Waterbury Public Schools elections (2015)

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2015 Waterbury Public Schools Elections
General Election date:
November 3, 2015
Table of Contents
About the district Method of election Elections Key deadlines Additional elections External links
See also
Connecticut Waterbury Public Schools New Haven County, Connecticut ballot measures Local ballot measures, Connecticut

Five seats on the Waterbury Public Schools Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015. Five at-large incumbents' seats were up for election in 2015: Catherine Awwad (R), Liz Crichton Brown (D), Bryan McEntee (R), Ann M. Sweeney (D) and Jason Van Stone (R).

Democratic incumbents Ann M. Sweeney and Liz Crichton Brown won re-election, along with fellow party nominee Chuck Pagano. Incumbent Jason Van Stone was the only Republican to win in the election, placing fourth overall. The other seat was won by Connecticut Independent Party (CIP) nominee John Theriault, who placed fifth.

Republican incumbent McEntee and newcomer Besa Kalici were also nominated by their party for the election, but placed seventh and eight, respectively, out of the nine candidates seeking five available seats. The Connecticut Independent Party also nominated Danielle Albert and George Noujaim, both of whom were defeated. The three CIP candidates ran as a slate along with the CIP candidate for mayor, Lawrence V. De Pillo.

State law mandated that at least one-third of the board seats be held by a minority party following each election. The board members not up for election in 2015 included three Democrats and two Republicans. No party nominated sufficient candidates for the election as to be affected by this law; the top five vote-recipients in this election were declared winners regardless of party affiliation.

Sweeney was appointed to the board in June 2014 following the resignation of Patrick J. Hayes due to his moving out of the district. Sweeney had previously served on the board from 2005 to 2013. She lost her seat on the board in the November 5, 2013, general election. While she had been previously elected as an Independent Party candidate, she ran as an unaffiliated petitioning candidate in the 2013 election. She stated that running without a party was a matter of principal as she did not believe the school board should be a partisan office.

About the district

See also: Waterbury Public Schools, Connecticut

Waterbury Public Schools is located in New Haven County, Conn.

The Waterbury school district is based in New Haven County in southern Connecticut. The county was home to 861,277 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau. Waterbury Public Schools was the fourth-largest school district in Connecticut, serving 18,391 students during the 2012-2013 school year.

Demographics

New Haven County underperformed compared to the rest of Connecticut in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 32.9 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 36.5 percent of state residents. The median household income in the county was $61,996, compared to $69,461 for the state of Connecticut. The poverty rate in the county was 12.4 percent, compared to 10.2 percent for the entire state.

Racial Demographics, 2013
Race	New Haven County (%)	Connecticut (%)
White	79.3	81.6
Black or African American	14.0	11.3
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.5	0.5
Asian	4.0	4.3
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.1	0.1
Two or More Races	2.2	2.1
Hispanic or Latino	16.4	14.7

Presidential Voting Pattern, Waterbury, Connecticut
Year	Democratic Vote (%)	Republican Vote (%)
2012	64.9	34.3
2008	62.9	35.7
2004	49.2	48.7
2000	56.1	38.5

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 Waterbury Board of Education is composed of 10 partisan members who are elected at large to four-year terms in odd-numbered years. The mayor of Waterbury serves as the board chair. There was no primary election, and the general election was November 3, 2015. State law required a minimum of one-third of the board's seats to be held by minority parties following each election.

There were several routes by which candidates could get on the ballot, which varied depending on the political affiliation of the candidate seeking office. The timeline below outlines the entire election process. A full written description of these events can be read in the collapsed section below the timeline.

Click [show] on the right for the written description of Connecticut's method of school board member selection.

Convention nomination The first way major party candidates could get onto the ballot was to receive the nomination of their political party during the endorsement period, which ran from July 21, 2015, to July 28, 2015. These endorsements were made by convention of the local party members, and the candidates had to receive at least 15 percent of the votes cast by convention delegates to be nominated. Parties could endorse as many candidates as there were seats up for election. Major party endorsements were certified on July 29, 2015. Minor parties that were qualified for the board races were also able to endorse candidates. The deadline for minor parties to endorse candidates was September 2, 2015. Primary petition If a candidate who wished to run for a major political party did not receive the party's endorsement, he or she was required to file a primary petition to oppose the endorsed candidate by August 12, 2015. In order for the petition to be deemed sufficient and a primary election to be held, the petitioner was required to submit valid signatures totaling 1 percent of the votes cast for the same office at the previous election for that office or 7,500, whichever is smaller. Multiple candidates of a political party could petition for a primary together. Only as many candidates could advance from it for each party as there were seats up for election in the general election. Independent petitioning Candidates who wished to run without a party affiliation had to file in a similar manner to candidates with a partisan affiliation. Such independent candidates, however, could not file in groups like partisan petitioners and had to file individually. They had to meet the same signature requirements as partisan petitioning candidates but without the possibility of a primary election. Write-in candidates The deadline for write-in candidates to file for the general election was October 20, 2015. Write-in candidates could not designate an affiliation with a political party, and no candidate who was nominated by a major or minor party or by petition could run as a write-in candidate.

