Pasco School District elections (2017)

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2019 → ← 2015
Pasco School District Elections
Primary election date
August 1, 2017
General election date
November 7, 2017
Enrollment (14-15)
17,100 students

Three of the five seats on the Pasco School District school board in Washington were up for by-district general election on November 7, 2017. All three incumbents filed for re-election, and all three won additional terms on the board. A primary election for Positions 3 and 5 was held on August 1, 2017, because more than two candidates filed for each seat.

In the primary, Position 3 board member Steven A. Christensen and challenger Brian Griffith defeated Debi Maxwell, and Position 5 member Amy L. Phillips and challenger Jeffrey Peterson defeated Marlando Sparks Sr. The two winners from each race faced each other in the general. Position 4 member Sherry Lancon vied for her seat with challenger Erin Lewis in the general.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

The Pasco school board is a five-member board with each member elected by district to a four-year term. Each member can be compensated $50 per day for district matters with a maximum compensation of $4,800 per year.

In order to run for a school board in Washington, candidates must be U.S. citizens, legal residents of Washington, at least 18 years old by the election day, and registered voters of the district in which they run.

Voter registration

To vote in Washington, one must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of Washington, and at least 18 years old. One may register to vote online, by mail, or in person at a county elections department. Registration must be completed 29 days prior to an election if done by mail or online and eight days prior to the election if done in person.

Washington is a vote-by-mail only state. Ballots are mailed to voters at least 18 days before an election. Voters must postmark their ballots by election day or return them to a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on the election day in order for them to count.

See also: Voting in Washington and Voter identification laws by state

Position 3

General results

Pasco School District, Position 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Steven A. Christensen Incumbent	55.60%	5,088
Brian Griffith	44.40%	4,063
Total Votes		9,151
Source: Franklin County, Washington, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017

Primary results

Pasco School District, Position 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Steven A. Christensen Incumbent	44.42%	2,041
Brian Griffith	29.16%	1,340
Debi Maxwell	26.42%	1,214
Total Votes		4,595
Source: Franklin County, "August 1, 2017 Primary," accessed August 18, 2017

Candidates

Steven A. Christensen		Brian Griffith
	Incumbent (2013 - Present) Small business owner		Assistant vice president of marketing, Gesa Credit Union

Defeated in primary

Debi Maxwell

Position 4

Results

Pasco School District, Position 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Sherry Lancon Incumbent	58.39%	5,291
Erin Lewis	41.61%	3,770
Total Votes		9,061
Source: Franklin County, Washington, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017

Candidates

Sherry Lancon		Erin Lewis
	Incumbent (2007 - Present) Bank executive

Position 5

General results

Pasco School District, Position 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Amy L. Phillips Incumbent	57.00%	5,239
Jeffrey Peterson	43.00%	3,952
Total Votes		9,191
Source: Franklin County, Washington, "November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed November 30, 2017

Primary results

Pasco School District, Position 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Amy L. Phillips Incumbent	44.70%	2,081
Jeffrey Peterson	30.00%	1,397
Marlando Sparks Sr.	25.30%	1,178
Total Votes		4,656
Source: Franklin County, "August 1, 2017 Primary," accessed August 18, 2017

Candidates

Amy L. Phillips		Jeffrey Peterson
	Incumbent (2013 - Present) Homemaker		Project manager U.S. Air Force veteran

Defeated in primary

Marlando Sparks Sr.
	Youth advocate U.S. Air Force veteran

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Washington elections, 2017

This Washington school board election in 2017 shared the primary ballot with elections for:

• City council

The school board election shared the general ballot with elections for:

• City council
• Port commissioner
• A school bond

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for this Washington school board election in 2017:

Endorsements

Steven A. Christensen, Erin Lewis, and Amy L. Phillips received official endorsements from the Tri-City Herald.

Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

Reports

Position 3

Both Steven A. Christensen and Debi Maxwell opted for mini reporting. Brian Griffith reported $1,995.00 in contributions and $956.71 in expenditures to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, leaving his campaign with $1,038.29 on hand as of October 16, 2017.

Position 4

Sherry Lancon and Erin Lewis both opted for mini reporting.

Position 5

Marlando Sparks Sr. did not file any paperwork with the commisison. Amy L. Phillips opted for mini reporting. Jeffrey Peterson reported $2,875.00 in contributions and $2,005.88 in expenditures, leaving his campaign with $869.12 on hand as of October 16, 2017.

General guidelines

See also: Campaign finance requirements in Washington and List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2017

Washington school board candidates must file a statement of organization within two weeks of filing for office. A statement of organization establishes a candidate's committee, treasurer, and bank the committee will use for its transactions.

Candidates who raise and spend no more than $5,000 in aggregate and who do not receive more than $500 from any one contributor, including themselves, can participate in mini reporting. These candidates must keep a record of their contributors and expenditures but they are not required to report them unless they exceed the stated thresholds. In those cases, they must switch their filing status from mini to full reporting.

