Todd Ellis (Kalamazoo Public School District, At-large, Michigan, candidate 2024)
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Todd Ellis ran for election for an at-large seat of the Kalamazoo Public School District in Michigan. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
Ellis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Todd Ellis provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on September 21, 2024:
- Birth date: December 28, 1978
- Birth place: McCandless Twp, Pennsylvania
- High school: Butler High School, Butler, PA
- Bachelor's: Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 2002
- PhD: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 2008
- Gender: Male
- Religion: Christian: Methodist
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: KPS Parent - Supporting Teachers - Promoting Transparency
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
- Campaign Twitter
Elections
General election
General election for Kalamazoo Public School District, At-large (2 seats)
Nate Anderson, Jennifer L. Dayton, Todd Ellis, Takisha Johnson, and Juanita Yvonne Payton ran in the general election for Kalamazoo Public School District, At-large on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Nate Anderson (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Jennifer L. Dayton (Nonpartisan) | ||
Todd Ellis (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Takisha Johnson (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Juanita Yvonne Payton (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Ellis received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Ellis's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Todd Ellis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ellis' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have been an educator for over 25 years. I used to substitute for my father's AP Physics class during college breaks. I taught meteorology and physics while an undergraduate student. I was a meteorology professor at SUNY Oneonta, where I won the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, among other awards. I came to WMU in 2015 to work in geoscience education. Only a series of extensive neck surgeries keeps me out of the classroom today. I also served as the Education and Public Outreach lead for the NASA CloudSat mission for over a decade and developed many successful hands-on demonstrations on the nature of clouds and satellites.
Now, my commitment to education extends beyond the classroom. Even after stepping back from my role in 2019, I continued to contribute to the field. I used my recovery time to become a Registered Parliamentarian, a role that allows me to help organizations run more effective meetings. I still find time to visit K-12 classrooms, sharing my knowledge and passion for meteorology and physics with students. Finally, my involvement in the Winchell PTO and now the Maple Street PTSO is a testament to my unwavering support for students and teachers in our district- I am an actively involved KPS Parent. Not many of our current board members have children who are students in our district, but our child has been a KPS student since Kindergarten. I have made time to know our teachers, offering my help and support where I can. Those relationships have helped me to gain valuable insight into the lack of resources our teachers and support staff have to work with. It also helped me to have honest conversations with those teachers who chose to leave the district, even after long tenures in KPS classrooms. I am deeply, personally invested in the success of Kalamazoo Public Schools.
- Three of the five teachers my child has had in person thus far in her academic career have left the district. These are excellent teachers: two were specially trained reading specialists, and one had just earned several grants that culminated in many students visiting their first National Park. After speaking with some of them, they said they left for positions that paid less and had longer commutes because they felt a lack of respect. Some teachers and staff who have remained still complain about the same. KPS used to be THE district of choice for teachers. I believe the board has to establish policies that limit class sizes, prioritize classroom support, pay staff living wages, and show our employees respect again.
- Our Board of Trustees needs to be more transparent in how they lead the district. At meetings, there is never any debate about motions that pass - motions that spend millions of dollars on curricula or building security. They always pass unanimously. The board never reveals what they think about these motions, and if there is any discussion, it does not happen in the open as it should. I want to work with the board members to teach the board how to handle debate openly and honestly. I want to pass a standing rule that all board committees must file reports on what they are working on at their meetings. The dinner meetings at 5:30 p.m. should have minutes taken and made publicly available. I think this will raise trust in board actions.
However, the differences between different content areas make it challenging for outside evaluation. When working in professional development, we often used content area communities to create common goals and provide feedback and mentorship, especially when trying new techniques.When the State Board of Education adopted the new Michigan science standards in 2017, standardized testing became less effective at measuring students' understanding of the process of science. Peer feedback and mentorship would be a more effective way to evaluate good teaching in the STEM disciplines.
However, evidence supports the conclusion that solutions like metal detectors do more harm than good. They are only sometimes effective at finding contraband, and false positives can be especially traumatic to students. Even just the thought of having to be scanned every day can lead to lasting mental scars in developing brains. I don't want my fear to do more harm than good, so facts, not fears, must drive any School Board policy discussion.
Last week, an excellent presentation by the Michigan Educational Justice Coalition discussed the state of school discipline. It outlined several potential concerns with school disciplinary procedures used around the country:
Coercive interrogation of students without a parent or lawyer present leading to false confessions;
Restraint and seclusion are being used overwhelmingly on children with disabilities, and,
A lack of adequate mental health resources to help deescalate mental health crises.
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Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Ellis completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Kalamazoo Public School District, At-large |
Personal |
Footnotes
