Syracuse City School District elections (2015)

← 2013
2015 Syracuse City School District Elections
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections What was at stake? Candidate survey Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
New York Syracuse City School District Onondaga County, New York ballot measures Local ballot measures, New York

Four seats on the Syracuse City School District Board of Education Commissioners were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A primary election for Democratic Party candidates was held on September 10, 2015. The seats held by incumbents Mark Muhammad, Michelle Mignano, Max Ruckdeschel and Stephen Swift were on the general election ballot.

While Democratic incumbents Muhammad, Mignano and Ruckdeschel all sought re-election, they faced primary challengers Katie Sojewicz, Daniel Romeo and Rita Paniagua. Muhammad and the challengers won the primary and advanced to the general election, where they won all four seats.

Incumbent Ruckdeschel and challengers Sojewicz and Romeo cross-filed as a Working Families Party candidates. This cross-filing allowed Ruckdeschel to appear on the general election ballot after his Democratic primary defeat. One more Working Families Party candidate—Latoya Allen—and two Green Party candidates—Raymond Blackwell and Caleb Duncan—also ran in the general election.

In 2015, the state designated 18 schools in the district as "struggling" or "persistently struggling." The schools are under the receivership of Superintendent Sharon Contreras for one to two years, but they could be taken over by independent receivers if they do not improve within that time frame. Only two school districts have more struggling or persistently struggling schools than Syracuse City: the New York City School District and the Buffalo City School District. Prior to the election, candidates participated in a candidate forum and discussed whether or not they would renew Contreras' contract.

See also: What was at stake in the Syracuse City School District election?

See how this race compared to past school board elections in both the district and the state in the "Election trends" section. Blackwell participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read his responses, check out the "Ballotpedia survey responses" section.

About the district

See also: Syracuse City School District, New York

Syracuse City School District is located in Onondaga County, N.Y.

Syracuse City School District is located in Onondaga County in central New York. The county seat is Syracuse. Onondaga County was home to 468,196 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau. During the 2012-2013 school year, the Syracuse City School District was the fifth-largest school district in New York and served 20,622 students.

Demographics

Onondaga County underperformed compared to the rest of New York in terms of higher education achievement, median household income and poverty rate in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 33.1 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 33.2 percent for New York as a whole. The median household income in Onondaga County was $54,242, compared to $58,003 for the entire state. The poverty rate was 14.8 percent, compared to 15.3 percent statewide.

Racial Demographics, 2014
Race	Onondaga County (%)	New York (%)
White	80.9	70.4
Black or African American	11.7	17.6
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.9	1.0
Asian	3.6	8.5
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.0	0.1
Two or More Races	2.9	2.4
Hispanic or Latino	4.6	18.6

2014 Party Affiliation, Onondaga County
Party	Registered Voters	% of Total
Democratic	112,780	37.14
Republican	89,109	29.35
Independence	15,997	5.27
Constitution	5,087	1.68
Working Families	1,507	0.50
Green	1,024	0.34
Other	262	0.09
Unaffiliated	77,877	25.65

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.

Voter and candidate information

The Syracuse City Board of Education Commissioners consists of seven members elected to four-year terms. Three or four seats are up for general election in November of each odd-numbered year. Elections are held at large. Three seats were on the ballot in 2013, and four seats were on the ballot in 2015. The 2015 election saw six Democratic candidates. Four were endorsed by the party, and two filed paperwork to run under that designation. Because of this, a Democratic primary election was held on September 10, 2015. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.

Candidates for the education commissioner position must be qualified voters in the school district and residents of the district for at least one year prior to the election. They cannot be employees of the district and cannot hold incompatible offices. Syracuse City Board of Education Commissioners are elected in partisan races. Candidates running with a political party designation must file with that party to get on the ballot. Parties then vote in a caucus to determine who their candidates will be for the general election. Caucuses are held in the spring prior to the general election.

Candidates who were not nominated in a political party caucus could file a designating petition to run under a political party. Those petitions had to be filed by July 9, 2015, with the Onondaga County Board of Elections. Candidates running independently also had to file nominating petitions with the Onondaga County Board of Elections. In 2015, independent candidates had to file their petitions between August 11, 2015, and August 18, 2015. Signature requirements for each party and for independent candidates can be found in the table to the right.

Candidates can run with multiple party designations through a process called cross-filing. The names of candidates running with multiple parties appear under each party designation on the ballot. The votes from each designation are then pooled together to give a candidate's vote total, which is called electoral fusion.

