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Sarah Welton
Ballotpedia provides comprehensive election coverage of the 100 largest cities in America by population as well as mayoral, city council, and district attorney election coverage in state capitals outside of the 100 largest cities. This board member is outside of that coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates.
Sarah Welton is the Seat B representative on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District School Board. Welton won re-election to Seat B after defeating write-in candidate Michael Coons in the general election on October 6, 2015.[1]
Although Welton faced no official opposition, Michael Coons ran for Seat B as a certified write-in candidate. Coons' name did not appear on the ballot, but he was eligible to win the election.[2]
Welton participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.
Biography
Welton is a licensed professional counselor at Alpha Counseling and Education Services. She is also an adjunct professor at Matanuska-Susitna College. Welton obtained a bachelor's degree in psychology from Linfield College. She went on to earn a master's degree in counseling psychology from Alaska Pacific University. In 2014, she earned a doctorate degree in organizational psychology from Northcentral University.[3]
Elections
2015
Three of the seven seats on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District School Board were up for election on October 6, 2015. All seats on the board of education represent the district at-large.
Incumbents Deborah Retherford and Sarah Welton won re-election to Seats A and B, respectively. Retherford and Welton were formally unopposed but faced two certified write-in candidates in Sacha Pettitt and Michael Coons. Pettitt and Coons did not appear on the ballot but were eligible to win the election.[4] Incumbent Kelsey Trimmer defeated challenger Wade Long for a two-year term representing Seat E. Trimmer was appointed in April 2015 to fill a vacancy left by Tiffany R. Scott, who moved out of the district.[5][1][6]
Results
| Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, Seat B, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Sarah Welton Incumbent |
86.6% | 7,348 |
| Write-in votes | 13.4% | 1,137 |
| Total Votes | 8,485 | |
| Source: Matanuska-Susitna Borough, "Official Borough Election Results", accessed November 12, 2015Write-in vote totals are cumulative for all write-in candidates. | ||
Funding
Welton reported no contributions or expenditures to the Alaska Public Offices Commission as of October 5, 2015.[7]
Endorsements
Welton received no official endorsements during the election.
2012
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Sarah Welton |
54.4% | 5,482 | |
| Nonpartisan | Heather Fussell | 44.8% | 4,515 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.9% | 86 | |
| Total Votes | 10,083 | |||
| Source: Matanuska-Susitna Borough, "Election Results" accessed September 14, 2015 | ||||
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Sarah Welton 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:
| “ | I do not have an opponent. My top priority is to reduce class sizes and ensure opportunities for students to work on their priorities for career and college readiness. The need for critical thinking and social emotional intelligence is needed in school is noted by employers and college professors so I would enhance and support the programs we have in those areas.[8] | ” |
| —Sarah Welton (2015)[9] | ||
Welton also included the following statement with her responses:
| “ | The district offers choice and many innovative personalized programs for students in all of our schools. The need for dollars to go into the infrastructure for broadband, and specialized equipment for new fields and disciplines ( such as arctic studies, food safety and security, renewable energy and others) is great and should not be left out due to the needs for the core courses but combined with the core courses. The gap between school and work needs to be investigated and studies done to improve the transition of youth to work as well as the "bridging" of students into college through middle colleges and other innovative programs to prepare our youth. The need for existential education to create human beings instead of "human doings" also needs to be addressed.[8] | ” |
| —Sarah Welton (2015)[9] | ||
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 Alaska. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| 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 |
|---|---|
| We use Alaska Standards | |
| if warranted by need and standards | |
| No | |
| measures are needed; a portfolio of work and testing would be a more accurate evaluation of student achievement | |
| The key is what is EQUAL? There is equity in education when students are in the least restrictive environment and receive the resources according to the student's IEP or learning plan as prepared by the counselors with the student and parent or guardian. | |
| Practices such as positive behavior strategies should be used before expulsion is considered. | |
| The board can only direct the superintendent (administration) to provide the services as needed to reflect the needs of the population, the teaching staff, and the community. The board should have knowledge of the interventions, the best practices, and be kept in the loop regarding the progress. The board's role is not to directly be involved but to supervise the superintendent in his or her position. | |
| No | |
| the first three options should be used together. | |
| Our district has many town-hall activities where the public can meet with the board. I would improve the use of digital delivery of the school board meetings and notice all of the school board's activities with social media. |
What was at stake?
