Stamford Public Schools elections (2014)

2014 Stamford Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
November 4, 2014
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Connecticut Stamford Public Schools Fairfield County, Connecticut ballot measures Local ballot measures, Connecticut

Three seats on the Stamford Public Schools Board of Education were up for general election on November 4, 2014.

On the Democratic side, incumbents Julia Wade and Jackie Heftman ran for re-election and Betsy Allyn ran as a challenger. Mike Altamura and Andy George ran on the Republican ticket, while Cora M. Santeguila ran for the Green Party. Democratic incumbent Gary Klein chose not to run for re-election.

The full Democratic slate won election.

About the district

See also: Stamford Public Schools, Connecticut

Stamford Public Schools is located in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Stamford Public Schools is located in Fairfield County in southwestern Connecticut. Stamford is home to 126,456 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau. In the 2011-2012 school year, Stamford Public Schools was the fifth-largest school district in Connecticut and served 15,493 students.

Demographics

Fairfield County performed the same as the rest of Connecticut in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 44.6 percent of Fairfield County residents aged 25 and older, as well as 36.2 percent of Connecticut as a whole aged 25 years and older, had attained a bachelor's degree. The median household income for Fairfield County was $82,614 compared to $69,519 for the state of Connecticut. The percentage of people below poverty level for Fairfield County was 8.8 percent while it was 10.0 percent for the state of Connecticut.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Stamford (%)	Connecticut (%)
White	65.0	77.6
Black or African American	13.9	10.1
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.3	0.3
Asian	7.9	3.8
Two or More Races	3.2	2.6
Hispanic or Latino	23.8	13.4

Presidential Voting Pattern
Year	Democratic Vote (%)	Republican Vote (%)
2012	62.3	36.8
2008	64.1	35.3
2004	58.6	40.1
2000	62.0	34.3

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 Stamford Board of Education consists of nine members who are elected at-large to three-year terms. There was no primary election and the general election was held on November 4, 2014. Three seats were up for election in 2014.

School board candidates were nominated by the Stamford Democratic and Republican Town Committees between May 20 to May 27, 2014, and had until June 10, 2014, to file with the town clerk.

Elections

2014

Candidates

At-large

Jackie Heftman

• Incumbent
• Former Stamford Zoning Board member (1994-2005)

Julia Wade

• Incumbent
• Director of volunteers, Domus
• Former program manager for Stamford Partnership

Betsy Allyn

• Compliance analyst, GE Asset Management
• Former co-vice president of the Parent Teacher Council of Stamford

Mike Altamura

• Graduate, University of Connecticut
• Insurance agent, Prudential Insurance Company
• Co-founder, RJM brothers

Andy George

• Graduate, Lehigh University and Cornell University
• Certified public accountant
• Certified management accountant

Cora M. Santeguila

Election results

Stamford Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Julia Wade Incumbent	22.3%	16,366
	Democratic	Jackie Heftman Incumbent	20.3%	14,873
	Democratic	Betsy Allyn	20.1%	14,754
	Republican	Mike Altamura	17.6%	12,885
	Republican	Andy George	16.4%	12,029
	Green	Cora M. Santeguila	3.3%	2,384
Total Votes				73,291
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Stamford Election Results - November 4, 2014," November 8, 2014

Endorsements

The Stamford Advocate endorsed Betsy Allyn, Andy George and Jackie Heftman.

Campaign finance

State law did not require campaign finance reporting if contributions or expenditures did not exceed $1,000 in an election cycle.