2015 Petition Signature Requirements
Party	Signatures required
Democratic	1,000
Republican	517
Conservative	34
Green	21
Working Families	26
Independence	140
Independent candidates	1,349

General election

Election results

ELECTORAL FUSION: Syracuse City School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Cross-filed (2)	Katie Sojewicz	22.5%	12,015
	Cross-filed (2)	Daniel Romeo	20.2%	10,825
	Democratic	Mark Muhammad Incumbent	16.8%	8,985
	Democratic	Rita Paniagua	16.1%	8,591
	Green	Raymond Blackwell	6.9%	3,698
	Green	Caleb Duncan	5.9%	3,142
	Working Families Party	Max Ruckdeschel Incumbent	5.9%	3,160
	Working Families Party	Latoya Allen	5.5%	2,945
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.3%	136
Total Votes				53,497
Source: Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Onondaga County Board of Elections Commissioner Secretary Julie Cook," January 14, 2016

FULL BY-PARTY RESULTS:
	Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Katie Sojewicz	18.1%	9,667
	Democratic	Mark Muhammad Incumbent	16.8%	8,985
	Democratic	Daniel Romeo	16.8%	8,987
	Democratic	Rita Paniagua	16.1%	8,591
	Green	Raymond Blackwell	6.9%	3,698
	Green	Caleb Duncan	5.9%	3,142
	Working Families Party	Max Ruckdeschel Incumbent	5.9%	3,160
	Working Families Party	Latoya Allen	5.5%	2,945
	Working Families Party	Katie Sojewicz	4.4%	2,348
	Working Families Party	Daniel Romeo	3.4%	1,838
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.3%	136

General election candidates

Mark Muhammad		Max Ruckdeschel		Latoya Allen		Raymond Blackwell
	Incumbent Member from January 2015 - December 2015 Democratic Party candidate Graduate, Onondaga Community College, Cornell University and Syracuse University Professor, Onondaga Community College and Syracuse University Minister, Nation of Islam		Incumbent Working Families Party candidate in the general election Lost in the Democratic primary election Graduate, University of Idaho and George Washington University		Working Families Party candidate Founder, Precious Lily & Brotherhood Foundation		Green Party candidate Graduate, Long Island University and Syracuse University
Caleb Duncan		Rita Paniagua		Daniel Romeo		Katie Sojewicz
	Green Party candidate Student, Syracuse University Pool aide, Syracuse Department of Parks and Recreation		Democratic Party candidate Graduate, Virginia Intermount College Executive director, Spanish Action League of Onondaga County Inc.		Cross-filed with the Democratic and Working Families Parties Graduate, Onondaga Community College and Syracuse University Firefighter, City of Syracuse		Cross-filed with the Democratic and Working Families Parties Graduate, State University of New York College at Geneseo and the State University of New York College at Cortland Reading tutor, Onondaga Community College Former teacher, Syracuse City School District

Democratic primary

Democratic primary election results

This election was held September 10, 2015.

Syracuse City School District, At-Large, Democratic Primary, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Katie Sojewicz	20.2%	3,008
Mark Muhammad Incumbent	20.1%	2,993
Daniel Romeo	17.2%	2,557
Rita Paniagua	15.0%	2,235
Michelle Mignano Incumbent	14.3%	2,120
Max Ruckdeschel Incumbent	12.7%	1,885
Write-in votes	0.46%	68
Total Votes		14,866
Source: Onondaga County Clerk, "Onondaga County Election Results: Primary Election September 10, 2015," accessed September 10, 2015

Candidates defeated in the Democratic primary

Michelle Mignano		Max Ruckdeschel
	Incumbent Democratic Party candidate Graduate, Columbia University and the Maxwell School of Syracuse University Deputy commissioner of health, Onondaga County		Incumbent Cross-filed with the Democratic and Working Families Parties Graduate, University of Idaho and George Washington University

Endorsements

The Onondaga County Democratic Committee endorsed incumbents Mark Muhammad and Max Ruckdeschel and challengers Daniel Romeo and Katie Sojewicz. The Green Party of Onondaga County endorsed challenger Raymond Blackwell.

Campaign finance

See also: List of school board campaign finance deadlines in 2015

Candidates received a total of $13,171.99 and spent a total of $16,187.34 as of October 19, 2015, according to the Syracuse City School District.

