Warley Williams

Warley Williams

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Personal

Profession

Educator

Contact

Personal website

Warley Williams was a candidate for at-large representative on the New Bedford School Committee in Massachusetts. He was defeated in the general election on November 3, 2015.

Biography

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Williams earned a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in teaching. He serves as the assistant principal of Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School.

Elections

2015

See also: New Bedford Public Schools elections (2015)

The New Bedford School Committee consists of seven members, six of whom are elected to four-year terms. Each of those six members are elected at large by all residents in the school district. The seventh member is the mayor of New Bedford. A primary election was scheduled for October 6, 2015, but was unnecessary as no more than two candidates filed per seat up for election. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.

The seats of incumbents Joaquim Livramento, Bruce Oliveira, and Marlene Pollock were up for election. Livramento and Oliveira filed for re-election, while Pollock announced that she would not seek re-election. Both incumbents won re-election. They faced challengers Christopher Cotter, Celia Dos Santos, George Rogers, and Warley Williams in the general election; Cotter won the third seat up for election.

Results

New Bedford School Committee, At-large, General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Bruce Oliveira Incumbent	22.2%	6,064
Joaquim Livramento Incumbent	21.4%	5,849
Christopher Cotter	18.7%	5,105
Warley Williams	12.9%	3,526
George Rogers	12.8%	3,507
Celia Dos Santos	11.7%	3,211
Write-in votes	0.3%	81
Total Votes		27,343
Source: New Bedford Election Commission, "Unofficial Results," November 3, 2015

Funding

The New Bedford Election Commission does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Endorsements

Williams did not receive any official endorsements in this election.

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Williams participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	My top priority would be to persuade the Superintendent and Committee to develop a school safety, security, and discipline framework at the middle and high schools.	”
—Warley Williams, (2015),

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 this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Massachusetts.
Education on the ballot

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

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"Teachers should have the autonomy to develop their lessons based on the Mass state curriculum frameworks."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"No."
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"No."
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"No."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"Accomodations for ELL, Special Education, and low income students must be implimented completely and with integrity in order to ensure that our low achieving students are accessing the curriculum fairly. ELL students should be taught academic content in their native language while learning English separately. The achievement gap for ELL students is widening under the current system."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Students with behavior problems should be sent to alternative schools to remove them from their current environments rather than being expelled."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"The core values of a district are reflected in its budget. A school district must provide its teachers with the resources and tools necessary to effectively teach students."
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"Still formulating an opinion on this issue."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"The school should have a Facebook book that includes information, agenda, minutes, comment, upcoming events, and dates, times, and locations for regular and sub-committee meetings."

Candidate website

Warley Williams introduction

Williams' campaign website highlighted the following themes for 2015:

“	Increasing the number and quality of "Pathways to Success" for our at-risk students: I believe that students that have difficulty learning and or behaving in large, fast paced classes are better served in smaller classes in therapeutic and highly structured alternative settings which can be provided by expanding the infrastructure and programming of our alternative schools. Having served in an alternative school for five years, I have seen students that had once given up on education come to thrive and ultimately graduate from high school. Turning around our level 3 and 4 schools without compromising the arts and humanities programs: I am elated that NBHS’s dropout rate is decreasing and it’s graduation rate is increasing. These accomplishments are a testament to the hard work that teachers are doing in the classroom, as well as the work that students are doing to cross the stage, however I am concerned about the reduction of arts and humanities course offerings because of remediation in English Language Arts and math for the sake of assessment preparation. It is vital that the “whole child” is cultivated through music, art, civics and horticulture, among many other offerings. These classes also contribute to students wanting to be in school. I strongly support the full day Friday initiative at the elementary schools. This will allow students to have weekly instead of bi-weekly access to physical education, music, art, and the like. Additionally, it will give teachers more much need planning time. Promoting the safety and security of our schools so the community can trust that New Bedford Public Schools is a great option for their children: I am hopeful that the Restorative Justice and PBIS initiatives that have been implimented throughout NBPS will ensure a safer more secure learning environemnt for our students. I beleive that these efforts need to be publisized, supported and touted as much as possible in order to restore the trust of the students and parents of New Bedford. My Core Values Kids First: It is my belief that students must be at the heart of all of the School Committee’s policy development and budget approval. If elected, I will serve the Community and teachers with the best interest of students. Teamwork: It is my belief that staff satisfaction is exuded in the classroom and that school culture must be cultivated through strong administrative/teacher Teamwork. As a school committee member I will serve as a model of Teamwork in working with the Community and fellow committee members to establish policy and a fair budget. Accountability: It is my beleif that NBPS students must be held to high performance standards. Additionally, I beleive it is imperative that our students with barriers are thoroughly accomodated in order to provide an even playing feild for them to achieve their academic and behavioral goals. All stakeholders must consider themsleves accountable for the success of our students.	”
—Warley Williams, (2015),

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Warley Williams' OR 'New Bedford Public Schools'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Warley Williams - Google News

See also

• New Bedford Public Schools, Massachusetts
• New Bedford Public Schools elections (2015)
• Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
• What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• New Bedford Public Schools
• Campaign website