West Allis-West Milwaukee School District elections (2015)
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Three seats on the West Allis-West Milwaukee Board of Education were up for general election on April 7, 2015. Three at-large board incumbents, Patricia J. Kerhin, Sue Sujecki and Darlene Ziemendorf, were up for re-election. They faced challengers Wendy DuBois, Stephanie Emons and William Ustruck in their re-election bids.[1] While DuBois and Emons filed as regular candidates, Ustruck ran as a write-in candidate.
Sujecki and Kerhin retained their seats in the election, and Emons won her first term on the board. Ziemendorf's tenure on the board ended as she was the lowest vote recipient of the regularly filed candidates in the race.[2]
One of the six candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.
About the district
West Allis-West Milwaukee School District is located in southeastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee County. The county seat is Milwaukee. The county was home to 956,023 residents in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau.[3]
Demographics
Higher education achievement
Milwaukee County outperformed the rest of Wisconsin in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 27.7 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 26.4 percent for Wisconsin as a whole.[3]
Median household income
From 2008 through 2012, the median household income for Milwaukee County was $43,599. During that same time period, the median household income for Wisconsin was $52,627.[3]
Poverty rate
The poverty rate in the county was 20.9 percent from 2008 through 2012. During that same time period, the poverty rate for the entire state was 12.5 percent.[3]
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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 West Allis-West Milwaukee Board of Education consists of nine members who are elected at-large on a staggered basis to three-year terms. Because no more than two candidates filed for any board position, there was no primary election. The general election was held on April 7, 2015.
To be elected to the board, candidates must reside in the boundaries of the school district for 28 days prior to the filing of a "Declaration of Candidacy" form. They must further be residents of the apportioned area they are elected to at the time of taking office.[5] Candidates must also be 18 years old and citizens of the United States. Unless pardoned, those who have been convicted of a felony are not eligible for election to office in Wisconsin.[6]
Candidates had between December 1, 2014, and January 6, 2015, to collect between 100 and 200 signatures for their nomination papers. The signatures had to come from residents of the district which the candidate sought election to represent, but the petition circulators were not required to reside in the district or municipality. Circulators were required to be U.S. citizens and 18 years or older.[7]
Voters could register to vote in the election at the polling place on the election day. Proof of residence was required when registering to vote.[8] In March 2015, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Wisconsin's voter ID law allowing it to take effect. However, Wisconsin officials stated they would not enforce the law until after the election on April 7, 2015. No photo identification was required to vote in this election.[9]
Elections
2015
Candidates
At-large
- Patricia J. Kerhin
- Incumbent, first elected in April 1990
- Customer relations representative, Florence Eiseman
- Sue Sujecki
- Incumbent, first appointed in August 1999
- Retired, administrative sales secretary
- Darlene Ziemendorf
- Incumbent, first appointed in 1995
- Surgical assistant
- Associates degree, Madison Area Technical College
- Wendy DuBois
- Part-time gymnastics coach, West Allis-West Milwaukee Recreation Department
- Bachelor's degree, Marquette University
- Stephanie Emons
- Senior client service manager, Annex Wealth Management
- Graduate certificate, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
- B.A., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
- William Ustruck
- Write-in candidacy announced March 10, 2015
Election results
| West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2015 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Sue Sujecki Incumbent |
22.8% | 2,819 | |
| Nonpartisan | Stephanie Emons |
20.1% | 2,486 | |
| Nonpartisan | Patricia J. Kerhin Incumbent |
19.2% | 2,365 | |
| Nonpartisan | Wendy DuBois | 18.4% | 2,266 | |
| Nonpartisan | Darlene Ziemendorf Incumbent | 15% | 1,852 | |
| Nonpartisan | William Ustruck (write-in) | 4% | 492 | |
| Nonpartisan | Heather Justham (write-in) | 0.5% | 64 | |
| Total Votes | 12,344 | |||
| Source: Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, "2015 Election Results," accessed April 22, 2015 | ||||
Endorsements
There were no official endorsements in this election.
