Wausau School District elections (2017)
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Three of the nine seats on the Wausau School District Board of Education were up for at-large general election on April 4, 2017. In their bids for re-election to the board, incumbents Yvonne Henning, Jeff Leigh, and Lance Trollop ran against challengers Jeff Kocha and Lee Webster.[1] Henning died on March 12, 2017. Her name still appeared on the ballot.[2] Leigh and Trollop won re-election to the board, and Webster won the other seat on the ballot.[3]
The 2017 race continued a district trend of electing one new member to the board. One newcomer joined the board in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Click here to see how else this race compared to past elections in both the district and the state.
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Wausau Board of Education consists of nine members elected to three-year terms. Elections are held at large on a staggered basis every year in April. Three seats were up for election on April 5, 2016, and three seats were up for general election on April 4, 2017. A primary election could have been held on February 21, 2017, if seven or more candidates had filed to run in the race.[4][5]
School board candidates had to be at least 18 years old, U.S. citizens, and residents of the school district for a minimum of 28 consecutive days before filing as a candidate. They also could not be disqualified from voting under Wisconsin law.[6]
To get on the ballot, school board candidates had to file nomination papers with the school district clerk by January 3, 2017. If incumbents whose terms were up for re-election did not file to run in the race and did not file written notification that they would not be running, the candidate filing deadline could have been extended until January 6, 2017. The terms of candidates elected in the race started on April 24, 2017.[6]
Candidates and results
At-large
Results
| Wausau School District, At-large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Lance Trollop Incumbent |
24.94% | 4,072 |
| Lee Webster |
19.98% | 3,263 |
| Jeff Leigh Incumbent |
19.83% | 3,238 |
| Jeff Kocha | 19.47% | 3,179 |
| Yvonne Henning Incumbent | 15.79% | 2,578 |
| Total Votes | 16,330 | |
| Source: Wausau School District, "2017 Certificate of the Board of Canvassers," accessed May 2, 2017 | ||
Candidates
| Yvonne Henning | Jeff Leigh 
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Lance Trollop
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| Jeff Kocha | Lee Webster
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2017
The Wausau Board of Education election shared the ballot with elections for the office of Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction and one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[7]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Wisconsin school board elections in 2017:[8][9]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| January 3, 2017 | Candidate filing deadline |
| January 16, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for candidates registered before January 1 |
| February 13, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for districts holding primary elections |
| March 27, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for general election |
| April 4, 2017 | Election Day |
| April 24, 2017 | Board members take office |
| July 15, 2017 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
The Wisconsin AFL-CIO and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans endorsed incumbents Yvonne Henning, Jeff Leigh, and Lance Trollop.[10][11]
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
All school board candidates in Wisconsin were required to file a campaign registration statement with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission after qualifying as candidates. This statement declares their candidacy to the county clerk's office and allows them to claim exemption from reporting campaign contributions and expenditures. Candidates were only required to report campaign contributions and expenditures if they did one or both of the following:[12]
- Accepted contributions, made disbursements, or incurred debt in excess of $2,000 during the calendar year
- Accepted more than $100 from a single source during the calendar year, barring contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns
There were three campaign finance report deadlines in 2017:
- The pre-primary report was due February 13, 2017,
- The pre-election report was due March 27, 2017, and
- The post-election report was due July 15, 2017.[13]
Candidates who filed before January 1, 2017, also had to file a continuing campaign finance report on January 16, 2017.[9]
Reports
Candidates received a total of $11,320.81 and spent a total of $562.17 in the election, according to the Wausau School District.[14]
Incumbents Yvonne Henning, Jeff Leigh, and Lance Trollop filed exemption statements detailing they would not spend or receive more than $2,000 toward their campaigns. Because of this, they did not have to file additional campaign finance reports.[14]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Kocha | $5,075.00 | $150.02 | $4,925.98 |
| Lee Webster | $6,245.81 | $412.15 | $5,833.66 |
Past elections
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2016
2015
2014
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What was at stake?
2017
Election trends
- See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief
With three incumbents and two challengers running for three seats, the 2017 Wausau Board of Education election was guaranteed to re-elect one incumbent. Another incumbent was also re-elected, and a newcomer won the other seat.