Candidate	Contributions	Expenditures	Cash on hand
Mark Muhammad	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Max Ruckdeschel	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Latoya Allen	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Raymond Blackwell	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Caleb Duncan	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Rita Paniagua	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Daniel Romeo	$6,568.34	$9,933.53	($3,365.19)
Katie Sojewicz	$6,603.65	$6,253.81	$349.84

School board candidates were required to file campaign finance disclosure reports with the clerk of the Syracuse City School District. No disclosure reports were required from candidates who raised or spent less than $500, but those candidates did have to file a sworn statement to that effect with the school district clerk. Three reports were required per election from those over the $500 threshold. The first was due 30 days before the election. The second was due five days before the election, and the third was due 20 days after the election.

Past elections

Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right.

2013 Syracuse City School District, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic David Cecile 30% 12,336      Democratic Patricia Body Incumbent 23.9% 9,834      Democratic Derrick L. Dorsey 23.4% 9,611      Republican Edward J. McLaughlin 15% 6,177      Green Barbara E. Humphrey 7.6% 3,115      Nonpartisan Write-in votes 0.2% 82 Total Votes 41,155 Source: Information submitted to Ballotpedia through e-mail from the Onondaga County Board of Elections on December 18, 2013. 2011 Syracuse City School District, At-large General Election, 4-year term, 2011 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democrat Michelle Mignano 18.1% 8,570      Democrat Max Ruckdeschel 16.6% 7,822      Democrat Bill Bullen 15.9% 7,513      Democrat Stephen Swift 15.9% 7,510      Republican Edward J. McLaughlin 11.9% 5,636      Republican Sarah G. Gilbert 10.8% 5,114      Republican Delilah A. Fiumana 10.8% 5,093 Total Votes 47,258 Source: The Post-Standard, "Election 2011: Onondaga County voting results," November 9, 2011

What was at stake?

2015

Election trends

See also: School boards in session: 2014 elections by the numbers

With four seats on the ballot on November 3, 2015, over half of the Syracuse City Board of Education Commissioners had the potential to change hands. Two of the four incumbents ran to retain their seats in the general election. One did not file to run for re-election, and another was eliminated from the race in the Democratic primary. This guaranteed at least two newcomers would join the board. In the primary, an average of 1.5 candidates ran per seat. The general election had an average of two candidates per seat. A total of three newcomers were elected to the board in the general election, and one incumbent won re-election.

Syracuse City's 2013 school board election saw 1.67 candidates run per seat. One of the three incumbents sought re-election. She won another term, and two newcomers were elected to the open seats.

In 2014, an average of 2.02 school board candidates ran per seat up for election in New York's largest school districts. That year, 15.52 percent of board seats in those districts were unopposed, and 40.43 percent of seats went to newcomers.

Issues in the district

18 district schools designated 'struggling' or 'persistently struggling'

A July 2015 report from the New York State Education Department listed 17 schools in the Syracuse City School District as "struggling" and one school as "persistently struggling." Because of this, the district had to show it could improve these schools within a couple of years or else be taken over by an independent receiver.

Grant Middle School was the "persistently struggling" school. It earned the label because its students' test scores landed in the bottom 5 percent across New York for the 2013-2014 school year as well as the nine years prior. Superintendent Sharon Contreras was named its receiver for one year. As receiver she had the power to turn schools into charter schools and to let teachers and administrators go or make them re-apply for their jobs, but Contreras said she did not think that was the right way to proceed. During this probationary period, the school was required to show improvements; otherwise, it would be taken out of the control of the district and handed off to an independent receiver.

The 17 schools labeled "struggling" had two years to show improvements. They were deemed "struggling" because their students scored in the bottom 5 percent statewide for three consecutive years.

The schools were making progress, according to Contreras, with increases to graduation rates and decreases to drop out rates. The school day had also been extended through a program called Say Yes to Education. “According to the state, they just want to see that we are making sufficient progress and I think through tweaking some of the plans the schools have developed, we’ll see that progress. It just won’t happen overnight,” said Contreras.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said almost half of students in the school district lived in poverty, which makes an impact on learning. "It is no surprise that when you look at our staggering poverty rates, that we don't have the kind of educational attainment that we want," Miner said.

A total of 178 schools in New York were considered failing in 2015. Check out the table to the right to compare the Syracuse City School District to other districts in the state.