The table below details campaign finance deadlines for 2017 Washington school board candidates:

Past elections

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

2015 See also: Pasco School District elections (2015) Position 1 Pasco School District Board of Directors, Position 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Scott Lehrman Incumbent 100.0% 5,136 Write-in votes 0% 0 Total Votes 5,136 Source: Franklin County, Washington, "November 3, 2015 General Election," November 23, 2015 Position 2 Pasco School District Board of Directors, Position 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2015 Candidate Vote % Votes Aaron Richardson 56.4% 4,599 Ryan Brault Incumbent 43.6% 3,551 Write-in votes 0% 0 Total Votes 8,150 Source: Franklin County, Washington, "November 3, 2015 General Election," November 23, 2015 2013 See also: Pasco School District elections (2013) Position 3 Pasco School District, Position 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Steven A. Christensen 55.2% 5,274      Nonpartisan William Leggett Incumbent 44.8% 4,288 Total Votes 9,562 Source: Franklin County Auditor, "November 5, 2013 General Election," November 26, 2013 Position 4 Pasco School District, Position 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Sherry Lancon Incumbent 60.4% 5,833      Nonpartisan Javier Ruiz 39.6% 3,821 Total Votes 9,654 Source: Franklin County Auditor, "November 5, 2013 General Election," November 26, 2013 Position 5 Pasco School District, Position 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Amy L. Phillips 62.8% 5,896      Nonpartisan Darrell Toombs Incumbent 37.2% 3,495 Total Votes 9,391 Source: Franklin County Auditor, "November 5, 2013 General Election," November 26, 2013 2011 Position 1 Pasco School District, Position 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Ruben Peralta 100% 8,032 Total Votes 8,032 Source: Franklin County Auditor, "November 08, 2011, General Election," November 29, 2011 Position 2 Pasco School District, Position 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Ryan Brault 64.6% 6,268      Nonpartisan Patrick McBurney, Sr. 35.4% 3,428 Total Votes 9,696 Source: Franklin County Auditor, "November 08, 2011, General Election," November 29, 2011 Position 5 Pasco School District, Position 5 Special Election, 2-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Jeffrey W. Dong 100% 8,399 Total Votes 8,399 Source: Franklin County Auditor, "November 08, 2011, General Election," November 29, 2011

What was at stake?

Issues in the election

$99.5 million bond set for November ballot

A school bond in the amount of $99.5 million was on the November ballot. According to the district, the bond's purpose was to "help the district alleviate overcrowding by building new schools and rebuilding existing schools, while also making health and safety improvements throughout the district." If passed, the bond would have issued a tax rate of 59 cents per $1,000. This would have resulted in a rate of $118 a year for a home worth $200,000.

Education budget adds $7.3 billion to public school funding

Washington added $7.3 billion over four years to public school funding with the budget signed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on June 30, 2017. The funding was passed to comply with the 2012 McLeary v. State of Washington decision which ruled that the state was violating its state constitutional duty to fund K-12 education.

Under the plan, property taxes were raised in areas with high property values, while taxes in other areas were decreased. These raises accounted for approximately $4 billion of the total $7.3 billion. According to state Sen. Kevin Ranker (D), the property tax increases would add approximately $400 a year to the average Washington household's taxes.

Budget details

Washington teachers can receive two salaries: one from the state government and one from their school district. The new budget provisions included a minimum starting state salary for teachers of $40,000 (with adjustment for inflation and regional discrepancies), which was a 17 percent increase. The average minimum salary for instructional staff was $64,000 under the plan. School districts could also issue a salary over the previous maximum of $90,000 by up to 10 percent for educational staff associates or instructors who teach science, technology, engineering, and math, or in bilingual or special education programs. Below are a few other details of the new measure, according to Q13 Fox:

“

There’s a mandatory 10 percent [salary] increase after 5 years of employment. Starting in 2020-21, the minimum state allocations for salaries must be adjusted annually for inflation. Starting with the 2023 session, and every six years after that, the Legislature must review compensation to make sure they are adequate based on the market and economic differences between school districts.

”

Reactions

“It’s absolutely helping the middle class and 73% of Washington,” state Sen. John Braun (R) said about the budget. He also said that it found a solution to comply with the McLeary ruling fairly. State Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) disagreed. “It’s a stressful situation; it looks like property taxes are a major component of this and I think it’s safe to say it’s a Democratic budget with a Republican tax plan,” Carlyle said. He called the budget “the good, bad and the ugly.”

McLeary v. State of Washington

The 2017 budget was passed in light of the McLeary ruling. When the decision was made in 2012, the Washington Supreme Court ordered the state to fully fund K-12 education by 2018. In September 2014, the Court held Washington in contempt for not making adequate progress. After the state still did not make adequate progress and produce a plan to comply with the Court's orders in 2015, the Supreme Court fined the state $100,000 a day until it complied. Those fines totaled $80.3 million as of October 24, 2017.

The State Supreme Court heard oral arguments on that day to determine whether or not the additional funding was enough for the state to be in full compliance with the court's ruling. An attorney for the state argued that the newest education budget was enough to pay for what the state's constitution calls for: a basic education for each child in Washington. The plaintiffs' lawyer argued that the Legislature was still far removed from reaching that goal. As of October 26, 2017, the court had not made a final decision.

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About the district

See also: Pasco School District, Washington

Pasco School District is located in Franklin County, Washington.

Pasco School District is located in Franklin County in southern Washington. The seat of county government is Pasco. Franklin County was home to an estimated 90,160 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau. The district was the 18th-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 17,100 students.

Demographics

Franklin County underperformed compared to Washington as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 15.9 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 32.9 percent of all state residents. The median household income in the county was $56,980, while it was $61,062 for the entire state. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 15.6 percent, while that rate was 12.2 percent for all state residents.

Racial Demographics, 2015
Race	Franklin County (%)	Washington (%)
White	90.7	80.3
Black or African American	2.7	4.1
American Indian and Alaska Native	1.5	1.9
Asian	2.2	8.4
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.4	0.7
Two or More Races	2.5	4.6
Hispanic or Latino	52.4	12.4

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.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Pasco School District Washington election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Pasco School District elections (2017) - Google News

See also

Pasco School District	Washington	School Boards
Pasco School District elections (2015) List of school districts in Washington	Washington school board elections, 2017 Public education in Washington Local ballot measures, Washington	School board elections, 2017 School board elections, 2016 School board election data analysis, 2017 School board election data analysis, 2016

External links

• Pasco School District
• Franklin County Elections