Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Steve Mashburn
Steve Mashburn was a candidate for District 3 representative on the Forsyth County Board of Education in Georgia. Mashburn lost in the primary election on May 24, 2016.[1]
Elections
2016
- See also: Forsyth County Schools elections (2016)
Three of the five seats on the Forsyth County Board of Education were up for general election on November 8, 2016. A primary election was held on May 24, 2016. District 3 incumbent Tom Cleveland (R) won without opposition in the general election after defeating Steve Mashburn (R) in the primary. Incumbent Nancy Roche defeated Kevin Foley and Mike Tasos in the District 5 Republican primary. Roche defeated Democratic candidate Anita Holcomb Tucker. District 4 incumbent Darla Sexton Light (R) won without opposition in 2016.[1]
Results
| Forsyth County Schools, District 3 Republican Primary Election, 4-Year Term, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Tom Cleveland Incumbent |
54.47% | 1,548 |
| Steve Mashburn | 45.53% | 1,294 |
| Total Votes | 2,842 | |
| Source: Georgia Secretary of State, "General Primary and Nonpartisan General Election May 24, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016 | ||
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Steve Mashburn participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 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 April 30, 2016:
| “ | The Forsyth County Board of Education has failed to address the issue of overcrowding in a meaningful way. Therefore, ALL of our efforts will come to naught if we do not check the uncontrolled growth the county is experiencing. I place the long-term interests of the community and children first. Therefore, I am running for Forsyth County Board of Education District 3 because the Board of Education HAS to become more vocal and proactive about our unsustainable growth.[2][3] | ” |
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 Georgia. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| “ | All of the above are important - PLEASE KNOW THAT the items I marked as LEAST important are actually the areas in which I think we are doing a good job on.[3] | ” |
| —Steve Mashburn (April 30, 2016) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine 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. Create more charter schools – charter schools ARE public schools. Public school systems have the poorest (actually, non-existent) R&D departments of any major industry. Therefore, we need charter schools to serve as incubators for testing new ideas that can be later implemented in other schools. |
| 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 only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. I believe in the concept of "Home Rule." |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. High-Stakes Testing does little to improve instruction or to redirect the learning. What little value such testing does have is not worth the loss of instructional time or the stress that is placed upon the students and teachers. Therefore, I DO NOT support High-Stakes Testing. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| Standards should be developed locally by practicing classroom teachers with input from parents and the local community — not by textbook companies, university professors, professional educational consultants and bureaucrats from the US Department of Education. Therefore, I DO NOT support the National Common Core Standards. |
| 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? |
| 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. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. New teachers without tenure who cannot teach effectively should be let go. Teachers with tenure should be placed on an improvement plan which should include additional training and mentorship, If a teacher is unable to meet the requirements of the improvement plan then they should be let go. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. I think teacher should receive merit pay if students under their direction show demonstrated improvement. The trick is how to do that. I do not think it should be on test score numbers but on the percentage of improvement the students of that teacher made from their previous year test scores. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| Yes. It increases the chance that a child will be in the right educational environment for him or her. I would like to increase outreach to the home school community. All tax-payers should have access to tax-payer funded services and ALL CHILDREN IN FORSYTH COUNTY deserve our best efforts in their growth. (The complexity of this issue doesn’t negate the premise.) |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| For the safety of the other students and staff. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers Although teacher effectiveness is the greatest factor in student achievement, teacher effectiveness depends upon the school's climate and that, according to current research, depends on the school principal. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Steve Mashburn' 'Forsyth County Board of Education'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Georgia Secretary of State, "Qualifying Candidate Information," accessed April 18, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Steve Mashburn's responses," April 30, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| 2016 Forsyth County Schools Elections | |
| Forsyth County, Georgia | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | District 3: Incumbent, Tom Cleveland (R) • Steve Mashburn (R) District 4: Incumbent, Darla Sexton Light (R) |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
.svg.png){kind=small}
