Reading School District elections (2015)

← 2013
2015 Reading School District Elections
Primary Election date:
May 19, 2015
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Pennsylvania Reading School District Berks County, Pennsylvania ballot measures Local ballot measures, Pennsylvania

Six seats on the Reading School District Board of Directors were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A primary election was held on May 19, 2015.

Incumbents Bernardo Carbajal and Abraham J. Cepeda won re-election to their seats. Challengers Julio Martinez, Brian Buerke and Jean Kelleher also joined the board for four-year terms. They defeated Lydia Colon, Elijah Rhodes and William Cinfici. David McCoy won a two-year term without opposition after defeating Virna Quinones in the primary election. No independent candidates filed to run in the general election.

Carbajal, Cepeda, Buerke, Martinez, Kelleher and McCoy ran as a slate of candidates called the Better Schools Team.

About the district

See also: Reading School District, Pennsylvania

The Reading School District is located in Berks County, Pa.

The Reading School District is located in Berks County in eastern Pennsylvania. The city of Reading is the county seat. According to the United States Census Bureau, Berks County was home to 413,521 residents in 2013. In the 2012-2013 school year, the Reading School District was the fourth-largest school district in Pennsylvania and served 17,651 students.

Demographics

Berks County underperformed in comparison to the rest of Pennsylvania in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 22.3 percent of Berks County residents age 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 27.5 percent for Pennsylvania as a whole. The median household income in the county was $55,170, compared to $52,548 for the state of Pennsylvania. The poverty rate in the county was 13.9 percent, compared to 13.3 percent for the entire state.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Berks County (%)	Pennsylvania (%)
White	89.0	83.2
Black or African American	6.5	11.5
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.7	0.3
Asian	1.6	3.1
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.2	0.1
Two or More Races	2.0	1.8
Hispanic or Latino	18.1	6.3

Presidential Voting Pattern, Berks County
Year	Democratic Vote (%)	Republican Vote (%)
2012	58.9	49.5
2008	45.0	54.0
2004	53.0	46.4
2000	52.7	43.7

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 Reading Board of Directors consists of nine members elected to four-year terms. The members of the board are elected at-large by voters in the district. The primary election for the Reading Board of Directors was held on May 19, 2015, and the general election was held on November 3, 2015. Six seats were up for election.

School board candidates had to file for this election with Berks County by March 10, 2015. Those wishing to run as an independent candidate had until August 3, 2015, to file. To vote in the primary election, residents had to register by April 20, 2015, and to vote in the general election, residents had to register by October 5, 2015.

At-large (4-year term)

General election candidates

Bernardo Carbajal		Abraham J. Cepeda		Brian Buerke		William Cinfici
	Incumbent Member of Better Schools Team Attorney, Haggerty, Goldberg, Schleifer & Kupersmith, P.C. Bachelor's degree, University of California, Los Angeles Juris doctor, Pennsylvania State University		Incumbent Member from 2012-2015 Member of Better Schools Team Attorney, Cultura Law, LLC Bachelor's degree, East Stroudsburg University Juris doctor, Widener University		Member of Better Schools Team Associate professor, Albright College Bachelor's degree, Villanova University Master's degree, Miami University Doctorate degree, University of Rochester		Republican primary winner Member from 2005-2009 Local registrar, Pennsylvania Department of Vital Records
Lydia Colon		Jean Kelleher		Julio Martinez		Elijah Rhodes
	Republican primary winner Certified hemodialysis technician		Member of Better Schools Team Program manager, Pennsylvania Department of Education Bachelor's degree, Alvernia College		Member of Better Schools Team Outside operations manager, golf club in Reading, Pa.		Republican primary winner

Candidates defeated in the primary election

Virna Quinones		Isamac Torres-Figueroa
	Psychotherapist, Reading Behavioral Health Center		Principal, Shared Solutions, LLC

At-large (2-year term)

General election candidate

David McCoy
	Member of Better Schools Team Applications manager, Tyco Integrated Security

Candidate defeated in the primary election

Virna Quinones
	Psychotherapist, Reading Behavioral Health Center

Election results

Four-year terms

Reading School District, At-Large, (4-year term), General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	Jean Kelleher	19.9%	6,511
	Democratic/Republican	Brian Buerke	18.5%	6,054
	Democratic	Abraham J. Cepeda Incumbent	15.1%	4,931
	Democratic	Bernardo Carbajal Incumbent	14.6%	4,786
	Democratic	Julio Martinez	14.1%	4,603
	Republican	William Cinfici	7.0%	2,282
	Republican	Lydia Colon	5.7%	1,851
	Republican	Elijah Rhodes	5.2%	1,702
		Write-in votes	0.07%	22
Total Votes				32,742
Source: Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Election Results Grand Totals," accessed December 21, 2015

