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Raj Rawat
Raj Rawat was a candidate for District E representative on the Boulder Valley School District school board in Colorado. Rawat was defeated in the at-large general election on November 7, 2017.
Rawat participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to read his responses.
Elections
2017
Three of the seven seats on the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education in Colorado were up for nonpartisan general election on November 7, 2017. In her bid for re-election, incumbent Tina Marquis ran unopposed and won re-election to the District B seat. Donna Miers, Raj Rawat, and Dean Vlachos ran for the open District E seat, and Alexandra Eddy and Kitty Sargent ran for the open District F seat. Miers and Sargent won election to the board.[1][2] Andrew Hendrickson initially filed to run for the District F seat, but he withdrew from the race.[3]
Results
| Boulder Valley School District, District E General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Donna Miers |
47.17% | 19,893 |
| Dean Vlachos | 35.58% | 15,005 |
| Raj Rawat | 17.24% | 7,272 |
| Total Votes | 42,170 | |
| Source: Boulder County Elections, "2017 Coordinated Election November 7, 2017 Official Results," accessed November 27, 2017 | ||
Funding
Rawat reported no contributions or expenditures to the Colorado Secretary of State in the election.[4]
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia survey responses
Raj Rawat participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates.[5] In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 23, 2017:
| “ | Improve teacher quality of life, more career advancement options, more time for creative experimentation and entrepreneurial initiatives.[6][7] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Colorado. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| “ | #1 priority is should be to improve teachers' growth options, career advancement tools and time, quality of life. It did not even make it to the survey.[7] | ” |
| —Raj Rawat (September 23, 2017) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer eight questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| Yes. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. Students don't always give the tests their full effort. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. Teachers who go the extra mile should get their reward for their sacrifices and investments in their students or the students' personal struggles. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. our school district offers open enrollment and many kinds of schooling options. Diluting a major tool of democracy, public schools, where all children have access to the same ladders does not make sense. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion is a failure of the entire school system, the parents and the school's resources. Again, the criteria need to spell out the severity of reprimand for the level of poor judgment. Expulsion should be used in extreme cases: violence, cheating, and disrespect. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers. Forced to pick, teachers win out over parents. In reality, teachers and parents are both equally important. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Raj Rawat Boulder Valley School District school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Boulder Valley School District, "BVSD BOE Candidate Information," accessed September 5, 2017
- ↑ Boulder County Elections, "2017 Coordinated Election November 7, 2017 Unofficial Results," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ Boulder County Elections, "2017 Candidates and Ballot Issues," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "TRACER: Candidate Search," accessed December 11, 2017
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2017, "Raj Rawat's responses," September 23, 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| Boulder Valley School District elections in 2017 | |
| Boulder County, Colorado | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | District B: • Incumbent, Tina Marquis District E: • Donna Miers • Raj Rawat • Dean Vlachos District F: • Alexandra Eddy • Kitty Sargent |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