One new member was also elected to the board in the district's 2014, 2015, and 2016 elections. In 2014 and 2015, the newcomers won election to open seats, but in 2016, the newcomer defeated an incumbent to gain a seat on the board.
| School board election trends | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidates per seat | Unopposed seats | Incumbents running for re-election | Incumbent success rate | Seats won by newcomers | |
| Wausau School District | ||||||
| 2017 | 1.67 | 0.00% | 100.00% | 66.67% | 33.33% | |
| 2016 | 1.33 | 0.00% | 100.00% | 66.67% | 33.33% | |
| 2015 | 1.67 | 0.00% | 66.67% | 100.00% | 33.33% | |
| 2014 | 2.00 | 0.00% | 66.67% | 100.00% | 33.33% | |
| Wisconsin | ||||||
| 2015 | 1.38 | 38.24% | 73.53% | 84.00% | 35.29% | |
| 2014 | 1.40 | 46.67% | 86.67% | 88.46% | 23.33% | |
| United States | ||||||
| 2015 | 1.72 | 35.95% | 70.37% | 82.66% | 40.81% | |
| 2014 | 1.89 | 32.57% | 75.51% | 81.31% | 38.24% | |
Issues in the district
School board challengers request change to district's bathroom guidelines
Jeff Kocha and Lee Webster, challengers in the 2017 Wausau Board of Education election, called on the board to change the district's bathroom use policy at a board meeting on February 27, 2017. The request came after the Departments of Justice and Education rescinded protections under the Obama administration that allowed transgender students to use public school restrooms corresponding with their gender identity.[15][16][17]
The Wausau Board of Education approved a policy at a special board meeting on October 3, 2017, that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identified. The policy included requirements for students to consistently identify with that gender in order to use the corresponding bathroom.[18] On February 23, 2017, one day after the former protections were rescinded, Board President Lance Trollop, who won his re-election bid on April 4, 2017, announced the board would not be changing its policy.[15]
In response to Trollop's announcement, Webster spoke at the board meeting on February 27, 2017.
| “ | There was no need for the board to enact [the bathroom policy] as the Obama administration’s guidelines were blocked by a federal court before the board acted. President Trump’s decision to withdraw the guidelines totally removes the need for Wausau schools to have this policy in place. Why was the board president so quick to implement the guidelines in August and so reluctant to take leadership to change them now?[19] | ” |
| —Lee Webster (February 27, 2017)[15] | ||
At the same meeting, Kocha said, “The decision by board president Trollop to allow these guidelines to move forward was wrongheaded and his failure to reverse these guidelines, which most district parents do not support, shows a lack of leadership.”[15]
Trollop said Kocha's call for him to reverse the policy showed a lack of understanding about his role as president of the board. "As president, my vote is worth no more than any other member," said Trollop. "I have the responsibility to speak on behalf of the board, but I don't have the power to implement guidelines or to revoke them."[20]
Board member Jeff Leigh, who also won a re-election bid on April 4, 2017, agreed with Trollop that the policy did not need to be revised. "Right now, it's a cause looking for a problem you might say, we haven't had a case, we haven't had an incident where there has been a problem in the schools because of this guideline," said Leigh.[21]
Kocha said, "We don't know what the incident rate actually is... and nobody is really willing to discuss that." No incidents involving transgender students using bathrooms had been brought up as of March 6, 2017, according to the district's director of pupil services.[21]
The board planned to review the bathroom policy in May 2017, according to Trollop. Kocha said that was not soon enough. "I would like to see this guideline removed as soon as possible," said Kocha.[21]
Webster was elected to the board on April 4, 2017, but Kocha was defeated in the race.[3]
Board asks state for flexibility in determining school start date
The Wausau Board of Education passed a resolution on February 13, 2017, asking state lawmakers to repeal a law enacted in 2000 that mandates new school years begin after September 1.[22] Some lawmakers introduced a bill to repeal the law in February 2017, but similar bills were introduced in past legislative sessions and were never passed.[23] The 2017 bill did not move out of committee before the 2017-2018 school year started on September 5, 2017.[24]
"We don't write the laws, but we can let those lawmakers know what we think and give them our opinion," said Board President Lance Trollop. "They are discussing possibly repealing it this year so we'll give them our opinion."[22]
Though Trollop said the district was likely to keep a September 1 start date in most cases, he said school districts should have the flexibility to change that date. He said if they started earlier, they could add in more inclement weather days to avoid needing to make those days up at the end of the year.[22]
Other school leaders throughout the state also came out in support of the bill to repeal the September 1 mandate. Administrators said school calendars should be controlled by the districts in order to create optimal schedules for their students. They said starting in August would give high school students more class time before taking advanced placement tests in May and that it would help maximize learning for other students as well. Administrators said students were more ready to learn in August than they were in the spring, when teachers started seeing declining results. They also said starting earlier would help decrease backsliding during the summer as breaks could be shorter and more frequent.[25][26]
Wausau Convention and Visitor Center Executive Director Richard Barrett said a change to school start dates could negatively affect the tourism industry. "It really affects us a lot on our business, restaurants, gas stations and shopping," said Barrett.[22]
