Stamford Public Schools elections (2015)

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2015 Stamford Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
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

Five seats on the Stamford Public Schools Board of Education were up for at-large election on November 3, 2015. The following three incumbents' seats were up for regular general election in 2015: Lorraine Olson (R), Jerry Pia (R) and Polly Rauh (D). Additionally, two unexpired terms were also up for special election following resignations from the board. Rauh was the only incumbent to seek re-election; her defeat saw all five seats go to newcomers. The election did not change the board's Democratic majority; post-election, the board had six Democrats and three Republicans. This is the highest single-party majority allowed by law.

Republicans Mike Altamura and Andy George won two of the three full-term seats up for election, while fellow party member Gerald Bosak won one of the unexpired terms. The Stamford Republican Town Committee initially endorsed Gerald Bosak and Prasad Tungaturthy for the one-year terms and Mike Altamura, Andy George and former board member Nicola Tarzia for the three-year terms. Tungaturthy, however, withdrew from the race on August 31, 2015. John Ciuffo was selected as the new Republican in Tugnaturthy's place. Republicans Altamura, George and Tarzia ran as a slate called 2015BOE Team.

Democrats David Mannis and Jennienne Burke won a three-year and one-year term, respectively. The Stamford Democratic City Committee did not endorse any of its incumbents for re-election. Instead, the party endorsed Angelica Gorrio, David Mannis and Ligia Marroquin for the three-year terms and Jennienne Burke and Monica DiCostanzo for the one-year terms. Democrats Gorrio, Mannis and Marroquin also formed a slate for the election.

Incumbent Rauh still sought to retain her seat on the board despite lacking her party's nomination. The Democratic board member chose to run as an unaffiliated candidate instead of forcing a primary election within her party. Rauh's party registration as a Democrat, however, meant the state law requiring a minimum of one-third of the board's seats to be held by minority parties still applied to her in this election. John Zito also ran as an independent petitioning candidate in the regular-term race. Rauh placed seventh and Zito eighth out of the nine candidates running in the election for three-year terms.

Rolf Maurer was the sole Green Party candidate for the election. He sought a three-year term, but he placed last in the nine-candidate race.

About the district

See also: Stamford Public Schools, Connecticut

Stamford Public Schools is located in Fairfield County, Conn.

Stamford Public Schools is located in Fairfield County in western Connecticut. The county was home to 945,438 residents in 2014, according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau. Stamford Public Schools was the fifth-largest school district in Connecticut and served 15,758 students in the 2012–2013 school year.

Demographics

Fairfield County outperformed Connecticut as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2009–2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 44.8 percent of county residents aged 25 and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.5 of state residents. The median household income for Fairfield County was $82,283, compared to $69,461 for Connecticut. The percentage of county residents below poverty level was 9.1 percent, while it was 10.2 percent for the state residents.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	Fairfield County(%)	Connecticut (%)
White	80.2	81.6
Black or African American	12.0	11.3
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.5	0.5
Asian	5.3	4.3
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	1.9	2.1
Hispanic or Latino	18.2	14.7

Presidential Voting Pattern, Stamford, Connecticut
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 is composed of nine partisan members who are elected at large to three-year terms in odd-numbered years. The Mayor of Stamford serves as a 10th non-voting member. There was no primary, and the general election was November 3, 2015. State law required a minimum of one-third of the board's seats to be held by minority parties following each election.

There were several routes by which candidates could get on the ballot, which varied depending on the political affiliation of the candidate seeking office. The timeline below outlines the entire election process. A full written description of these events can be read in the collapsed section below the timeline.

Click [show] on the right for the written description of Connecticut's method of school board member selection.

Convention nomination The first way major party candidates could get onto the ballot was to receive the nomination of their political party during the endorsement period, which ran from July 21, 2015, to July 28, 2015. These endorsements were made by convention of the local party members, and the candidates had to receive at least 15 percent of the votes cast by convention delegates to be nominated. Parties could endorse as many candidates as there were seats up for election. Major party endorsements were certified on July 29, 2015. Minor parties that were qualified for the board races were also able to endorse candidates. The deadline for minor parties to endorse candidates was September 2, 2015. Primary petition If a candidate who wished to run for a major political party did not receive the party's endorsement, he or she was required to file a primary petition to oppose the endorsed candidate by August 12, 2015. In order for the petition to be deemed sufficient and a primary election to be held, the petitioner was required to submit valid signatures totaling 1 percent of the votes cast for the same office at the previous election for that office or 7,500, whichever is smaller. Multiple candidates of a political party could petition for a primary together. Only as many candidates could advance from it for each party as there were seats up for election in the general election. Independent petitioning Candidates who wished to run without a party affiliation had to file in a similar manner to candidates with a partisan affiliation. Such independent candidates, however, could not file in groups like partisan petitioners and had to file individually. They had to meet the same signature requirements as partisan petitioning candidates but without the possibility of a primary election. Write-in candidates The deadline for write-in candidates to file for the general election was October 20, 2015. Write-in candidates could not designate an affiliation with a political party, and no candidate who was nominated by a major or minor party or by petition could run as a write-in candidate.