Campaign finance
No contributions or expenditures were reported in this election, according to the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District. All of the regularly filed candidates filed as "Exempt from Filing Campaign Finance Records" on their campaign registration statements.[10] In order to have his write-in votes counted, Ustruck was required to participate in finance reporting for the remainder of the election cycle.[11] He filed as exempt like the other candidates on March 31, 2015.[12]
Candidates were only required to file campaign finance reports if they did one of the following:
- accepted contributions, made disbursements or incurred obligations in an aggregate amount of more than $1,000 in a calendar year
- accepted more than $100 from a single source in the calendar year, except contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2014
2013Jeffrey Sikich, Susan Stalewski and Patricia Ulwelling won election to the board without opposition on April 2, 2013.[13] 2012Patricia J. Kerhin, Sue Sujecki and Darlene Ziemendorf won re-election to the board unopposed on April 3, 2012.[14] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What was at stake?
2015
Issues in the election
West Allis City Channel, "WAWM School Board Candidates Forum," March 11, 2015 |
West Allis Youth Commission candidate forum
On March 11, 2015, the West Allis Youth Commission held a candidate forum for the school board race which Patricia J. Kerhin, Sue Sujecki, Wendy DuBois and Stephanie Emons attended. The full forum can be watched in the YouTube video on the right. The topics discussed included boundaries for school enrollment, class size limits for required courses, the age at which technology aids learning in the classroom and Act 10, which limited collective bargaining rights for public employees.
High school boundary lines prompt parent to run as write-in
A 2006 school board decision to divide the district's two high school attendance areas using U.S. Highway 45 helped instigate William Ustruck to join the 2015 school board race as a write-in candidate. The dividing lines had not been contentious after the rule was first adopted because eighth grade students were allowed to choose which high school they wished to attend. Due to overcrowding at Nathan Hale High School, however, the board unanimously voted to revoke that choice for the 2015-2016 school year.[15][16]
School officials said they would not be able to accommodate all the students who chose to attend Nathan Hale High.[15] Because of this, the board decided that only students from Frank Lloyd Wright Intermediate School would feed into Nathan Hale High School for the 2015-2016 school year. Other students who already have siblings at Nathan Hale High School would also be allowed to attend. The decision affected 131 students who originally chose to attend Nathan Hale High School.[16]
A committee of parents, teachers and students was supposed to recommend a future policy for high school attendance by the fall of 2015. The board's decision only changed the attendance policy for the 2015-2016 school year.[16]
Ustruck said he did not agree with the board's high school attendance boundary line as it runs through three elementary school attendance areas. "It's splitting up communities established in the schools based on the freeway," he said.[15]
Issues in the district
Appointing a new superintendent
The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Board of Education appointed Marty Lexmond as the district's next superintendent in early 2015. Lexmond started his new position on July 1, 2015. He previously served as superintendent of the Shorewood School District.[17]
Kurt Wachholz served as the district's superintendent for a decade before retiring on July 31, 2014.[18] The district named Paul Strobel, former superintendent of the Mukwonago School District, as the interim superintendent in August 2014. Strobel served until Lexmond took on the position permanently.[17][19]
Wachholz was not the only one to retire from the district in the summer of 2014. More than 100 teachers quit or retired from the district after the 2013-2014 school year, which was 23 more than the previous year and the largest turnover the district ever faced. A number of teachers who left cited problems with the way they were treated by the district. When he took the position of interim superintendent, Strobel said he hoped to rebuild relationships with the district's teachers.[20]
The West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board hired Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates to search for Wachholz's permanent replacement. The board also asked for community input in the search, inviting district residents to fill out a survey and attend discussion forums in order to share what they wanted to see in their next superintendent. The survey was posted on the school district's website from December 1, 2014, to December 15, 2014, and the forum was held on December 15, 2014.[21]
Once the school board chose its top three candidates, board members invited the residents in the district to interview the candidates themselves. On February 14, 2015, the board held an hour-long interview for each candidate and had community members ask them questions and pass their opinions on to the board.[22]
Ballotpedia survey responses
One of the six candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display responses to the survey questions from Stephanie Emons.
