Rochester Public Schools elections (2016)

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← 2014
Rochester Public Schools Elections
Primary election date:
August 9, 2016
General election date:
November 8, 2016
Enrollment (13–14):
16,761 students

Three of the seven seats on the Rochester Public Schools School Board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. In his bid for re-election to Seat 1, incumbent Richard Hinds was defeated by challenger Don Barlow. Seat 3 incumbent Deborah Seelinger won re-election after defeating John League in a primary election on August 9, 2016, and Bobbie Gallas in the general election. The race for the open Seat 7 featured candidates Ahmed Ragab and Mark Schleusner. Schleusner won election to the seat.

League announced that he was dropping out of the race on July 24, 2016. Because the candidate withdrawal deadline had already passed, his name still appeared on the primary election ballot.

The Rochester School Board was guaranteed to welcome at least one new member to the board after the 2016 election due to an open seat, and another newcomer defeated an incumbent to win a second seat. In 2014, the district added one new member to the board. Click here to see how else this race compared to past elections in both the district and the state.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

The Rochester School Board consists of seven members elected to four-year terms. Elections are held at large, but candidates run for specific seats. Elections are held on a staggered basis every November of even-numbered years. Four seats were up for election on November 4, 2014, and three seats were up for election on November 8, 2016. A primary election was held on August 9, 2016, for Seat 3 as more than two candidates filed to run in that election.

To run in this election, school board candidates had to be at least 21 years old, residents of the school district for at least 30 days before the date of the election, and able to vote in Minnesota. They also had to register with the school district by May 31, 2016. Any candidate wishing to withdraw their candidacy had to do so by June 2, 2016.

To vote in this election, residents of the district had to register by October 18, 2016. In the case of a primary, voters had to register by July 19, 2016. Photo identification was not required to vote in Minnesota.

Seat 1

Results

Rochester Public Schools, Seat 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Don Barlow	67.39%	32,439
Richard Hinds Incumbent	32.21%	15,506
Write-in votes	0.4%	191
Total Votes		48,136
Source: Rochester Public Schools, "Abstract of Votes Cast," accessed January 11, 2017

Candidates

Richard Hinds		Don Barlow
	Incumbent Member from 2012-2016 Study coordinator and respiratory therapist, Mayo Clinic		Pastor, Rochester Community Baptist Church

Seat 3

General election

Results

Rochester Public Schools, Seat 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Deborah Seelinger Incumbent	56.78%	27,399
Bobbie Gallas	42.80%	20,654
Write-in votes	0.41%	200
Total Votes		48,253
Source: Rochester Public Schools, "Abstract of Votes Cast," accessed January 11, 2017

Candidates

Deborah Seelinger		Bobbie Gallas
	Incumbent Member from 2012-2016 Master's degree, University of Minnesota		General paraprofessional

Primary election

Results

Rochester Public Schools, Seat 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Deborah Seelinger Incumbent	51.22%	2,166
Bobbie Gallas	35.90%	1,518
John League	12.89%	545
Total Votes		4,229
Source: Rochester Public Schools, "Aug 11, 2016 - Special Session Agenda," accessed October 21, 2016

Candidates defeated in the primary

John League
	IT professional, Mayo Clinic

Seat 7

Results

Rochester Public Schools, Seat 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Mark Schleusner	70.73%	34,532
Ahmed Ragab	28.93%	14,125
Write-in votes	0.33%	162
Total Votes		48,819
Source: Rochester Public Schools, "Abstract of Votes Cast," accessed January 11, 2017

Candidates

Ahmed Ragab		Mark Schleusner
	Associate degrees, Rochester Community and Technical College Bachelor's degree, Winona State University Master's degrees, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Senior research coordinator, Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine		Lead analyst programmer, Mayo Clinic

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Minnesota elections, 2016

The Rochester Public Schools general election shared the ballot with the presidential election as well as elections for seats in the Minnesota State Senate and the Minnesota House of Representatives. It also shared the ballot with Olmsted County elections for county commissioners and soil and water supervisors.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for Minnesota school board elections in 2016:

Deadline	Event
May 31, 2016	Candidate filing deadline
June 2, 2016	Candidate withdrawal deadline
July 19, 2016	Voter registration deadline for primary election
July 31, 2016	Pre-primary campaign finance report due
August 9, 2016	Primary election date
October 18, 2016	Voter registration deadline for general election
October 29, 2016	Pre-election campaign finance report due
November 8, 2016	General election date
December 7, 2016	Post-election campaign finance report due
January 2, 2017	Board members take office

Endorsements

The Post Bulletin Editorial Board endorsed Seat 1 challenger Don Barlow and Seat 3 incumbent Deborah Seelinger.