Reading School District, At-Large Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Abraham J. Cepeda Incumbent	14%	2,179
	Democratic	Jean Kelleher	11.3%	1,762
	Democratic	Bernardo Carbajal Incumbent	10.7%	1,666
	Democratic	Brian Buerke	9.9%	1,551
	Democratic	Julio Martinez	9.3%	1,458
	Democratic	Lydia Colon	9.2%	1,434
	Democratic	Isamac Torres-Figueroa	9.2%	1,434
	Democratic	William Cinfici	8.9%	1,394
	Democratic	Virna Quinones	8.8%	1,377
	Democratic	Elijah Rhodes	8.6%	1,345
	Democratic	Write-in votes	0.1%	8
Total Votes				15,608
Source: Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Certified Returns May 19, 2015, Primary Elections," accessed July 8, 2015

Reading School District, At-Large Republican Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	William Cinfici	21.8%	514
	Republican	Jean Kelleher	21.4%	505
	Republican	Brian Buerke	20.6%	486
	Republican	Elijah Rhodes	18.4%	434
	Republican	Lydia Colon	17.6%	416
	Republican	Write-in votes	0.3%	6
Total Votes				2,361
Source: Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Certified Returns May 19, 2015, Primary Elections," accessed July 8, 2015

Two-year term

Reading School District, At-Large, (2-year term), General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic/Republican	David McCoy	99.8%	7,180
		Write-in votes	0.15%	11
Total Votes				7,191
Source: Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Election Results Grand Totals," accessed December 21, 2015

Reading School District, At-Large Democratic Primary Election, 2-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	David McCoy	61.1%	2,378
	Democratic	Virna Quinones	38.9%	1,513
Total Votes				3,891
Source: Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Certified Returns May 19, 2015, Primary Elections," accessed July 8, 2015

Reading School District, At-Large Republican Primary Election, 2-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	David McCoy	100%	639
Total Votes				639
Source: Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Certified Returns May 19, 2015, Primary Elections," accessed July 8, 2015

Endorsements

No candidate received any official endorsements for his or her campaign during the election.

Campaign finance

The Better Schools Team, made up of Buerke, Carbajal, Cepeda, Kelleher, Martinez and McCoy, received $43,000 in contributions from the Alliance for Quality Education in Reading Political Action Committee (PAC). The joint campaign spent approximately $37,000 during the primary election.

Cinfici, Torres-Figueroa and Quinones are the only other candidates that reported expenditures. They spent a combined total of approximately $7,000 in the primary election.

Past elections

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

2013 See also: Reading School District elections (2013) This race had a primary election. In the state of Pennsylvania, candidates can cross-file as a Democrat and a Republican. This allows them to run in both parties' primary elections. Reading School District, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democrat Eddie Moran 19.8% 2,916      Democrat Manuel Guzman 18.7% 2,754      Democrat Yvonne L. Stroman Incumbent 17.7% 2,605      Democrat Robin Costenbader-Jacobson 17.1% 2,516      Republican Brian Twyman 10.4% 1,539      Republican Robin Costenbader-Jacobson 8.4% 1,236      Republican Abraham J. Cepeda 7.9% 1,167      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.1% 17 Total Votes 14,750 Source: Government of Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Rdg. School Board 4 Year," accessed December 16, 2013 Reading School District, At-large General Election, 2-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Cross-filed Abraham J. Cepeda 99.6% 3,794      Nonpartisan Write-in 0.4% 14 Total Votes 3,808 Source: Government of Berks County, Pennsylvania, "Rdg. School Board 2 Year," accessed December 16, 2013

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Reading School District election in 2015:

Deadline	Event
March 10, 2015	Partisan candidate filing deadline
March 11, 2015 - August 3, 2015	Independent candidate filing period
March 25, 2015	Withdrawal deadline for primary election
April 20, 2015	Voter registration deadline for primary election
May 8, 2015	Pre-primary election campaign finance deadline
May 12, 2015	Last day to file for absentee ballot for primary election
May 15, 2015	Absentee ballot deadline for primary election
May 19, 2015	Primary election day
June 18, 2015	Post-primary election campaign finance deadline
August 10, 2015	Withdrawal deadline for general election
October 5, 2015	Last day to register to vote in general election
October 23, 2015	Pre-general election campaign finance deadline for general election
October 27, 2015	Voter registration deadline for general election
October 30, 2015	Absentee ballot deadline for general election
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
December 3, 2015	Post-general election campaign finance deadline for general election

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Pennsylvania elections, 2015

This election shared the ballot with primary and general elections for county commissioner, magisterial district judge, city supervisor, city council member, tax collector and constable.

Recent news

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

Reading School District elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Reading School District	Pennsylvania	School Boards
Reading School District elections (2013) List of school districts in Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania school board elections, 2015 Public education in Pennsylvania Local ballot measures, Pennsylvania	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

• Reading School District
• Berks County, Pennsylvania