Steve Lagoon

Steve Lagoon

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Steve Lagoon was a candidate for at-large representative on the South Washington County Schools school board in Minnesota. Lagoon was defeated in the at-large special election on November 7, 2017.

Lagoon participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to read his responses.

Elections

2017

See also: South Washington County Schools elections (2017)

Five of the seven seats on the South Washington County Schools school board in Minnesota were up for nonpartisan general election on November 7, 2017. Four seats were up for general election to regular four-year terms, and the fifth seat was up for special election to a two-year term due to a vacancy on the board. In the race for the four-year terms, at-large incumbents Tracy Brunnette, Katie Schwartz, and Sharon H. Van Leer won re-election. Incumbent Katy McElwee-Stevens did not win re-election, as Patricia Driscoll won the fourth seat. Challengers Thor Halverson, Alexandra Hedberg, Douglas Hoffman, David Pyrz, and William Thurmes were defeated in that race. Heather Hirsch won the two-year term, defeating Wael Abdelkader, Sean Brown, Duane Girard, and Steve Lagoon.

Results

South Washington County Schools, At-large Special Election, 2-year term, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Heather Hirsch	25.33%	2,489
Steve Lagoon	24.63%	2,420
Sean Brown	22.41%	2,202
Wael Abdelkader	17.22%	1,692
Duane Girard	9.73%	956
Write-in votes	0.67%	66
Total Votes		9,825
Source: South Washington County Schools, "School Board Meeting Minutes November 16, 2017," accessed December 8, 2017

Funding

See also: Campaign finance in the South Washington County Schools election

The South Washington County Schools does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign themes

2017

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Steve Lagoon participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 22, 2017:

“

I hope to make a contribution to our school board's mission to provide excellent educational opportunities for all of our districts students. I am greatly concerned about the growing problem of disrespectful and disruptive students who are a daily burden to teachers and staff, and who poison the classroom learning experience for the other students. I will be a strong advocate for greater discipline and accountability for such willfully obstinate students including expulsion until they are ready to take advantage of the great privilege of a free public education.

”

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.

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

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Expanding school choice options
2	Blank
3	Blank
4	Blank
5	Blank
6	Blank
7	Blank

“	I think this question is misleading because it requires some choices to be ranked lower when they may all be important to the candidate.	”
—Steve Lagoon (September 22, 2017)

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer eight questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.

Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.)
Yes. I have long been an advocate for expanding school choice that was begun in Minnesota by Governor Perpich. Choice creates competition and improved schools for all of our students. Indeed, charter schools offer innovative educators a chance to advance new ideas for the future.
Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement.
The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. There will always be a partner ship between the state and local units of governments including school boards. This is necessary so since local governments are "creatures" of the state; that is they are given authority to exist by the state government, and therefore they will always have an important role to play. Nevertheless, as a matter of principle, I am convinced that we should keep as much control of education at the local level where it is responsive to local interests (parents, teachers, community leaders).
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?
Yes. While they are not perfect, we should not eliminate testing that provides a reasonably objective standard of measuring academic success.
How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district?
Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve.
Should teachers receive merit pay?
No. I believe that teachers should be rewarded for their level of education, their seniority, and their level of responsibility. I do not support merit pay, or the converse, since in any case it may be caused by circumstances and factors beyond the teacher's control.
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program?
No. I am no longer an advocate for a voucher system that can be used at private or religious schools because I am concerned about them being used by schools that have radical ideologies.
How should expulsion be used in the district?
I am an advocate for greater discipline and accountability for chronic and obstinate disruptive behavior including expulsion for such students who refuse to cooperate and poison the learning environment for the rest of the class. Education is a privilege, and like other privileges in can be rescinded when it is abused.
What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration?
Teachers. I believe this question is misleading in that if asks you to choose which factor is the "most important." This is like asking what is the most important to a person's health: his brain, heart, or lungs. Obviously, they are all important factors and I cannot simply select one as the primary one.

Twin Cities Pioneer Press survey

Lagoon participated in the following survey conducted by the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. The survey questions appear bolded, and Lagoon's responses follow below.

What qualifies you to hold this position?

“	I am qualified as a candidate because of my experience in education, both as a parent of six children, all of whom attended our district schools, and because of my years of experience as a substitute school teacher, both in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This includes having worked as a substitute teacher in every school in South Washington County.	”
—Steve Lagoon (2017)

What would your top priorities be if elected?

“	My top priority is to bring greater accountability to our classrooms. I am concerned about the growing problem of out-of-control disruptive behavior in our classrooms, and how this is poisoning the learning environment for other students, and diverting teacher’s attention and energy from the essential task of teaching.	”
—Steve Lagoon (2017)

What do you think is the primary role of government?

“	In Minnesota, local governments serve at the pleasure of the state government. The ideal is that there are some areas of government best served at the local level, and this has traditionally included providing public education. I am a strong advocate of education being responsive to parents and teachers at the local level.	”
—Steve Lagoon (2017)

Candidate website

Lagoon highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:

“	Curbing Out-of-Control Spending ​ Steve will be the taxpayer’s watchdog. He is concerned about the ever-increasing costs of education. We need to protect good wages for school teachers and staff while holding the line against frivolous and wasteful spending. ​ Special Education has seen a dramatic increase in spending. Steve strongly supports serving the needs of special Ed students. However, there is an increasing problem of students whom simply refuse to cooperate or learn, and are driving up cost for extra staff to manage their out of control and obstinate behavior. Steve wants to set in place greater consequences so that classrooms will be reserved for Students that want to learn and teachers that want to teach! Over time,this will result in great savings to school budgets. Local control Steve favors local control of education. The greater the portion of our state taxes paying for education, the more strings the state attaches with the money and the less control we have over our districts education policies. Therefore, Steve favors a gradual move toward more local control of education. More flexibility for High School Students Steve is concerned that we have adopted too much of a one-size-fits all approach to High School education. Particularly, he believes that we are demanding too much higher-level math for students who may not have a natural aptitude for such challenging math, but whom, on the other hand, may have great aptitude in the creative arts, language, science, geography, or history etc. ​ Steve favors allowing such students, to tailor there high school years with classes in the areas of their strength, and help prepare them for their adult goals and experiences. Curbing Out-of-Control Classrooms Steve is concerned about the rising level of students with chronically disruptive behavior in our classrooms. These willfully obstinate and disruptive students have become a major burden to our teachers and staff since they divert their attention away from teaching to merely managing disrespectful and uncooperative students. In an effort to leave no child behind, we are leaving the whole class behind! ​ Steve believes that school districts need to exercise greater discipline and have greater consequences for such students, sending a message that we are taking back our classrooms! We will no longer tolerate students that engage in every type of rule breaking and disrespect. We will no longer tolerate students that simply refuse to work; who are verbally and even physically abusive to other students and school staff. ​ State law allows such chronically and willfully disruptive students to be expelled from school for a time until the student is ready to comply with reasonable student behavior. In the meantime, they can be home-schooled, do on-line learning, attend a charter school, or go to a private school? ​ Greater enforcement of discipline in our schools will allow our teachers to focus on the job they chose and love; teaching! No longer will they dread coming to school or have their attention diverted to babysitting disruptive students. ​ This will result in the retention of more quality teachers, improved results for students, closing the achievement gap, and reducing education spending.	”
—Steve Lagoon (2017)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Steve Lagoon South Washington County Schools school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Steve Lagoon - Google News

See also

• South Washington County Schools, Minnesota
• South Washington County Schools elections (2017)

External links

Suggest a link

• South Washington County Schools