Suffolk Public Schools elections (2016)

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Suffolk Public Schools Elections

General election date:
November 8, 2016
Enrollment (13–14):
14,476 students

Three of the seven seats on the Suffolk Public Schools school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. The three incumbents—Judith Brooks-Buck (Nansemond Borough), David Mitnick (Sleepy Hole Borough), and Phyllis Collier Byrum (Whaleyville Borough)—ran unopposed and won re-election to their seats.[1]

One candidate participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. Click here to read David Mitnick's responses.

Elections

Voter and candidate information

The Suffolk school board consisted of seven members elected to specific boroughs who served staggered four-year terms. There was no primary election, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. Three seats were up for election in 2016.[1]

The filing deadline for school board candidates to get on the ballot in this election was July 14, 2016. Candidates had to be residents of the state of Virginia for at least one year preceding the election and be registered to vote in order to qualify for candidacy.[2][3]

Candidates and results

Nansemond Borough

Results

Suffolk Public Schools,
Nansemond Borough General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Judith Brooks-Buck Incumbent (unopposed) 97.72% 5,310
Write-in votes 2.28% 124
Total Votes 5,434
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2016 November General Official Results," accessed November 30, 2016

Candidates

Judith Brooks-Buck Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

Sleepy Hole Borough

Results

Suffolk Public Schools,
Sleepy Hole Borough General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png David Mitnick Incumbent (unopposed) 98.15% 5,612
Write-in votes 1.85% 106
Total Votes 5,718
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2016 November General Official Results," accessed November 30, 2016

Candidates

David Mitnick Green check mark transparent.png

David Mitnick.jpg

Whaleyville Borough

Results

Suffolk Public Schools,
Whaleyville Borough General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Phyllis Collier Byrum Incumbent (unopposed) 97.05% 4,207
Write-in votes 2.95% 128
Total Votes 4,335
Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2016 November General Official Results," accessed November 30, 2016

Candidates

Phyllis Collier Byrum Green check mark transparent.png

Placeholder image.png

Additional elections

See also: Virginia elections, 2016

The Suffolk school board election shared the ballot with federal elections for the United States President and the United States House of Representatives. Other elections on the ballot included municipal elections for mayor and city council.[4]

Key deadlines

The following dates are key deadlines for the Suffolk school board elections in 2016:[5][6]

Deadline Event
June 14, 2016 Candidate filing deadline
October 17, 2016 Last day to register to vote in the general election
October 17, 2016 First campaign finance deadline
October 31, 2016 Second compaign finance deadline
November 8, 2016 Election Day
January 17, 2017 Final campaign finance deadline

Endorsements

Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

No contributions or expenditures were reported as of October 17, 2016, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.[7]

Past elections

What was at stake?

Candidate survey

Survey responses

One candidate in this race participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display the responses to the survey questions from David Mitnick.

Hope to achieve

When asked what he hoped to achieve if elected to the school board, Mitnick stated:

Continued cooperation among school board members and with our City Council[8]
—David Mitnick (October 11, 2016)[9]
Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays his rankings:

Issue importance ranking
Issue Mitnick's ranking
Expanding arts education
5
Improving relations with teachers
4
Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
2
Improving post-secondary readiness
3
Closing the achievement gap
1
Improving education for special needs students
6
Expanding school choice options
7
Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer nine multiple choice and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. A link to his responses can be found below.

Report a story for this election

Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.

Candidate survey

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Ballotpedia invites school board candidates to participate in its annual survey.
Click here to view or fill out the survey.

About the district

See also: Suffolk Public Schools, Virginia
Suffolk Public Schools is located in Suffolk, Virginia.

Suffolk Public Schools is located in southeastern Virginia in Suffolk. Suffolk is an independent city and therefore does not belong to a county. This city was home to 88,161 residents in 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau.[10] The district was the 17th-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 14,476 students.[11]

Demographics

Suffolk underperformed compared to the state of Virginia as a whole in terms of higher education achievement in the years 2010 to 2014. The United States Census Bureau found that 26.1 percent of city residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 35.8 percent of state residents. The median household income in Suffolk was $66,822, compared to $64,792 for the state. The poverty rate was 11.1 percent in the city, while it was 11.8 percent for the entire state.[10]

Racial Demographics, 2010[10]
Race Suffolk (%) Virginia (%)
White 52.3 68.6
Black or African American 42.7 19.4
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.3 0.4
Asian 1.6 5.5
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.1 0.1
Two or More Races 2.3 2.9
Hispanic or Latino 2.9 7.9

Presidential Voting Pattern,
Suffolk[12]
Year Democratic Vote (%) Republican Vote (%)
2012 57.0 41.9
2008 56.2 43.0
2004 47.3 52.1
2000 50.6 48.0

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 'Suffolk Public Schools' 'Virginia'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

Suffolk Public Schools Virginia School Boards
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Seal of Virginia.png
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External links

Footnotes