West Hartford Public Schools elections (2015)
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Four seats on the West Hartford Public Schools Board of Education were up for election on November 3, 2015. The following three at-large incumbents' seats were up for general election in 2015: Bruce Putterman (D), Terry Schmitt (D) and Mark Zydanowicz (R).
The fourth seat was up for special election, following the resignation of incumbent Jillian Gilchrest (D). In February 2015, she left the board to become a senior policy analyst at the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. Cheryl Greenberg (D) was appointed to fill the vacancy until an election was held.[1]
Incumbent Zydanowicz was nominated as the sole Republican candidate for the board in 2015.[2] The Democrats, meanwhile, nominated newcomers Carol Anderson-Blanks and Dave Pauluk for the regular four-year terms and recently appointed Greenberg for the two-year term.[3]
No candidates filed primary petitions or as independent petitioning candidates. The four candidates won the four seats on the board.[4]
About the district
West Hartford Public Schools is located in central Connecticut in Hartford County. In 2014, the county was home to an estimated 897,985 residents, according to the United States Census Bureau.[5] West Hartford Public Schools was the 11th-largest school district in the state in the 2012-2013 school year, serving 10,030 students.[6]
Demographics
Hartford County underperformed compared to Connecticut as a whole in terms of higher education achievement from 2009–2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 34.9 percent of county residents aged 25 and older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.5 of state residents during that time period. The median household income for Hartford County was $64,967, compared to $69,461 for Connecticut as a whole. The percentage of county residents below poverty level was 11.6 percent, while it was 10.2 percent for state residents.[5]
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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 Hartford Board of Education is composed of seven partisan members who are elected at large to four-year terms in odd-numbered years. 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.[8]
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. |
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Convention nominationThe 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.[9] 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 petitionIf 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 petitioningCandidates 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 candidatesThe 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.[10] |
Elections
Four-year terms (three seats)
Election results
| West Hartford Public Schools, At-Large (4-year terms), General Election, 2015 | ||||
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Carol Anderson-Blanks |
38.2% | 7,201 | |
| Democratic | Dave Pauluk |
37.1% | 6,995 | |
| Republican | Mark Zydanowicz Incumbent |
24.8% | 4,673 | |
| Total Votes | 18,869 | |||
| Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015 | ||||
Candidates
 Mark Zydanowicz 
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 Carol Anderson-Blanks
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Dave Pauluk
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Two-year term (one-seat)
Election results
| West Hartford Public Schools, At-Large (2-year term), General Election, 2015 | ||||
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| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Cheryl Greenberg Incumbent |
100.0% | 8,313 | |
| Total Votes | 8,313 | |||
| Source: Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015 | ||||
Candidates
| Cheryl Greenberg
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Campaign finance
The West Hartford Town Clerk's office 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.
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the 2015 Connecticut school board elections:[11]
| 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 |
| 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
Seats on the West Hartford Town Council were also up for election in 2015.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms West Hartford Public Schools Connecticut. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| West Hartford Public Schools | Connecticut | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ We-Ha, "Dr. Cheryl Greenberg Appointed to West Hartford Board of Education," May 5, 2015
- ↑ we-ha.com, "West Hartford Republican Town Committee Nominates Candidates," July 24, 2015
- ↑ we-ha.com, "West Hartford Democrats Endorse Candidates for Fall Election," July 29, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut Secretary of State, "Prescribed Form for Return of Votes Cast At A Municipal Election," accessed November 5, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 United States Census Bureau, "QuickFacts: Hartford County, Connecticut," accessed September 4, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 15, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut Secretary of State, "Election Results," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut General Assembly, "Chapter 146: Sec. 9-167a. Minority representation," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Connecticut Statutes, "Chapter 153, Part III, Section 9-400," accessed February 26, 2014
- ↑ Connecticut Statutes, "Chapter 153, Part I, Section 9-373a," accessed October 31, 2013
- ↑ Connecticut Secretary of State, "NOVEMBER 3, 2015 MUNICIPAL ELECTION CALENDAR – AMENDED," January 5, 2015