Three-year terms (three seats)

Election results

Stamford Public Schools, At-Large (3-year terms), General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Mike Altamura	17.4%	5,445
	Republican	Andy George	15.9%	4,997
	Democratic	David Mannis	14.9%	4,656
	Democratic	Angelica Gorrio	14.1%	4,431
	Republican	Nicola Tarzia	14.1%	4,428
	Democratic	Ligia Marroquin	14.1%	4,405
	Petitioning	Polly Rauh Incumbent	5.2%	1,624
	Petitioning	John Zito	2.8%	882
	Green	Rolf Maurer	1.5%	472
Total Votes				31,340
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

Candidates

Polly Rauh		Mike Altamura		Andy George
	Incumbent Member from 2009–2015 Former member, Stamford Board of Representatives 2004–2012 Registered Democrat Ran as an independent petitioning candidate Ed.D., Columbia University Retired principal Former superintendent, Ardsley Union Free School District, N.Y.		Nominated by Stamford Republican City Committee Member of 2015BOE Team slate		Nominated by Stamford Republican City Committee Member of 2015BOE Team slate
Angelica Gorrio		David Mannis		Ligia Marroquin
	Nominated by Stamford Democratic City Committee		Nominated by Stamford Democratic City Committee		Nominated by Stamford Democratic City Committee
Rolf Maurer		Nicola Tarzia		John Zito
	Green Party candidate		Former board member Nominated by Stamford Republican City Committee Member of 2015BOE Team slate		Ran as an independent petitioning candidate

One-year terms (two seats)

Election results

Stamford Public Schools, At-Large (1-year terms), General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Gerald Bosak	27.4%	5,735
	Democratic	Jennienne Burke	25.8%	5,384
	Democratic	Monica DiCostanzo	25.2%	5,264
	Republican	John Ciuffo	21.6%	4,517
Total Votes				20,900
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

Candidates

Gerald Bosak		Jennienne Burke
	Nominated by Stamford Republican City Committee		Nominated by Stamford Democratic City Committee
John Ciuffo		Monica DiCostanzo
	Nominated by Stamford Republican City Committee following Prasad Tungaturthy's withdrawal		Nominated by Stamford Democratic City Committee

Withdrawn candidate

Prasad Tungaturthy Withdrew
	Nominated by Stamford Republican City Committee Withdrew from the one-year terms race on August 31, 2015

Past elections

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

2014 See also: Stamford Public Schools elections (2014) 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 2013 See also: Stamford Public Schools elections (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

What was at stake?

2015

Issues in the election

Three board resignations, one retracted

Only three seats on the Stamford Board of Education were scheduled for election in 2015, but the resignations of two other board members necessitated special elections for two more seats. Winners of the special election earned one-year terms on the board.

Richard Lyons II (D) resigned from the board in July 2014 to take a job with AFB Management, a school district vendor. Dolores Burgess (D), a candidate for the board in 2012 and 2013, was appointed to fill the vacancy October 6, 2014. Lyons term was set to expire in 2016.

John Leydon Jr. (R) resigned from the board a year later, citing his wife's employment with the district. On July 10, 2015, his retirement letter was posted on the school district's website. He stated in it, "It has come to my attention that Stamford Board of Education policy required me to resign when my wife Stacey was re-hired as a Stamford Public Schools elementary school teacher approximately two years ago. I, therefore, hereby resign from the Board of Education." Leydon had served as a Democrat on the board from 1997 to 2000. He won a new tenure on the board in 2010 as a Republican and was re-elected in 2013. His term was set to expire in 2016.

Jerry Pia (R), whose resignation was announced shortly after Leydon's, stated his resignation was due to the upcoming district superintendent search. Rather than serve the rest of his term and disrupt the search process, he said he decided to leave before the search began. Pia, however, later reversed course on his resignation stating that he did want to be involved in the superintendent search after all. Pia's seat, unlike Leydon's and Lyons', was already scheduled for regular election in 2015.

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the 2015 Connecticut school board elections:

Deadline	Event
July 21-28, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsement period
July 29, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsements certified
August 12, 2015	Primary petitions for opposition candidates of a major party due
September 2, 2015	Last day that a minor party may endorse a candidate
October 20, 2015	Write-in candidate filing deadline
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
November 4, 2015	General election results certified

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Connecticut elections, 2015

Races for city board of finance and board of representatives also appeared on the general election ballot with the Stamford Board of Education election.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Stamford Public Schools' Connecticut. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Stamford Public Schools elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Stamford Public Schools	Connecticut	School Boards
Stamford Public Schools elections (2013) List of school districts in Connecticut	Connecticut school board elections, 2015 Public education in Connecticut Local ballot measures, Connecticut	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

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