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

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2016

Candidates received a total of $5,543.00 and spent a total of $5,134.67 in the election, according to the Rochester Public Schools.

Seat 1

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Richard Hinds	$13.00	$0.00	$0.00
Don Barlow	$650.00	$396.00	$254.00

Seat 3

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Deborah Seelinger	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Bobbie Gallas	$4,380.00	$3,688.65	$691.35
John League	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Seat 7

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Ahmed Ragab	$500.00	$454.29	$45.71
Mark Schleusner	$0.00	$595.73	($595.73)

Past elections

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

2014 See also: Rochester Public Schools elections (2014) General election Rochester Public Schools, Position 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Gary W. Smith Incumbent 99% 26,924      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1% 277 Total Votes 27,201 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected Contests in School District No. 535 - Rochester," accessed December 30, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Julie Workman Incumbent 98.9% 27,031      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 1.1% 313 Total Votes 27,344 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected Contests in School District No. 535 - Rochester," accessed December 30, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Jean Marvin 52.6% 17,824      Nonpartisan Terry Throndson Incumbent 47.1% 15,963      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.3% 109 Total Votes 33,896 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected Contests in School District No. 535 - Rochester," accessed December 30, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Anne Becker Incumbent 59.5% 18,677      Nonpartisan Don Barlow 40.2% 12,631      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.3% 108 Total Votes 31,416 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected Contests in School District No. 535 - Rochester," accessed December 30, 2014 Primary election Rochester Public Schools, Position 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2014 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Jean Marvin 40.4% 3,778      Nonpartisan Terry Throndson Incumbent 33.1% 3,096      Nonpartisan Nora Dooley 19.4% 1,811      Nonpartisan Matthew Paul Halleck 7.1% 659 Total Votes 9,344 Source: County of Olmsted Elections, "Primary Election 2014," accessed August 12, 2014 2012 General election Rochester Public Schools, Position 1 General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Richard Hinds 59.2% 26,406      Nonpartisan Bobbie Gallas 40.1% 17,902      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.7% 329 Total Votes 44,637 Source: County of Olmsted Elections, "General Election 2012," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 3 General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Deborah Seelinger 64.7% 29,198      Nonpartisan Greg Gallas 34.7% 15,643      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.7% 300 Total Votes 45,141 Source: County of Olmsted Elections, "General Election 2012," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Dan O'Neil 54.9% 23,770      Nonpartisan Jeff Kennedy 44.4% 19,238      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.7% 289 Total Votes 43,297 Source: County of Olmsted Elections, "General Election 2012," accessed August 1, 2014 Primary election Rochester Public Schools, Position 1 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Richard Hinds 45% 2,767      Nonpartisan Bobbie Gallas 28.2% 1,734      Nonpartisan Bill Moe 26.8% 1,651 Total Votes 6,152 Source: County of Olmsted Elections, "Olmsted, MN Primary Election," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 3 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Deborah Seelinger 48.1% 3,037      Nonpartisan Greg Gallas 27% 1,702      Nonpartisan Max Sullivan 24.9% 1,569 Total Votes 6,308 Source: County of Olmsted Elections, "Olmsted, MN Primary Election," accessed August 1, 2014 2010 General election Rochester Public Schools, Position 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Gary W. Smith 62.4% 20,744      Nonpartisan Richard Hinds 37.1% 12,354      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.5% 170 Total Votes 33,268 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Julie Workman 58.6% 20,060      Nonpartisan Susan Nee 40.9% 13,998      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.5% 172 Total Votes 34,230 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 5 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Terry Throndson 55.1% 19,205      Nonpartisan Michael Resman 44.5% 15,512      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.4% 140 Total Votes 34,857 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 6 General Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Anne Becker 58.2% 19,429      Nonpartisan Deborah Seelinger 41.3% 13,791      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.5% 164 Total Votes 33,384 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Primary election Rochester Public Schools, Position 2 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Gary W. Smith 52.8% 5,040      Nonpartisan Richard Hinds 24.5% 2,336      Nonpartisan Bill Moe 22.8% 2,175 Total Votes 9,551 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 4 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Julie Workman 35% 3,573      Nonpartisan Susan Nee 28.8% 2,938      Nonpartisan Mike Baker 22.6% 2,305      Nonpartisan Mechelle Rugg Severson Incumbent 13.7% 1,395 Total Votes 10,211 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 5 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Terry Throndson 31.8% 3,243      Nonpartisan Michael Resman 23.2% 2,370      Nonpartisan Dan O'Neil 18.2% 1,858      Nonpartisan Greg Gallas 14% 1,430      Nonpartisan Dawn M. Johnson 12.8% 1,311 Total Votes 10,212 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014 Rochester Public Schools, Position 6 Primary Election, 4-year term, 2010 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Nonpartisan Anne Becker 38.9% 3,904      Nonpartisan Deborah Seelinger 32.5% 3,258      Nonpartisan Fred Daly Incumbent 28.6% 2,866 Total Votes 10,028 Source: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, "Results for Selected School District Contests," accessed August 1, 2014