Past elections

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

2013 Stamford Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Geoff Alswanger Incumbent 22.5% 11,311      Democratic Richard Lyons II Incumbent 20.9% 10,500      Republican John Leydon Jr. Incumbent 19.7% 9,906      Democratic Dolores Burgess 18.4% 9,238      Democratic Nicola Tarzia 16.5% 8,314      Green Richard Duffee 2% 994 Total Votes 50,263 Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Municipal Elections - November 5, 2013," accessed December 17, 2013 2012 Stamford Board of Education, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2012 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Polly Rauh 22.2% 23,087      Democratic Dolores Burgess 21.6% 22,465      Republican Jerry Pia 18.1% 18,814      Republican Lorraine Olson 16.5% 17,118      Republican Jon Hoch 15.6% 16,173      Green Michael Schmidt 4% 4,185      Green Cora Santaguida 2.1% 2,139 Total Votes 103,981 Source: Stamford Patch, "Stamford Election Day 2012: Get All Your Elections Results Right Here," November 7, 2012 2011 Stamford Board of Education, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Gary Klein 22.3% 8,227      Democratic Julia Wade 19.5% 7,205      Democratic Jackie Heftman 18.1% 6,698      Independent Karen Murphy 16.1% 5,949      Republican June Corridor 11.3% 4,163      Republican Michel Bayonne 11.5% 4,254      Green Mary T. Farrell 1.3% 470 Total Votes 36,966 Source: The Stamford Times, "ELECTION 2011: Stamford's official results," November 9, 2011

What was at stake?

There were three at-large seats on the school board up for election on November 4, 2014. Democratic incumbents Julia Wade and Jackie Heftman sought re-election to the board while fellow Democratic incumbent Gary Klein did not file for re-election. Democrat Betsy Allyn and Republicans Mike Altamura and Andy George ran as challengers. Going into the election, Democrats had a 5 to 3 majority on the board, with one vacancy due to Democrat Richard Lyons II's resignation in July 2014. Following the election they had a 6 to 3 majority.

Issues in the district

Charter schools

In April 2014, the Connecticut Board of Education approved four new charter schools for the state, one of which, the Stamford Charter School for Excellence, was slated to open in Stamford for the 2015-2016 school year. While the state board approved the charter unanimously, there was local dissension. The Parent Teacher Council of Stamford collected over 800 signatures from residents urging the state not to approve the charter and the Stamford Board of Education passed a resolution opposing the charter. Those opposed cited funding concerns as well as concerns that the new school would be segregated and pull high-performing students out of public schools. Bridgeport, who also had a charter school coming to its district, looked into taking the state to court to prevent the charters but in June 2014 announced they would be asking the state for a moratorium instead. The Stamford Board of Education members had suggested they would consider joining such a lawsuit if Bridgeport had gone ahead.

Overcrowding

Overcrowding became a major issue in Stamford Public Schools at the time of the election. In response, the city purchased the former Sacred Heart Academy for $9.75 million in September 2014 and planned to use it as a new interdistrict magnet school after around $50 million in renovations. If a magnet school were to be approved by the Connecticut State Legislature, the city would be able to recover 75 percent of renovation expenses from the state, but if not approved the city would have to cover 80 percent of the costs.

Earlier in 2014, the Stamford Board of Education and Superintendent Winifred Hamilton temporarily addressed overcrowding by moving some fifth grade classes to middle school. Meanwhile, elementary schools in the district turned art and music rooms into full-time classrooms.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Stamford Board of Education election in 2014:

Deadline	Event
May 20–27, 2014	Major parties endorse candidates
June 10, 2014	Candidate filing deadline
November 4, 2014	Election day

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Connecticut elections, 2014

This election shared the ballot with general elections for a U.S. House seat, Connecticut state executive offices, Connecticut House of Representatives seats and Connecticut State Senate seats, as well as one ballot measure. It also shared the ballot with county, municipal, and judicial elections.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Stamford + Public + Schools + Connecticut"

Stamford Public Schools News Feed

See also

• Connecticut
• Stamford Public Schools, Connecticut
• Connecticut school board elections, 2014
• List of school board elections in 2014
• School board elections, 2014
• Fairfield County, Connecticut ballot measures
• Local ballot measures, Connecticut

External links

Suggest a link

• Stamford Public Schools
• City of Stamford
• Connecticut Secretary of State
• Stamford Democratic Town Committee
• Stamford Republican Town Committee