New York school districts with failing schools
District	Number of failing schools
Albany City School District	3
Amsterdam City School District	1
Buffalo City School District	27
Central Islip Union Free School District	1
Hempstead Union Free School District	2
Mt. Vernon School District	1
Newburgh Enlarged City School District	1
New York City School District	92
Poughkeepsie City School District	2
Rochester City School District	15
Roosevelt Union Free School District	2
Schenectady City School District	2
Syracuse City School District	18
Troy City School District	1
Utica City School District	1
Wyandanch Union Free School District	1
Yonkers City School District	8

Issues in the election

Syracuse City candidate forum

At a candidate forum on October 7, 2015, candidates discussed whether or not they would renew Superintendent Sharon Contrerass contract if they were elected to the board. Contreras' former contract ended in June 2016. All eight candidates attended the forum and responded to the question.

Only two candidates gave a direct answer. Challenger Latoya Allen (WF) said she would renew the superintendent's contract, and incumbent Max Ruckdeschel (WF) said he would not. Daniel Romeo (D, WF) said he would lean toward no, but would give Contreras the chance to defend herself. "We're not on the board yet, but I've done my homework. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to sit down with the superintendent. I haven't talked to ... anybody who is in favor of the superintendent," said Romeo.

Raymond Blackwell (G) and Caleb Duncan (G) both said communication was key in determining what they would do. Blackwell said, "I'm not going to feed into that divisiveness. I'd need to have a conversation with her before I make that decision." Duncan responded, "Communication is key. This is an important question and it takes time to reach an answer."

Rita Paniagua (D) and Katie Sojewicz (D, WF) refused to answer the question due to a lack of information. Paniagua said, "I don't think it's appropriate to make that kind of decision without being informed. The superintendent is a position that needs support." Sojewicz responded with: "This goes back to transparency. I would have a lot of questions for the superintendent. After I get those answers, I would be more than happy to share publicly my vote."

Incumbent Mark Muhammad (D) said he did not think it was appropriate to answer a question about the superintendent's contract while he was a sitting board member. He added, "The problem is not the superintendent. If we got rid of the superintendent, we still got a problem. It's much bigger than one individual."

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

One candidate in this race participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display the responses to the survey questions from challenger Raymond Blackwell.

Top priorities

When asked what his top priorities would be if elected, Blackwell stated:

“	If elected to the Board of Education for the Syracuse City School District my top priority would be to address concentrations of poverty through school choice and magnet schools.	”
—Raymond Blackwell (2015)

Ranking the issues

Blackwell 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	Blackwell's ranking
Expanding arts education	7
Expanding career-technical education	3
Balancing or maintaining the district's budget	2
Improving college readiness	6
Closing the achievement gap	5
Improving education for special needs students	4
Expanding school choice options	1

Positions on the issues

Blackwell was asked to answer 10 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.

• Raymond Blackwell survey responses

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the Syracuse City School District election in 2015:

Deadline	Event
July 9, 2015	Political party designating petition filing deadline
August 11, 2015 - August 18, 2015	Independent nominating petition filing period
August 12, 2015	First campaign finance report due for primary election
August 14, 2015	In-person voter registration deadline for primary election
August 21, 2015	By-mail voter registration deadline for primary election
September 5, 2015	Second campaign finance report due for primary election
September 10, 2015	Primary Election Day
September 30, 2015	Third campaign finance report due for primary election
October 4, 2015	First campaign finance report due for general election
October 9, 2015	In-person voter registration deadline for general election
October 14, 2015	By-mail voter registration deadline for general election
October 29, 2015	Second campaign finance report due for general election
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
November 23, 2015	Third campaign finance report due for general election

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: New York elections, 2015

The Syracuse City Board of Education Commissioners election shared the ballot with a number of state, county and city elections. At the state level, one seat on the New York Supreme Court and the New York State Assembly seat representing District 128 were on the ballot. There were also the following local seats on the ballot: county executive, county comptroller, 17 county legislators, district attorney, city auditor, two councilors-at-large and five district councilors.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Syracuse City School District' New York. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Syracuse City School District elections (2015) - Google News

See also

Syracuse City School District	New York	School Boards
Syracuse City School District elections (2013) List of school districts in New York	New York school board elections, 2015 Public education in New York Local ballot measures, New York	School board elections, 2015 School board elections, 2014 School board election data analysis, 2015 School board election data analysis, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Syracuse City School District
• Onondaga County Board of Elections