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Willa Powell
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Willa Powell is a Democratic, at-large representative on the Rochester City Board of School Commissioners in New York. She was appointed to the board in 2003. She also served a previous term on the board from 1997 until 2001.[1]
Powell sought another term in the Democratic primary election on September 10, 2015. She won that election, which allowed her to advance to the general election.[2] She also filed to run with the Working Families Party in the general election on November 3, 2015.[3] Powell won another term in the election.[4]
Powell participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read her responses, check out her 2015 campaign themes.
Biography
Powell joined the United States Army Reserve in 1983. She is a retired captain and personnel officer. She serves as a PTO member at her children's schools. She also serves as a representative to the District Parent Council. In addition to serving the school district, she is the president of the Citizens for Midwifery organization and the Rochester Area Birth Network. She is also the vice president of the Rochester Chapter of the National Organization for Women, a finance committee member for the Finger Lakes Trail Conference and a member of Covenant United Methodist Church. Powell has a bachelor's degree in accounting from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She and her husband have three daughters and one son.[1]
Elections
2015
Opposition
Four of the seven seats on the Rochester City School District Board of School Commissioners were up for general election on November 3, 2015. A primary election was held on September 10, 2015. The elections were held at large.[5] The seats held by incumbents Willa Powell, Malik Evans, Melisza Campos and Mary Adams were on the ballot.[6] Adams, Evans and Powell won re-election, while Elizabeth Hallmark (D/WF) joined the board. They defeated Matthew McDermott (WF) in the general election.[4]
Campos did not file to run for re-election, ensuring at least one newcomer would join the board. The other three incumbents faced five challengers in the primary election: Howard Eagle, Hallmark, Mia Hodgins, McDermott and Lorenzo Williams. All eight candidates ran as Democrats, which mandated the primary.[3]
There were several cases of cross-filing in this election. In addition to running as Democrats, Adams and Evans filed to run with the Independence Party, and Powell, Hallmark and McDermott additionally ran with the Working Families Party.[3]
Adams, Evans, Powell and Hallmark won the Democratic primary election, allowing them to advance to the general election. Because he cross-filed with the Working Families Party, McDermott also advanced to the general election.[2][7]
The names of candidates who ran with multiple party designations appeared under each party designation on the general election ballot. The votes from each designation were then pooled together to give a candidate's vote total.
Results
General election
| ELECTORAL FUSION: Rochester City School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Cross-filed (2) |  Malik Evans Incumbent |
24.9% | 14,907 | |
| Cross-filed (2) | Elizabeth Hallmark |
23.8% | 14,239 | |
| Cross-filed (2) | Willa Powell Incumbent |
22.6% | 13,512 | |
| Cross-filed (2) | Mary Adams Incumbent |
22.1% | 13,204 | |
| Working Families Party | Matthew McDermott | 6.2% | 3,738 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.4% | 260 | |
| Total Votes | 59,860 | |||
| Source: Monroe County, "2015 Monroe County General Election Unofficial Results," accessed November 3, 2015. | ||||
| FULL BY-PARTY RESULTS: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Malik Evans Incumbent | 21.8% | 13,066 | |
| Democratic | Elizabeth Hallmark | 19.7% | 11,821 | |
| Democratic | Mary Adams Incumbent | 19.6% | 11,747 | |
| Democratic | Willa Powell Incumbent | 19% | 11,368 | |
| Working Families | Matthew McDermott | 6.2% | 3,738 | |
| Working Families | Elizabeth Hallmark | 4% | 2,418 | |
| Working Families | Willa Powell Incumbent | 3.6% | 2,144 | |
| Independence | Malik Evans Incumbent | 3.1% | 1,841 | |
| Independence | Mary Adams Incumbent | 2.4% | 1,457 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.4% | 260 | |
Primary election
This election was held September 10, 2015.
