Sandra Young

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Sandra Young

Prior offices:

Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, Berkeley District

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Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2015

Contact

Personal website

Sandra Young is the Berkeley District representative on the Williamsburg-James City County School Board in Virginia. She won the seat in the general election on November 3, 2015.

Elections

2015

See also: Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools elections (2015)

Opposition

The Williamsburg-James City County School Board is a seven-member board with five elected members and two appointed members. The two appointed members are selected by the Williamsburg City Council for four-year terms to represent schools in the city. The remaining five seats are elected by district.

The seats of Berkeley District incumbent Ruth Larson, Roberts District incumbent Heather Cordasco and Stonehouse District incumbent James Nickols were up for election on November 3, 2015. Newcomers John Riofrio and Sandra Young ran for the Berkeley District seat, while James Beers and Petra Nadal competed for the Roberts District seat. Young and Beers won the two open seats. Nickols, who was the only incumbent to file for re-election, lost to challenger Holly Taylor in the Stonehouse District race.

Results

Williamsburg-James City County School Board, Berkeley District, General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Sandra Young	52.3%	2,301
John Riofrio	47.4%	2,082
Write-in votes	0.32%	14
Total Votes		4,397
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General," accessed November 3, 2015

Funding

Young reported $2,736.00 in contributions and $1,997.29 in expenditures to the Virginia State Board of Elections, which left her campaign with $738.71 on hand as of October 28, 2015.

Endorsements

Young received the endorsement of the James City County Republican Committee.

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Young participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	My top priority would be to be accessible to the Berkeley District and to address their concerns.	”
—Sandra Young, (2015),

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Virginia.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
2	Expanding career-technical education
6	Closing the achievement gap
7	Expanding arts education
5	Improving college readiness
3	Improving education for special needs students
4	Expanding school choice options

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"Standards should reflect local and state traditions, values, and needs."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"If there is a demand for charter schools from the community, it should definitely be considered."
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"Yes."
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"No."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"1. Great leadership by both district and school administrators that is positive and not punitive. 2. Teaching that challenges students to achieve. 3. Mentoring low achieving students and seeking to find their passion. 4. Providing students choices for their future, not all students want or plan to go to college."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Expulsion cases must be viewed on a case-by-case basis rather than the district having an overarching policy."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"The first question should be what are the conditions that currently exist that are the reasons for the school failing. And what exactly are the criteria being used to assess that a school is failing?"
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"I support a pay scale that allows teachers pay for years of service and an award system for outstanding performance. It should be designed jointly by teachers and administrators."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"This list seems to be the steps that a school district should take to insure good outcomes for students and the teacher in question."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"First, I would rearrange the school board meeting room at James Blair to be more accessible to people attending school board meetings. Currently, the room is set up with some of the board members backs to the citizens they serve. Second, providing more time for community concerns to be heard. Currently, members of the community have 3 minutes to state their concerns. While I understand the constraints of time, we should remember who we are serving."

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Sandra Young' 'Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Sandra Young - Google News

See also

• Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, Virginia
• Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools elections (2015)
• Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
• What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools
• Campaign website