What was at stake?

2016

Election trends

The 2016 school board election in Rochester Public Schools was guaranteed to add one new member to the board due to an open seat. Another newcomer defeated an incumbent to win a seat on the board, and one incumbent won re-election.

The district's 2014 election saw one new member join the board. All four incumbents ran to retain their seats that year, but the newcomer defeated one of them for a 75 percent success rate.

School board election trends
Year	Candidates per seat	Unopposed seats	Incumbent success rate	Seats won by newcomers
Rochester Public Schools
2016	2.33	0.00%	50.00%	66.67%
2014	2.00	50.00%	75.00%	25.00%
Minnesota
2014	2.00	21.21%	86.96%	39.39%
United States
2014	1.89	32.57%	81.31%	38.24%

Issues in the election

Candidate forum

Five of the six candidates who ran in the general election on November 8, 2016, participated in a candidate forum hosted by the Rochester NAACP, the Rochester Muslim Community Circle, Rochester for Justice, and the First Unitarian Universality Church on October 6, 2016. Seat 1 incumbent Richard Hinds, Seat 1 challenger Don Barlow, Seat 3 incumbent Deborah Seelinger, and Seat 7 candidates Ahmed Ragab and Mark Schleusner answered questions about the district's achievement gap, discipline disparities, and hiring teachers of color.

Achievement gap

A total of 36 percent of students attending the Rochester school district are of a minority race or ethnicity, and assessments showed the district had an achievement gap between minority students and white students in math, reading, and science, according to the Post Bulletin. The candidates were asked how they would ensure the district's performance improved.

Seelinger said, "I am committed to solving this problem, but I think we need to reach out and have more resources, more people involved to talk about the actual issues and how we can solve them."

Barlow called the achievement gap "embarrassing," and said, "It is my belief that this is nothing new and I'm tired of hearing the same old excuse, it's a multi-piece puzzle, it's bigger than any one of us."

Richard Hinds

Hinds agreed with Barlow that the achievement gap was embarrassing, but he also called it "avoidable." He said the district should keep high standards and pointed to how science scores fell after graduation requirements were changed to allow fewer science courses.

Ragab agreed with Hinds that the district's standards had "failed us to an extent." He said, "[I]f we continue to relax our standards, our kids are going to continue to struggle."

Schleusner said, "We need to come together as a community to do this together, these are our children, they're not mine, they're not yours — we're all here to raise all of our children to the highest standards possible."

Discipline disparities

Rochester Public Schools entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in September 2015 after it was revealed that there was a discipline disparity in the district between students of color and white students. In reaction to this agreement, the candidates were asked if there had been any progress made on the agreement to eliminate the disparity and whether or not they thought the district's planned actions would be enough to address the disparity.

