfrey |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