2015
Election trends
- See also: 2013 school board elections and 2014 school board elections
In 2015, three incumbents ran for the three available seats. Only one seat, Seat E, had a challenger to the incumbent. Seat E was filled by the appointment of Kelsey Trimmer after Tiffany R. Scott resigned in 2015. Trimmer defeated challenger Wade Long for a two-year term. Incumbents Deborah Retherford and Sarah Welton won re-election to Seats A and B, respectively.
Since 2013, the race for school board seats in the district has seen an average of 1.63 candidates per seat. The most contested race in that time period, with four candidates, was for Seat F in 2013. The election for that seat resulted in challenger Donna Dearman beating incumbent Neal Lacy and two other candidates. In 2013, two of the three incumbents running for re-election lost. That trend did not continue in 2014 when the two seats up for election were filled by incumbents who ran unopposed.
Issues in the district
The district worked with borough leadership to oversee the first publicly-financed school in the state when it used a government loan to fund the construction of its Spanish immersion charter school.[10]
Charter school gets new building with unique financing
Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District included six charters schools as of 2015. At that time, five of the six charter schools rented property from private property owners for their facilities. Property owned by the district is exempt from property taxes on land that has a public school on it, while property owned by private landowners does not qualify for the exemption even if a school functions on the property. The charter schools pair rent to their landowners that was going in part to cover the property taxes the owners pay.[11]
The district wanted to try a new approach to help one of its charter schools, Fronteras Spanish Immersion, move to a permanent facility built to educational specifications that would qualify for the property tax exemption. In partnership with the borough, the school applied for a loan from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The $6.9 million loan was approved, and the district broke ground on the new school in 2015.[12]
The USDA director of rural development explained that the loan was the first publicly financed school in the state of Alaska. The borough donated the land used for the new facility to the district and was the primary loan applicant. The school will make the loan payments to the borough. The land is exempt from property taxes and will be owned by the district once the loan is paid in full.[10]
The mayor of the borough, Larry DeVilbis, expressed his approval of the project at the groundbreaking: "Today is an atonement for what I was told was going to be political suicide for vetoing a bond initiative that was going to be put before the voters." DeVilbis vetoed a ballot initiative for a $15 million bond package to fund the building of the school after a campaign promise to keep school bond debt off the ballot for five years.[13]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Sarah Welton' 'Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, Alaska
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District elections (2015)
- Analysis of incumbency advantage in the 2014 school board elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Matanuska-Susitna Borough, "Final List of Candidates," accessed August 13, 2015
- ↑ Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, "Official Certified Write-In Candidates as of September 29, 2015," accessed October 5, 2015
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Sarah Welton," accessed September 14, 2015
- ↑ Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, "Official Certified Write-In Candidates as of September 29, 2015," accessed October 5, 2015
- ↑ Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, "School Board," accessed August 13, 2015
- ↑ Matanuska-Susitna Borough, "Election Unofficial Results", accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ Alaska Public Offices Commission, "Campaign Disclosure Forms," accessed October 5, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Sarah Welton's responses," September 14, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Alaska Public Media, "Wasilla charter school forges a new financial path to fruition," August 24, 2015
- ↑ The Frontiersman, "Assembly to debate charter school tax exemption," August 17, 2015
- ↑ The Frontiersman, "Assembly approves Fronteras loan," February 16, 2015
- ↑ The Frontiersman, "Uno! Dos! Tres!" August 24, 2015
