Stevens Point Area Public School District elections (2016)
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Four of the nine at-large seats on the Stevens Point Area Public School District school board were up for general election on April 5, 2016. Three of the seats came with a three-year term, and one seat came with a one-year term. Incumbent Jeff Ebel ran for re-election. He faced challengers Rory Suomi, Amy Dailey, Daniel Kontos and Barb Portzen in the general election. Ebel, Kontos, and Portzen won seats with three-year terms, and Dailey won a seat with a one-year term. Incumbent Angel Faxon filed to run for re-election but withdrew from the race in March 2016. Her name still appeard on the ballot since she withdrew after the candidate withdrawal deadline.[1]
After losing her bid for re-election, Angel Faxon was appointed to the seat left empty by Alex Kochanowski in 2015, setting up a special election in 2016. The top three vote-getters in the election filled the seats with the three-year terms, and the fourth place finisher won a one-year term. [2] [3]
While Jeff Ebel ran to keep his seat, incumbents Kim Shirek and Lisa Totten did not run for re-election. Shirek and Totten were targets of a failed recall attempt in early 2015. The local advocacy group, Save Our Schools, filed statement of intent papers alleging that Totten and Shirek were being disrespectful during public meetings, trying to micromanage the district and focusing on removing the superintendent. The group abandoned its recall efforts when it did not gain the necessary signatures to get the recall on the ballot.
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Stevens Point Area Public School District Board of Education consists of nine at-large members elected to three-year terms. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on April 5, 2016. The board members elect a president, vice president, clerk and treasurer during an organizational meeting within 30 days of the fourth Monday in April.[4]
To be elected to the board, candidates must reside within the boundaries of the school district for 28 days prior to the filing of a "Declaration of Candidacy" form. Furthermore, at the time of taking office, each candidate must be a resident of the apportioned area he or she is elected to represent.[5] Candidates must also be 18 years old and citizens of the United States. Unless pardoned, those who have been convicted of a felony are not eligible for election to office in Wisconsin.[6]
Candidates had until January 5, 2016, to collect between 100 and 200 signatures for their nomination papers. The signatures had to come from residents of the district where the candidate sought election, but the petition circulators were not required to reside in the district or municipality. Circulators were required to be U.S. citizens and 18 years or older.[7]
Candidates and results
At-large
Results
| Stevens Point Area Public School District, At-Large General and Special Elections, 3- and 1-year terms, 2016 |
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|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Daniel Kontos |
19.64% | 8,178 |
| Jeff Ebel Incumbent |
19.55% | 8,138 |
| Barb Portzen |
18.45% | 7,680 |
| Amy Dailey |
16.43% | 6,840 |
| Rory Suomi | 15.30% | 6,371 |
| Angel Faxon Incumbent | 10.63% | 4,424 |
| Total Votes | 41,631 | |
| Source: Stevens Point Area School District, "Election Information," accessed May 18, 2016 | ||
Candidates
| Angel Faxon | Jeff Ebel | Rory Suomi | |||
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| Amy Dailey | Daniel Kontos | Barb Portzen | |||
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Additional elections
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2016
The Stevens Point Area Public School District election shared the ballot with the state's presidential preference vote. There were also elections for a supreme court justice, a District 4 court of appeals judge, a circuit court judge, a multi-jurisdictional municipal judge and Portage County supervisors.[8]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Wisconsin school board elections in 2016:[9]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| January 5, 2016 | Candidate filing deadline |
| January 26, 2016 | Referendum submission deadline |
| March 28, 2016 | Pre-general election campaign finance deadline |
| April 5, 2016 | Election Day |
| April 25, 2016 | Board members take office |
| July 15, 2016 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
District map
Endorsements
Suomi received an official endorsement for his campaign from the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.[10]
Suomi and Kontos received official endorsements for their campaigns from the Central Wisconsin Grassroots Coalition.[11]
Campaign finance
No contributions or expenditures were reported during the election, according to the Stevens Point Area School District. Any candidate spending or receiving less than $2,000 was not required to file a campaign finance report.[12][13]
Past elections
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2015
2014Note: The top three winners of the 2014 general election were elected to regular, three-year terms. The fourth-place finisher was elected to an unexpired one-year term. This special term was needed to fill a vacancy due to the resignation of John Zellmer.
2013Note: The top three winners of the 2013 general election were elected to regular, three-year terms. The fourth-place finisher was elected to an unexpired one-year term. This special term was needed to fill a vacancy due to the death of board member Elmer Fournier in 2012.[14]
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What was at stake?
2016
Election trends
- See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief
The Stevens Point Area school board typically has three seats up for election each year, but there were four seats up for election in 2016 due to a special election. This election had an average of 1.5 candidates per seat. This is less than the 1.72 average in America's largest school districts by enrollment in 2015 and more than the 1.38 average in the largest school districts in Wisconsin in the same year.
The last time the district held a special election in addition to its normally elected three seats was in 2014. That year saw an average of two candidates per seat when eight candidates ran for four seats. The 2015 election had four candidates running for three seats with an average of 1.33 candidates per seat.