| Rochester City School District, At-Large, Democratic Primary, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Malik Evans Incumbent |
19.2% | 4,910 |
| Mary Adams Incumbent |
16.2% | 4,137 |
| Elizabeth Hallmark |
14.2% | 3,637 |
| Willa Powell Incumbent |
14.2% | 3,629 |
| Lorenzo Williams | 10.4% | 2,652 |
| Howard Eagle | 9.9% | 2,517 |
| Mia Hodgins | 8.1% | 2,065 |
| Matthew McDermott | 7.5% | 1,923 |
| Write-in votes | 0.28% | 72 |
| Total Votes | 25,542 | |
| Source: Monroe County Clerk, "Democratic Primary Final Summary," accessed September 23, 2015 | ||
Funding
According to the Democrat & Chronicle, incumbent Willa Powell and challengers Howard Eagle, Mia Hodgins, and Lorenzo Williams reported spending less than $500 on their campaigns for the first campaign finance filing deadline for the primary election. The newspaper also reported that out of the eight candidates in the election, challenger Elizabeth Hallmark spent the most money on her campaign at $1,714, and incumbent Malik Evans raised the most at $9,125, which included a $5,000 personal loan.[8]
Reporting requirements
School board candidates were required to file campaign finance disclosure reports with the clerk of the Rochester City School District. No disclosure reports were required from candidates who raised or spent less than $500, but those candidates did have to file a sworn statement to that effect with the school district clerk.[9] Three reports were required per election from those over the $500 threshold. Campaign finance reports for the primary election were due August 12, September 5, and September 30, 2015. The general election campaign finance reports were due October 4, October 29, and November 23, 2015.[10]
Endorsements
Powell was endorsed by the Working Families Party, the Rochester City Newspaper and the Rochester Teachers Association (RTA).[11][12][13]
2011
| Rochester City School District, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2011 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Malik D. Evans |
19.1% | 13,538 | |
| Democratic | Melisza E. Campos |
17.9% | 12,715 | |
| Democratic | Mary B. Adams |
17.4% | 12,312 | |
| Democratic | Willa Powell |
17.4% | 12,301 | |
| Working Families | Mia C. Hodgins | 4.1% | 2,920 | |
| Working Families | Glenny A. Williams | 3.8% | 2,670 | |
| Green | Howard J. Eagle | 3.7% | 2,615 | |
| Green | Wallace R. Smith | 3.6% | 2,580 | |
| Green | Mary B. Adams | 2.8% | 1,982 | |
| Working Families | Willa Powell | 2.8% | 1,976 | |
| Working Families | Melisza E. Campos | 2.5% | 1,762 | |
| Independence | Malik D. Evans | 2% | 1,416 | |
| Independence | Melisza E. Campos | 1.8% | 1,304 | |
| Rochester's Parents United | Mia C. Hodgins | 1.1% | 793 | |
| Total Votes | 70,884 | |||
| Source: Monroe County Board of Elections, "2011 General Election Certification," accessed July 16, 2015 | ||||
Campaign themes
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Powell participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | Given that a dozen schools are under receivership status, with the Superintendent serving as the de facto receiver, this Board of Education must become active around working with the state to develop viable receivership partners, as it did with Est High School last year.[14] | ” |
| —Willa Powell (2015)[15] | ||
Ranking the issues
Powell was 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 this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in New York. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
Positions on the issues
Powell was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "Standards are fine; coerced use of state curricula is not" | |
| "Don't understand the question. That is not an option and not likely to become an option here in NY state, except for conversion charters which are already permitted under the law, but nobody wants to be chartered that way." | |
| "No" | |
| "No" | |
| "The district can't ensure equal opportunity. Our school choice system offers some access to the highest performing schools, but when those seats are filled, they are filled. We can offer opportunity, but we cannot ensure opportunity. The most proactive parents - those that participate in the school choice lottery - have a better chance of getting their kids into high achieving schools, which is how those schools stay high achieving - they are made up of proactive, involved parents.
We can and do try to create "demand parents"." | |
| "Combination of above. Positive behavior strategies should be used first, AND they must be viewed on a case by case basis. state law already mandates long-term suspension for serious offenses for the safety of other students and staff" | |
| "Ideally, additional resources should be directed to failing schools and the best teachers should be assigned to them.
In practice, moving teachers in and out or reassigning students (closing failing schools) causes a level if disruption and loss of relationship and trust that doing so causes students in struggling schools to do worse not better. Moving financial resources in a district like ours that is underfunded simply creates the next cohort of failing schools by starving a school that was marginally successful (and where in our district are they doing better than marginally successful?) of the resources that were separating them from failing status in the first place. A significant infusion of new resources from the state would allow us to target struggling schools without depriving existing schools." | |
| "No" | |
| "This is a simplistic question that does not distinguish between a teacher new to the field verses an experienced teacher who should not have been granted tenure in the first place or who is burned out. The last two options are not options at all in a tenure environment. We already do the first two (options above)" | |
| "By addressing parent needs and complaints with respect and dignity., offering parents options wherever possible." | |
| "I used "other" to fully explain myself above. No need to do so here except to say that questions like "should there be merit pay," and "should school boards grant charters" are not the purview of school board members. We are agents of the state in these matters. These questions are better asked of potential state legislators, who ultimately have the responsibility for creating or abolishing those laws." |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Willa Powell' 'Rochester City School District'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Rochester City School District, New York
- Rochester City School District elections (2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rochester City School District, "Board Information: Willa Powell," accessed August 12, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Monroe County Clerk, "2015 Monroe Primary Unofficial Results," accessed September 10, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Monroe County Board of Elections, "Listing of Candidates for Public Office 2015," accessed July 22, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Monroe County, "2015 Monroe County General Election Unofficial Results," accessed November 3, 2015
- ↑ New York State Board of Elections, "2015 Filing Calendar," accessed July 24, 2015
- ↑ Rochester City School District, "Board Member Biographies," accessed July 16, 2015
- ↑ Democrat & Chronicle, "Incumbents, Hallmark prevail for city school board," September 10, 2015
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedfinancenews - ↑ Monroe County Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Disclosure Filings," May 11, 2015
- ↑ New York State Election Law, "NY Code - Section 1529: Times for filing statements," accessed August 12, 2015
- ↑ Working Families Party, "2015 Candidates: Rochester Area," accessed September 8, 2015
- ↑ Rochester City Newspaper, "Primary Endorsements," August 26, 2015
- ↑ Rochester Teachers Association, "Adam's Updates," accessed September 8, 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, "Willa Powell responses," September 1, 2015
| 2015 Rochester City School District Elections | |
| Monroe County, New York | |
| Election date: | Primary election: September 10, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Mary Adams (D, I) • Incumbent, Malik Evans (D, I) • Incumbent, Willa Powell (D, WF) • Howard Eagle (D) • Elizabeth Hallmark (D, WF) • Mia Hodgins (D) • Matthew McDermott (D, WF) • Lorenzo Williams (D) |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