Deborah Seelinger

As an incumbent, Seelinger spoke about what the district had done so far. She said the district had a behavior system in place and that the student handbook had been updated. She said officials in the district were soliciting feedback on discipline in schools and that the board had set up a professional development day for the 2016-2017 school year. She also said that the board planned to look at curriculum related to discipline in the 2016-2017 school year.

Barlow said the district community should have known about the OCR investigation sooner. "I would make sure that you're informed about what is going on and what is happening to our students," said Barlow.

Hinds said education must be available to every student on equal terms. "If we say, 'if you just work really hard, you too will have the same education as other students,' that is not equal terms," said Hinds.

Ragab expressed concern that not everyone had acknowledged that the discipline disparity was a problem. He said, "I haven't seen anything solid yet that shows me that there is an actual plan that will help us move forward. We want transparency. We want accountability. And we have to see the results."

Schleusner said, "At the end of the day it shouldn't take something like the OCR report to point out deficiencies within our district." He said the district and the community should have conversations "on a regular basis, instead of on a mandated schedule by a government organization."

Hiring teachers of color

When asked how important racial composition was for Rochester Public Schools and what could be done to hire and retain more teachers of color, Seelinger said, "I think a lot of it might come from promoting teaching as a great profession and a great thing to go into, a field that's respected, I think that's really missing for a lot of students, not only those of color."

Barlow said he was unsure why the district was unable to find qualified teachers of color. He said that the newly hired administrators for the 2016-2017 school year had all been white.

Ahmed Ragab

Hinds said having a teaching staff that reflected the makeup of the student body was an important goal for the district. He said mentoring students and connecting them to the community was the biggest thing the district could do.

Ragab said, "If we want to bring in teachers of color we can do it. If we want to find people who are qualified for the job, we can do it. We may choose not to, but we can do it."

Schleusner said the district needed to start looking at nontraditional ways to recruit teachers of color. He suggested district officials encourage students of color attending Rochester schools to become teachers and return to the district.

Issues in the district

Study finds lead in Rochester Public Schools

A test conducted in July 2016 revealed that 10 percent of tested drinking fountains and sinks in Rochester Public Schools contained lead levels that exceeded what the Minnesota Department of Health considered safe. The district tested its water facilities based on the health department's recommendation that they be tested every five years. The facilities that contained lead were shut down until they could either be replaced or corrected.

The district last tested its water facilities in 2012 and also found about 10 percent of sinks and fountains had unsafe levels of lead. The 2016 study tested 400 more facilities than it did in 2012.

Candidate survey

Ballotpedia invites school board candidates to participate in its annual survey.
Click here to view or fill out the survey.

About the district

See also: Rochester Public Schools, Minnesota

Rochester Public Schools is located in Olmsted County, Minnesota.

Rochester Public Schools is located in Olmsted County in southeastern Minnesota. The county seat is Rochester. Olmsted County was home to 151,436 residents in 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau. The district was the seventh-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 16,761 students.

Demographics

Olmsted County outperformed Minnesota as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2010 to 2014. The United States Census Bureau found that 40.2 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 33.2 percent of state residents. The median household income for Olmsted County was $67,089, compared to $60,828 for the entire state. The percentage of people in poverty was 9.8 percent, while it was 11.5 percent statewide.

Racial Demographics, 2015
Race	Olmsted County (%)	Minnesota (%)
White	85.5	85.4
Black or African American	5.8	6.0
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.3	1.3
Asian	6.2	4.9
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or more races	2.1	2.4
Hispanic or Latino	4.8	5.2

Presidential Voting Pattern, Olmsted County
Year	Democratic Vote	Republican Vote
2012	39,338	36,832
2008	38,711	36,202
2004	33,285	37,371
2000	25,822	30,641

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 'Rochester Public Schools' 'Minnesota'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Rochester Public Schools elections (2016) - Google News

See also

Rochester Public Schools	Minnesota	School Boards
Rochester Public Schools elections (2014) List of school districts in Minnesota	Minnesota school board elections, 2016 Public education in Minnesota Local ballot measures, Minnesota	School board elections, 2016 School board elections, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2016 School board election data analysis, 2015

External links

• Rochester Public Schools