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West Allis-West Milwaukee School District elections (2016)
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Three of the nine seats on the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District School Board were up for at-large general election on April 5, 2016. In their bids for re-election, incumbents Jeffrey Sikich and Patricia Ulwelling faced challengers Heather Justham and William Ustruck.[1] Sikich won another term on the board, but Ulwelling received the fourth-most votes and lost the election. Justham and Ustruck were both elected to the board.[2]
The term of incumbent Susan Stalewski was the third seat on the ballot, but she did not file to run for re-election, which left it open for a newcomer. She said after serving on the board for 12 years, it was time to move on. Both Justham and Ustruck previously ran for a seat in 2015. They ran as write-in candidates.[1]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board consists of nine members elected at large to three-year terms. Three members are up for election every year in April. If more than six candidates—double the number of seats on the ballot—had filed to run in this election, a primary election would have been held on February 16, 2016. Because only four candidates filed for the three seats, they all ran in the general election on April 5, 2016.[1][3]
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. Furthermore, at the time of taking office, each candidate must be a resident of the apportioned area he or she is elected to represent.[4] 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.[5]
Candidates had until January 5, 2016, to collect between 20 and 100 signatures for their nomination papers. The signatures had to come from residents of the district where the candidate sought election, 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 of age or older.[6]
Candidates and results
At-large
Results
| West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2016 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Heather Justham |
27.19% | 8,683 |
| Jeffrey Sikich Incumbent |
26.94% | 8,602 |
| William Ustruck |
23.06% | 7,365 |
| Patricia Ulwelling Incumbent | 22.07% | 7,049 |
| Write-in votes | 0.73% | 234 |
| Total Votes | 31,933 | |
| Source: Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Suzette Zimmerman, Executive Assistant To The West-Allis West Milwaukee Board/Superintendent," June 16, 2016 | ||
Candidates
Jeffrey Sikich 
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Patricia Ulwelling | ||
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| Heather Justham
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William Ustruck
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Additional elections
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2016
The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District election shared the ballot with the state's presidential preference vote as well as elections for the District I seat on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, seats on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Milwaukee County Executive, and Milwaukee County Comptroller.[7][8]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Wisconsin school board elections in 2016:[9]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| January 5, 2016 | Candidate filing deadline |
| January 26, 2016 | Referendum submission deadline |
| March 28, 2016 | Pre-general election campaign finance deadline |
| April 5, 2016 | Election Day |
| April 25, 2016 | Board members take office |
| July 15, 2016 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
No candidate received an official endorsement for this election.
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 four candidates in this election 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.[10]
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2015
2014
2013Jeffrey Sikich, Patricia Ulwelling, and Susan Stalewski won election to the board without opposition on April 2, 2013.[11] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What was at stake?
2016
Election trends
- See also: School board elections, 2014
With three of West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board's nine seats on the ballot, this election had the potential to change one-third of the board. Two of the three incumbents whose seats were on the ballot ran for re-election, which meant at least one newcomer would join the board. One of the incumbents was defeated, however, so a total of two newcomers joined the board in 2016.
One newcomer was elected to the board in both 2014 and 2015. All three incumbents up for election in 2014 and 2015 ran to retain their seats, meaning the newcomers elected in those years also defeated an incumbent to win their spots on the board.
The average 1.33 candidates per seat in the 2016 election was the same as the average number of candidates who ran per seat on the ballot in the district's 2014 elections, but it was lower than the average 1.67 formal candidates who ran per seat in the district's 2015 elections.
No seats were unopposed in the district's 2014, 2015, or 2016 school board elections.
