Stephen Puopolo

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Stephen Puopolo

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

Associate

Harford Community College, 2008

Bachelor's

University of Baltimore, 2018

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Stephen Puopolo ran for election to the Harford County Board of Education to represent District A in Maryland. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Puopolo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Stephen Puopolo earned an associate degree from Harford Community College in 2008. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Baltimore in 2018.

Elections

2022

See also: Harford County Public Schools, Maryland, elections (2022)

General election

General election for Harford County Board of Education District A

Denise Perry defeated Stephen Puopolo in the general election for Harford County Board of Education District A on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Denise Perry (Nonpartisan)	63.6	6,310
		Stephen Puopolo (Nonpartisan)	34.2	3,395
		Other/Write-in votes	2.1	213

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 9,918
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Harford County Board of Education District A

Denise Perry and Stephen Puopolo defeated Jean Hruz and Lisa Ritchie in the primary for Harford County Board of Education District A on July 19, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Denise Perry (Nonpartisan)	30.7	1,500
✔		Stephen Puopolo (Nonpartisan)	25.0	1,218
	Submit photo	Jean Hruz (Nonpartisan)	22.7	1,106
	Submit photo	Lisa Ritchie (Nonpartisan)	21.6	1,055

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,879
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Stephen Puopolo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Puopolo's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Hard of Hearing/deaf since birth, Stephen grew up in the 1990s when the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act allowed people with disabilities to gain more equal access to mainstream education. Growing up, Stephen had to fight teeth and nails to get even the most basic of reasonable accommodations. It is due to this that Stephen became interested in government and political policy at a younger age after coming to the conclusion that equal access should not be difficult to obtain.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Increase in Special Education Spending: Support staff is vital to the classroom not only for one on one assistance for our most vulnerable students, but also for teachers who are overwhelmed with students that they cannot provide all the individual attention needed. The 10-month salary for inclusion helpers, who bears a lot of the weight when assisting students, only earns $21,228 before withholdings. This needs to change.
• Skilled Trade Initiatives: For all the talk we hear about how important 4-year academics colleges and universities are, we don't hear as much about trades and certification. Academics are important, but learning a skilled trade has just as much importance in our society especially with infrastructure falling apart. Vocations are not necessarily the most glamorous occupations but trades such as plumbing, electrician, HVAC and even truck driving can not only pay well, but in many ways recession proof as well. We need to present trade as a viable option for our students. I also plan to advocate and work on a ground work to have a second technical school for Harford County.
• Student to Teacher Financial Aid: Across the county, schools are losing teachers at an rate that they are unable to replace. The fact that colleges and universities are slowly eliminating education programs due to lack of interest also makes the difficulty of replacing that loss even harder. My vision is to create a financial aid program for Harford County students that want to become teachers and would teach in Harford County after obtaining certification. Not only would this temper the loss of teachers, but could also allow for a closer relationship with teachers and community.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Disability advocacy is a strong passion of mine ever since I was a child. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act has made some strides since 1990, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Among the things we need to be discussing is mental health within the community. Over the past 20 years that we have become more aware of mental health issues especially with funding, housing, and, among other things, access to care.

Education is a public safety issue that I show great concern with due to the fact that teachers are getting burnt out, do not have enough support of the community or the administrations. I'm a believer that teachers are essentially being forced to teach our students how to pass a test but not necessarily learning. The classroom culture needs to change so that the educators are not shackled and unable to allow students to thrive.

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Candidate

Harford County Board of Education District A

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