Top priorities
When asked what her top priorities would be if elected, Evans stated:
| “ | As noted above, rebuilding the trust with the community. More and better communication with the residents. Working on a long-range plan to curb enrollment issues (reviewing building plans, projected attendance, curriculum, staff/admin review). We have come to a point where people don't want to send their children to certain schools. That's unacceptable. All of our schools must be improved so that all children in the district can receive the same high quality education regardless of what school they attend. [23] | ” |
| —Stephanie Emons (2015)[24] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidates were 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 the candidate's rankings, which can be sorted to display them from most to least important:
| Issue | Emons' ranking |
|---|---|
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
Positions on the issues
The candidates were asked to answer 10 multiple choice and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. Links to the candidate's full responses are below.
Key deadlines
The following were key deadlines for West Allis-West Milwaukee School District 2015 elections:[7][25]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| December 1, 2014 | Candidate signature gathering period began |
| January 6, 2015 | Signature submission deadline |
| February 9, 2015 | Campaign finance report due |
| March 30, 2015 | Campaign finance report due |
| April 7, 2015 | General Election Day |
| July 20, 2015 | Campaign finance report due |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2015
Two municipal judicial seats were also on the ballot for this general election.[26] One seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court was up for election on April 7, 2015. Statewide, a constitutional amendment question regarding the selection of the state's supreme court chief justice was on the ballot, as well.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms West Allis West Milwaukee School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| West Allis-West Milwaukee School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Suzette Zimmerman, Executive Assistant to the WAWM Board and Superintendent," January 8, 2015
- ↑ City of West Allis Office of City Clerk, "Spring Election and Referendum," April 7, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 United States Census Bureau, "Milwaukee County, Wisconsin," accessed August 13, 2014
- ↑ Milwaukee County Election Commission, "Election Results," accessed August 13, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Wisconsin Candidate Eligibility," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Candidates: Getting on the Ballot," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Wisconsin State Legislature, "State Statutes: CHAPTER 8," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Voter Registration," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ The New York Times, "Wisconsin Decides Not to Enforce Voter ID Law," March 23, 2015
- ↑ Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Suzette Zimmerman, Executive Assistant to the WAWM Board and Superintendent," August 26, 2015
- ↑ Ballot Access News, "Wisconsin Will No Longer Count Write-in Votes Unless Write-in Candidate Files Paperwork," May 17, 2014
- ↑ Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Suzette Zimmerman, Executive Assistant to the WAWM Board and Superintendent," March 31, 2015
- ↑ West Allis Now, "Three West Allis School Board races will be unopposed," January 3, 2013
- ↑ West Allis Now, "West Allis will have a primary focus this season," January 3, 2012
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 West Allis Now, "Nathan Hale overcrowding battle sparks write-in campaign for board," March 10, 2015
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 West Allis Now, "West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board decides Hale overcrowding issue," March 30, 2015
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 West Allis Now, "West Allis-West Milwaukee taps Shorewood superintendent for top spot," March 27, 2015
- ↑ West Allis Now, "Wachholz retires as superintendent of West Allis-West Milwaukee schools," July 31, 2014
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "West Allis-West Milwaukee names interim superintendent," August 12, 2014
- ↑ WISN ABC, "More than 100 teachers quit, retire from Milwaukee-area school district," August 26, 2014
- ↑ West Allis Now, "West Allis residents to name qualities needed in new superintendent," November 24, 2014
- ↑ West Allis Now, "Residents to quiz West Allis-West Milwaukee superintendent candidates," February 10, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Stephanie Emons responses," March 25, 2015
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT DATES," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ City of Milwaukee Election Commission, "2015 Municipal Judge and School Board Candidates," accessed January 7, 2015
| 2015 West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Elections | |
| Milwaukee County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 7, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Patricia J. Kerhin • Incumbent, Sue Sujecki • Incumbent, Darlene Ziemendorf • Wendy DuBois • Stephanie Emons • William Ustruck |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