Issues in the district
District unhappy with athletic conference realignment
District officials said they would send a letter of protest in response to the Board of Control of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association voting unanimously to put West Allis-West Milwaukee's two high schools in two separate athletic conferences. The West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board did not think the letter of protest would change the board of control's mind, but members wanted documentation that the district was not happy with the decision, according to Board President Jeffrey Sikich.[12]
The unanimous vote put Central High School in the Woodland Conference and Nathan Hale High School in the Greater Metro Conference. Central High School was moved to the Woodland Conference in order to compete with schools of similar size and demographics. Nathan Hale High School was considered too big and too economically well off to be moved to the other conference.[12]
Sikich said the rivalry between the two high schools played a central role in the community for decades. He said he hoped that when the vote comes up again in five years, the board of control would take the district's opinion into consideration.[12]
Record number of schools considered 'Schools of Recognition'
Eight schools in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District were included in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's list of Wisconsin Schools of Recognition for the 2015-2016 school year. This was the highest number of schools that had received recognition since the district was founded. Schools included on the list had to be in the top 25 percent of Wisconsin's high poverty schools, and their students had to have above-average achievement in math and reading. A total of 169 schools were included on the list for the 2015-2016 school year.[13]
Final ruling sought for alleged $200 million investment scheme
In December 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission sought summary judgment for a final ruling on a four-year-old case it filed against an investment firm on behalf of the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District and four other Wisconsin school districts. The lawsuit was first filed in August 2011 against Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and David Noack, the company's former senior vice president. It claimed the investment firm defrauded the five school districts with a $200 million investment scheme.[14]
Attorneys representing Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and Noack also sought summary judgment, asking the judge to rule against the Securities and Exchange Commission without a trial. Both summary judgment requests were denied.[14][15]
The case was originally set for trial in April 2016 with U.S. District Court Judge Charles Clevert Jr. presiding, but it was delayed until September 2016. A few days before the case was supposed to go to trial, the two parties reached an agreement to settle.[14][15] Clevert approved the settlement on December 6, 2016. In the settlement, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. agreed to pay $25 million to the school district, admit to wrongdoing, and pay a penalty of $23 million. Noack also admitted to wrongdoing and agreed to pay a penalty of $100,000. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and Noack also jointly agreed to pay $2 million in disgorgement.[16]
The alleged $200 million investment scheme took place in 2006, when Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. sold synthetic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) to the West Allis-West Milwaukee, Waukesha, Whitefish Bay, Kimberly Area, and Kenosha Unified school districts. The CDOs, which were supposed to fund retiree benefits, became "virtually worthless" after the economic troubles in 2008, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission said Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. knew the CDOs were risky investments when they were sold to the districts and that they used their relationships with the districts to persuade them to purchase the CDOs. "The districts believed they were investing in a portfolio of highly rated companies. What they received instead was a portfolio designed to maximize the profits of the manufacturer at their great peril," said C.J. Krawczyk, an attorney for the school districts.[14]
Officials from Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. laid the blame with the Royal Bank of Canada, which they said misled their firm about the investments' safety and suitability. The firm did pay the school districts $13 million in settlements in 2012, and they agreed to pay at least $9.5 million more once the case was settled. The firm also "relieved the districts of the moral obligation to repay $154 million in trust obligations," according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.[14]
The school districts also filed a lawsuit against the Royal Bank of Canada. The five school districts received a total of $217.9 million in settlements from the bank, which equaled 109 percent of what the districts originally invested. Together, the settlements from these investments equaled the second-largest reported settlement of civil litigation in Wisconsin's history.[14][17]
High school boundary lines
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.[18][19]
School officials said they would not be able to accommodate all the students who chose to attend Nathan Hale.[18] Because of this, the board decided that only students from Frank Lloyd Wright Intermediate School would feed into Nathan Hale for the 2015-2016 school year. Other students who already had siblings at Nathan Hale were also allowed to attend. The decision affected 131 students who originally chose to attend Nathan Hale.[19]
Ustruck said he did not agree with the board's high school attendance boundary line as it ran through three elementary school attendance areas. "It's splitting up communities established in the schools based on the freeway," he said.[18] Though he did not win election in 2015, he ran again and was elected to the board on April 5, 2016.[2]