Officials with the Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association, the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin, and other city and county visitor centers also opposed repealing the September 1 mandate. They said they relied on student workers to close out the season through Labor Day and that August was a better time for families to vacation compared to June due to the weather. In 2015, the month of August brought in $130 million more in tourism revenue than the month of June, according to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.[25][26]
Candidate survey
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About the district
- See also: Wausau School District, Wisconsin
The Wausau School District is located in Marathon County in central Wisconsin. The county seat is Wausau. Marathon County was home to an estimated 135,868 residents in 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau.[27] The district was the 13th-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 8,628 students.[28]
Higher education achievement
Marathon County residents underperformed compared to Wisconsin as a whole in terms of higher education achievement between 2011 and 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 23.7 percent of Marathon County residents aged 25 years or older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 27.8 percent for the state as a whole. During that same time period, 29.8 percent of residents across the United States had attained a bachelor's degree.[27]
Median household income
The median household income for Marathon County between 2011 and 2015 was $54,083. During that same time period, the median household income for Wisconsin was $53,357, and it was $53,889 for the entire United States.[27]
Poverty rate
From 2011 to 2015, the poverty rate in Marathon County was 9.5 percent, while it was 12.1 percent statewide. During that same time period, the poverty rate for the country as a whole was 13.5 percent.[27]
Racial demographics
| Racial Demographics, 2015[27] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race | Marathon County (%) | Wisconsin (%) | |
| White | 91.3 | 87.6 | |
| Black or African American | 0.8 | 6.6 | |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6 | 1.1 | |
| Asian | 5.8 | 2.8 | |
| Two or more races | 1.4 | 1.8 | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 2.7 | 6.6 | |
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.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Wausau School District Wisconsin election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Wausau School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Cassie Peck," January 5, 2017
- ↑ Wausau Daily Herald, "Wausau School Board member Yvonne Henning dies," March 14, 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Marathon County Clerk, "Election Results Summary Report," accessed April 5, 2017
- ↑ Wausau School District, "Board of Education," accessed January 3, 2017
- ↑ Wauwau School District, "2017 School Board Election," accessed January 3, 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Wisconsin Association of School Boards, "Guide for Candidates: 2017 Spring Election Edition," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Election Commission, "Spring 2017 Election," accessed January 3, 2017
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Guided for Candidates," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Campaign Finance Checklist," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin AFL-CIO, "Spring Election Endorsed Candidates," March 9, 2017
- ↑ Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, "WIARA Spring Election Endorsements," March 17, 2017
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "11.0104 Reporting exemptions: limited activity," accessed December 15, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Filing Deadlines and Reporting Periods," accessed December 15, 2016
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Cassie Peck, Wausau School District" April 3, 2017
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Wispolitics.com, "Wausau School Board candidates Webster, Kocha: Call for reversal of Wausau School’s ‘Bathroom Guidline,’" February 27, 2017
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Trump administration rolls back protections for transgender students," February 22, 2017
- ↑ StarTribune, "Dear Colleague Letter," February 22, 2017
- ↑ WSAW 7, "Wausau School Board votes on transgender bathroom guidelines," October 3, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Wausau City Pages, "Bathrooms become a school board election issue," March 3, 2017
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 WSAW 7, "Wausau School District will review transgender bathroom policy in May," March 6, 2017
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 WSAW, "Wausau Schools hope to take control of annual start date," February 13, 2017
- ↑ WXOW.com, "Should local districts decide school start dates?" February 21, 2017
- ↑ Open States, "AB 103," accessed September 5, 2017
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Proposed bill would repeal Sept. 1 school start law," February 3, 2017
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 La Crosse Tribune, "Educators, parents would relish chance to start early," February 13, 2017
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 United States Census Bureau, "Marathon County, Wisconsin," accessed December 19, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
| Wausau School District elections in 2017 | |
| Marathon County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 4, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Yvonne Henning • Incumbent, Jeff Leigh • Incumbent, Lance Trollop • Jeff Kocha • Lee Webster |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