Elections

2015

Candidates

Liz Crichton Brown		Bryan McEntee		Ann M. Sweeney
	Incumbent		Incumbent Bachelor's degree, University of Connecticut Master's degree, Central Connecticut State University J.D., Massachusetts School of Law Self-employed attorney		Incumbent Member from 2005–2013, June 2015–November 2015 Customer service representative, Hubbard Hall Inc.
Jason Van Stone		Danielle Albert		Besa Kalici
	Incumbent Director of marketing, OptiCare Eye Health & Vision Centers		Member of CIP slate with Noujaim and Pagano
George Noujaim		Chuck Pagano		John Theriault
	Member of CIP slate with Albert and Pagano B.S., Central Connecticut State University Sales executive, Mutual of Omaha Former member, Waterbury Board of Alderman, November 2011–May 2013				Member of CIP slate with Noujaim and Albert

Election results

Waterbury Public Schools, At-Large (4-year terms), General Election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Ann M. Sweeney Incumbent	20.0%	6,198
	Democratic	Chuck Pagano	18.4%	5,705
	Democratic	Liz Crichton Brown Incumbent	17.3%	5,368
	Republican	Jason Van Stone Incumbent	10.5%	3,249
	CIP	John Theriault	8.7%	2,707
	CIP	George Noujaim	7.4%	2,302
	Republican	Bryan McEntee Incumbent	7.1%	2,196
	Republican	Besa Kalici	5.7%	1,761
	CIP	Danielle Albert	5.1%	1,579
Total Votes				31,065
Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015

Endorsements

Besa Kalici (R) was endorsed by State Rep. Selim Noujaim (R-74). The state representative is the uncle of Connecticut Independent Party candidate George Noujaim.

Past elections

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

2013 See also: Waterbury Public Schools elections (2013) Waterbury Public Schools, General Election, 4-year term, 2013 Party Candidate Vote % Votes      Democratic Karen E. Harvey Incumbent 17.5% 5,883      Democratic Felix Rodriguez Incumbent 16% 5,361      Democratic Juanita Hernandez 15.5% 5,198      Republican Charles L. Stango Incumbent 12.1% 4,083      Republican Thomas Van Stone, Sr. 10.6% 3,551      Republican John F. Alseph Jr. 9.1% 3,062      Independent Margaret A. O'Brien 6.2% 2,090      Independent James K. Russell 5% 1,673      Independent Kimberly A. Sidoti 4.8% 1,623      Petitioning Candidate Ann M. Sweeney Incumbent 3.2% 1,082 Total Votes 33,606 Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Municipal Elections - November 5, 2013," accessed December 16, 2013

Key deadlines

The following dates were key deadlines for the 2015 Connecticut school board elections:

Deadline	Event
July 21-28, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsement period
July 29, 2015	Political parties' candidate endorsements certified
August 12, 2015	Primary petitions for opposition candidates of a major party due
September 2, 2015	Last day that a minor party may endorse a candidate
September 16, 2015	Primary election day, if necessary
October 20, 2015	Write-in candidate filing deadline
November 3, 2015	General Election Day
November 4, 2015	General election results certified

Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Connecticut elections, 2015

Waterbury residents also voted for mayor, town clerk, city clerk, city sheriff and alderman.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Waterbury + Public + Schools + Connecticut"

Waterbury Public Schools News Feed

See also

Waterbury Public Schools	Connecticut	School Boards
Waterbury Public Schools elections (2013) List of school districts in Connecticut	Connecticut school board elections, 2015 Public education in Connecticut Local ballot measures, Connecticut	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

• Waterbury Public Schools
• City of Waterbury
• Connecticut Secretary of State
• Connecticut Democratic Party
• Waterbury Republican Town Committee
• Independent Party Waterbury Town Committee
• General election sample ballot