The board's decision only changed the attendance policy for the 2015-2016 school year.[19] In November 2015, an advisory committee came up with four alternative boundary line plans. The recommended plan split the two high schools "along 72nd Street from the city's northern border south to the Union Pacific east/west railroad tracks, just north of Burnham Street. Then the proposed boundary line would follow the tracks west to 92nd Street where it would turn south, ending at the southern city limits," according to West Allis Now. Students west of the line would be sent to Nathan Hale, and those east would be sent to West Allis Central High School.[20]
One idea that came out of the new attendance policy discussion was to ban transfers throughout the district, not just for the high schools. The district had an average of one out of five kindergarten through eighth grade students enroll in a school outside of their attendance area. The proposed policy, which was ultimately adopted by the school board on February 1, 2016, allows students to finish at whatever school they attend, but once they move on to the intermediate or high school level, they are required to go back to their neighborhood school unless they have an older sibling attending the other school. The sibling clause was extended to elementary schools as well, but only for two years. Everyone else had to start at their neighborhood schools for the 2016-2017 school year.[21][22]
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About the district
The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District is located in Milwaukee County in southeastern Wisconsin. The county seat is Milwaukee. Milwaukee County was home to 956,406 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau.[23] The district was the 12th-largest school district in the state in the 2013–2014 school year and served 9,725 students.[24]
Demographics
Higher education achievement
Milwaukee County outperformed Wisconsin as a whole in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 28.1 percent of Milwaukee County residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 26.8 percent of state residents.[23]
Median household income
From 2009 through 2013, the median household income for Milwaukee County was $43,193. During that same time period, the median household income for Wisconsin was $52,413, and it was $53,046 for the entire United States.[23][25]
Poverty rate
The poverty rate in Milwaukee County was 21.6 percent from 2009 through 2013. During that same time period, the poverty rate for the entire state was 13.0 percent, and it was 15.4 percent for the country as a whole.[23][25]
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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.
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' 'Wisconsin'. 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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 West Allis Now, "Longtime West Allis School Board member to step down, 4 seek 3 seats," January 8, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Milwaukee County Election Commission, "Election Summary Final - Unofficial," accessed April 6, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "State Statutes: Chapter 120 School District Government," accessed January 11, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Wisconsin Candidate Eligibility," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Candidates: Getting on the Ballot," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "State Statutes: CHAPTER 8," accessed September 22, 2014
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Offices to Be Elections: Spring 2016," accessed February 16, 2016
- ↑ Milwaukee County Elections, "2016 Spring Election Candidates in Ballot Order," accessed February 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Campaign Finance Report Dates 2016, 2017 and 2018," accessed January 25, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Suzette Zimmerman, Executive Assistant to the Board/Superintendent," March 29, 2016
- ↑ Jane Ford-Stewart, West Allis Now, "Three West Allis School Board races will be unopposed," January 3, 2013
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 West Allis Now, "West Allis-West Milwaukee to protest WIAA splitting up high schools," February 17, 2016
- ↑ West Allis Now, "Record number of West Allis schools deemed Schools of Recognition," February 15, 2016
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Feds seek ruling on risky investments sold to school districts," January 6, 2016
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Reuters, "Stifel, SEC reach deal over Wisconsin school investments," September 9, 2016
- ↑ Pensions & Investments, "Stifel, Nicolaus settles SEC charges on selling risky CDOs to Wisconsin school districts," December 8, 2016
- ↑ WSAU, "Local School Wins Millions In Lawsuit Settlement," December 7, 2016
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 West Allis Now, "Nathan Hale overcrowding battle sparks write-in campaign for board," March 10, 2015
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 West Allis Now, "West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board decides Hale overcrowding issue," March 30, 2015
- ↑ West Allis Now, "Full advisory committee endorses West Allis high school boundary plan," November 23, 2015
- ↑ West Allis Now, "West Allis schools to start trek back to neighborhood schools in fall," February 2, 2016
- ↑ West Allis Now, "Some school transfer relief suggested for West Allis School District," January 26, 2016
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 United States Census Bureau, "Milwaukee County, Wisconsin," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed November 16, 2015
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 United States Census Bureau, "State & County QuickFacts: USA," accessed July 6, 2015
- ↑ Milwaukee County Election Commission, "Election Results," accessed August 13, 2014
| 2016 West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Elections | |
| Milwaukee County | |
| Election date: | April 5, 2016 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Jeffrey Sikich • Incumbent, Patricia Ulwelling • Heather Justham • William Ustruck |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