Issues in the district
Superintendent firing leads to special election for appointed board member
Incumbent Angel Faxon was appointed to the board less than a month after losing re-election to the board in 2015. She filed to run for re-election again in 2016, but withdrew from the race in March 2016. Faxon was appointed to the board following the resignation of Alex Kochanowski. He resigned his post after the board decided to delay the hiring of a new permanent superintendent. The board had spent $16,000 searching for a new leader in the district's top seat and had narrowed the field down to two possible candidates before they decided to hire Lee Bush as an interim superintendent with a one-year contract.[15]
Kochanowski called the board's decision a "failure" and said he could not support it. “Both of these professionals are extremely familiar with our schools and capable of leading our district,” he said.[15]
The search for a new superintendent came after the firing of the district's former superintendent Atilla Weninger despite community opposition. After teachers gave the superintendent a vote of no confidence during the 2013-2014 school year, the Stevens Point Area Board of Education voted to non-renew Weninger’s contract in May 2014.[16][17]
The vote of no confidence and Weninger's subsequent non-renewal came after an inability to agree on teacher contracts after Act 10 was passed in 2011 and stripped the collective bargaining rights of unions. Weninger's relationship with the school board had also become contentious, with board members arguing that Weninger had not fairly considered new teacher contracts. The school board cited irreconcilable differences in communication when members voted to non-renew his contract.[16]
Business leaders in the school district community did not support Weninger's resignation. At a school board meeting in August 2014, CEOs and business leaders from companies such as Skyward, Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection and Sentry Insurance were joined by Stevens Point Mayor Andrew Halverson and other county officials to express their desire for the school board to rescind Weninger's resignation and keep him on after his contract ended. The public support came out of a previous school board meeting when community members were asked to share their approval of Weninger's job performance.[17]
The board did not carry out the request to keep Weninger on. After exploring the option of a different leadership structure and the ultimately deciding to hire an interim superintendent, board members restarted their efforts the find a new, permanent superintendent in 2016. They decided to conduct the search themselves and created a search committee to assist with the process. Applications were accepted until February 15, 2016. The board received 23 applications from candidates within the state of Wisconsin and from other states. In March 2016, the pool of superintendent candidates was narrowed to two finalists. The finalists were Larry Ouimette of Lac du Flambeau School District and Craig Gerlach of Jefferson School District. Gerlach was selected as the new superintendent on April 4, 2016.[18][19][20]
Candidate survey
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About the district
The Stevens Point Area Public School District is located in Portage County in central Wisconsin. The county seat is Stevens Point. Portage County was home to 70,482 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau.[21] The district was the 16th-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 7,353 students.[22]
Demographics
Higher education achievement
Portage County outperformed the state of Wisconsin as a whole in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 27.5 percent of Portage County residents aged 25 years or older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 26.8 percent for the state as a whole.[21]
Median household income
From 2009 to 2013, the median household income in Portage County was $50,996. During that same time period, the median household income for Wisconsin was $52,413, and it was $53,046 for the entire United States.[21][23]
Poverty rate
The poverty rate in Portage County from 2009 to 2013 was 13.7 percent, while it was 13.0 percent statewide.[21] During that same time period, the poverty rate for the country as a whole was 15.4 percent.[23]
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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.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Stevens Point Area Public School District' 'Wisconsin'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Stevens Point Area Public School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Stevens Point Area Public School District's Administrative Assistant to the Director of Business Services Karlyn Krautkramer," January 11, 2016
- ↑ Stevens Point City Times, "Angel Faxon Applies to School Board," April 21, 2015
- ↑ Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Stevens Point Area Public School District's Administrative Assistant to the Director of Business Services Karlyn Krautkramer," January 13, 2016
- ↑ Stevens Point Area Public School District, "Board of Education Policies," accessed January 13, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Wisconsin Candidate Eligibility," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Candidates: Getting on the Ballot," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "State Statutes: CHAPTER 8," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Portage County, Wisconsin, "Portage County Election Information," accessed January 27, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Campaign Finance Report Dates 2016, 2017 and 2018," accessed January 25, 2016
- ↑ WI AFL-CIO, "2016 Spring Election Candidate Endorsements," March 10, 2016
- ↑ UW-SPARC, "Endorsements for April, 2016 election," accessed March 23, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "Campaign Financing," accessed January 25, 2016
- ↑ Tiffany Rouse, "Email correspondence with Stevens Point Area School District Executive Assistant to the Director of Business Services Karlyn Krautkramer," April 4, 2016
- ↑ Stevens Point City Times, "School Board to See New Faces," April 4, 2013
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Stevens Point Journal, "Stevens Point School Board member resigns," April 2, 2015
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Stevens Point City Times, "Growing Support for Weninger to Culminate at Monday’s Board Meeting," August 11, 2014
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Steven Point Journal, "Business leaders want Weninger to stay," August 11, 2014
- ↑ Stevens Point Journal, "At least 11 apply for superintendent," February 3, 2016
- ↑ Stevens Point Journal, "Superintendent candidates trimmed to final 2," March 15, 2016
- ↑ Stevens Point Journal, "School Board announces superintendent choice," April 4, 2016
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 United States Census Bureau, "Portage County," accessed July 6, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 United States Census Bureau, "State & County QuickFacts: USA," accessed July 6, 2015
- ↑ Portage County, Wisconsin, "Portage County Election Information and Results," accessed September 23, 2014
| 2016 Stevens Point Area Public School District Elections | |
| Portage County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 5, 2016 |
| Candidates: | Incumbent, Angel Faxon • Incumbent, Jeff Ebel • Amy Dailey • Daniel Kontos • Barb Portzen • Rory Suomi |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional measures on the ballot |
