Tammy Luty
Tammy Luty was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Farmington Public School District school board in Michigan. Luty was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Biography
Luty earned her associate degree from Lawrence Technological University. She previously worked as an application developer for Dimension Systems, Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Luty has served as the federal legislative chair for the Michigan PTA and the president of the Farmington PTA Council.[1]
Elections
2016
Five of the seven seats on the Farmington Public School District school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. These seats included three seats with six-year terms and two seats with two-year terms. Incumbent Terri Ann Weems ran against challengers Donald David, Clark Doughty, Bruce Lilley, William Lubaway, Tammy Luty, Ed Richardson, Tera Shamey, Angie Smith, and James Stark for the six-year terms. Weems, Smith, and Stark won these seats. Incumbent David Turner and Mark Przeslawski defeated Fritz Beiermeister for the two-year terms.[2]
Results
| Farmington Public School District, At-Large General Election, 6-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Terri Ann Weems Incumbent |
18.22% | 13,851 |
| Angie Smith |
13.72% | 10,434 |
| James Stark |
12.02% | 9,142 |
| Tammy Luty | 11.10% | 8,438 |
| Clark Doughty | 9.86% | 7,499 |
| Donald David | 7.80% | 5,929 |
| Bruce Lilley | 7.32% | 5,568 |
| Ed Richardson | 7.06% | 5,367 |
| Tera Shamey | 6.37% | 4,844 |
| William Lubaway | 5.90% | 4,487 |
| Write-in votes | 0.61% | 466 |
| Total Votes | 76,025 | |
| Source: Oakland County Elections Division, "November 8, 2016 General Election," November 22, 2016 | ||
Funding
School board candidates in Michigan were required to file pre-election campaign finance reports with their county election offices by October 28, 2016. Post-election reports were due by December 8, 2016.[3]
In Michigan, candidates are prohibited from receiving contributions from corporations or labor organizations. Within 10 days of becoming a candidate, candidates must form a candidate committee. Following the creation of the committee, candidates have an additional 10 days to register the committee with the school district filing official by filing a statement of organization. A candidate committee that does not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000 during the election cycle is eligible to receive a reporting waiver, which allows that committee not to file pre-election, post-election, and annual campaign statements.[4]
October 28 filing
Candidates received a total of $6,710.00 and spent a total of $12,632.11 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds.[5]
Six-year terms
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terri Ann Weems (incumbent) | $6,510.00 | $6,162.61 | $347.39 |
| Donald David | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Clark Doughty | $0.00 | $1,153.35 | -$1,153.35 |
| Bruce Lilley | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| William Lubaway | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Tammy Luty | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Ed Richardson | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Tera Shamey | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Angie Smith | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| James Stark | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Two-year terms
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Turner (incumbent) | $200.00 | $5,316.15 | $5,116.15 |
| Fritz Beiermeister | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Mark Przeslawski | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Endorsements
Luty received the endorsement of Hometown Life.[6]
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Tammy Luty 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 September 8, 2016:
| “ | As a board member I hope to have conversations about curriculum and work with administration to improve our scholastic achievement for all students. The most important work of a school system is to have students succeed.[7][8] | ” |
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 Michigan. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| “ | Scholastic Achievement is the number one priority as we need to make sure that we are taking care of the customer which is ALL the students in Farmington Public School (struggling, average, and accelerated).[8] | ” |
| —Tammy Luty (September 8, 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.) |
|---|
| No. |
| 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. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| The Common Core state standards helps students if they need to move from one district to another in their own state or another state that participates in Common Core. This allows students to not miss a subject or repeat a subject because the districts are using the same guide of what each student in that grade should learn. |
| 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? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion should only be used for serious offenses to ensure the safety of other students. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers. All of the factors are important but you can have the same curriculum being taught by two different teachers and one group of students can be more successful than another because of what that teacher is able to do to achieve academic growth for their students in the classroom. |
Additional themes
Luty provided the following statement on his priorities for the district to the League of Women Voters Oakland Area:
| “ |
The biggest issues Farmington faces is scholastic achievement, district reputation/image, and building closure decisions. We need to make sure that we are taking care of the customer which is ALL the students for Farmington Public School (struggling, average, and accelerated). Families love our community and what it has to offer but the changes and discussions that have happened in the last several years has hurt our community reputation, including the uncertainty of Harrison. If we take care of the customers (students and families) we will attract more to our community and our reputation would improve. Leaving an uncertain future for a school directly impacts teachers, students and families and will not attract others or improve our district image. As a board member I hope to have conversations about curriculum with administration to benefit students, and work on ways to improve our district image to attract families to the Farmington community.[9][8] |
” |
| —Tammy Luty (2016) | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Tammy Luty Farmington Public School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Tammy Luty," accessed October 25, 2016
- ↑ Oakland County Elections Division, "Unofficial Candidate List," August 19, 2016
- ↑ Michigan Bureau of Elections, "2016 and 2017 Campaign Finance Filing Schedule," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Genesee County, "Filing Requirements under Michigan's Campaign Finance Act," February 7, 2014
- ↑ Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds, "Campaign Finance Reporting System," accessed October 30, 2016
- ↑ Hometown Life, "Our picks for the Farmington Board of Education," October 26, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Tammy Luty's responses," September 8, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ League of Women Voters Oakland Area, "Voter Guide - November General Election," accessed October 25, 2016
| 2016 Farmington Public School District Elections | |
| Oakland County, Michigan | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | Six-year terms (Three seats): Incumbent, Terri Ann Weems • Donald David • Clark Doughty • Bruce Lilley • William Lubaway • Tammy Luty • Ed Richardson • Tera Shamey • Angie Smith • James Stark Two-year terms (Two seats): Incumbent, David Turner • Fritz Beiermeister • Mark Przeslawski |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
