Whittier Union High School District elections (2017)
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Three of the five seats on the Whittier Union High School District board of trustees in California were up for at-large general election on November 7, 2017. In their bids for re-election, incumbents Leighton Anderson, Jeff Baird, and Russell A. Castañeda-Calleros defeated challengers Maria Carmenita Mendez and Jennifer Portillo.[1][2]
The 2017 election was the first in four consecutive election cycles to see opposition. For information on election trends in the district, click here.
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Whittier Union board of trustees consists of five members elected to four-year terms. Elections are held at large on a staggered basis every November of odd-numbered years. Two seats were up for election on November 3, 2015, and three seats were up for election on November 7, 2017.[3][4][5]
To get on the ballot, school board candidates had to file their nomination documents with the Los Angeles County Registar-Recorder/County Clerk by August 11, 2017. Write-in candidates had to file with the county by October 24, 2017.[6]
To vote in this election, citizens of the school district had to register by October 23, 2017.[7] Photo identification was not required to vote in California.[8]
Candidates and results
At-large
Results
| Whittier Union High School District, At-large General Election, 4-year terms, 2017 |
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Leighton Anderson Incumbent |
26.03% | 5,806 |
| Russell A. Castañeda-Calleros Incumbent |
23.24% | 5,183 |
| Jeff Baird Incumbent |
21.52% | 4,801 |
| Maria Carmenita Mendez | 18.16% | 4,051 |
| Jennifer Portillo | 11.05% | 2,464 |
| Total Votes | 22,305 | |
| Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Local and Municipal Consolidated Elections November 7, 2017," accessed November 21, 2017 | ||
Candidates
Leighton Anderson 
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Jeff Baird
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Russell A. Castañeda-Calleros
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| Maria Carmenita Mendez | Jennifer Portillo | ||
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: California elections, 2017
The Whittier Union board of trustees election shared the ballot with elections for the Whittier City School District school board and with municipal elections for water and irrigation districts.[1]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the November 2017 California school board elections.[9][10]
Endorsements
The Los Angeles County Democratic Party endorsed incumbent Russell A. Castañeda-Calleros and challengers Maria Carmenita Mendez and Jennifer Portillo.[11] The Whittier Secondary Education Association (WSEA) endorsed Castañeda-Calleros and well as incumbents Leighton Anderson and Jeff Baird.[12] Anderson was also endorsed by the California Teachers Association, state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-32), and a number of local officials. Click here to see a full list of his endorsements.[13]
Mendez and Portillo were also endorsed by the community organization Evolve.[14] Portillo was also endorsed by the Whittier Voter's Coalition, Latina's Lead - California, the Whittier Latino Coalition, and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (S.M.A.R.T.).[15][16]
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
At the time of this election, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staffers requested this information, but the only free method of viewing the files was at their office.
The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk targeted the end of 2018 to make school board candidate campaign finance reports available online for free. From that point forward, Ballotpedia began including campaign finance data for Los Angeles County school board candidates.[17][18][19]
Reporting requirements
California school board candidates had to file two pre-election campaign finance reports. The first was due on September 28, 2017, and the second was due on October 26, 2017. In addition to those two reports, candidates had to file a semi-annual report on January 31, 2018, if they did not terminate their campaign committees by December 31, 2017.[10]
If candidates did not raise or spend more than $2,000 for their campaigns, they had to file Form 470 instead of the regular campaign finance report on September 28, 2017. They did not have to file any additional campaign finance reports as long as their campaign contributions and expenditures remained under $2,000.[10]
Past elections
To see results from past elections in the Whittier Union High School District, click here.
What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Election trends
- See also: School boards in session: 2015 in brief
With five candidates running for three seats, the 2017 Whittier Union board of trustees election was the first in four consecutive election cycles to see opposition. In the district's 2011, 2013, and 2015 elections, all of the seats were unopposed. Every incumbent whose term was up for re-election in those years won by default after the district canceled the elections. Incumbents also won every seat up for election in 2017.
| School board election trends | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidates per seat | Unopposed seats | Incumbents running for re-election | Incumbent success rate | Seats won by newcomers | |
| Whittier Union High School District | ||||||
| 2017 | 1.67 | 0.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| 2015 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| 2013 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| 2011 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% | |
| California | ||||||
| 2015 | 2.01 | 22.95% | 73.77% | 81.11% | 39.34% | |
| United States | ||||||
| 2015 | 1.72 | 35.95% | 70.37% | 82.66% | 40.81% | |
Candidate survey
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About the district
The Whittier Union High School District is located in Los Angeles County in southwestern California. The county seat is Los Angeles. The county was home to an estimated 10,137,915 residents in 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau.[20] The district was the 127th-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 12,983 students.[21]
Demographics
Los Angeles County underperformed compared to California as a whole in terms of higher education achievement between 2011 and 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 30.3 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 31.4 percent of state residents. During the same time period, the median household income for Los Angeles County was $56,196, compared to $61,818 for the entire state. The percentage of people in poverty in the county was 16.7 percent, while it was 15.3 percent statewide.[20]
| Racial Demographics, 2016[20] | |||
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| Race | Los Angeles County (%) | California (%) | |
| White | 71.0 | 72.7 | |
| Black or African American | 9.1 | 6.5 | |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.5 | 1.7 | |
| Asian | 15.1 | 14.8 | |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0.4 | 0.5 | |
| Two or more races | 3.0 | 3.8 | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 48.5 | 38.9 | |
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 Whittier Union High School District California election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Whittier Union High School District | California | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Candidate List: Local And Municipal Consolidated Elections 11/7/2017," accessed August 12, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Local and Municipal Consolidated Elections," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ Whittier Union High School District, "Meet the Board," accessed August 2, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registar-Recorder/County Clerk, "List of Offices to Be Filled November 7, 2017," accessed August 1, 2017
- ↑ Whittier Union High School District, "Board Bylaws - 9000," accessed August 2, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Candidate Handbook and Resource Guide," accessed August 1, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Calendar of Events," accessed August 1, 2017
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Where and How to Vote," accessed August 1, 2017
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "2017 County Administered Elections," accessed August 1, 2017
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 California Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 7, 2017," accessed September 18, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles County Democratic Party, "Endorsements," accessed September 18, 2017
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Martha Leonard," October 3, 2017
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Leighton Anderson," October 9, 2017
- ↑ Evolve, "Endorsements: November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed October 4, 2017
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Jennifer Portillo," October 4, 2017
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Jennifer Portillo," September 18, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed July 2, 2014
- ↑ Daniel Anderson, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," October 7, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," January 2, 2018
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 United States Census Bureau, "QuickFacts: Los Angeles County, California; California," accessed August 1, 2017
- ↑ 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
