Wisconsin school board primaries set field for busy April election
February 17, 2016
By Nick Katers
Wisconsin's school board primaries created few surprises on Tuesday evening, with Jonathan Jossart of the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District Board of Education being the lone defeated incumbent. He finished 10th and 67 votes away from advancing in a field that was narrowed to eight for the April 5 general election. Jossart was one of 12 incumbents in Wisconsin districts covered by Ballotpedia who faced a primary last night. These incumbents were joined by 40 challengers in eight districts running for seats on the ballot in April. Of the 141 seats in Wisconsin up for election in 2016, 19 (13.4 percent) required a primary election. School board races will join the presidential primary, a race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and municipal elections on the general election ballot.
The difference between victory and defeat in last night's primaries was relatively small. In raw numbers, the margin between Gregory Loreck and Elizabeth Sparks for the last general election spot in Oak Creek-Franklin was 29 votes. There were similarly close margins between Brian O'Connell and Adrienne Moore in Racine's District 7 race (28 votes) as well as between Mark Critelli and Thomas Binder in Marshfield School District (49 votes). The average advancement margin was 4.3 percent, with the low rate of 0.30 percent in Oak Creek-Franklin and the high rate of 11.82 percent in West Bend School District. Three districts had advancement margins that exceeded the average: Holmen School District (4.86 percent), Racine Unified School District's District 6 race (6.82 percent) and West Bend.
The Badger State's school board elections in 2016 have been informed by ongoing tensions between local and state officials over per-student state funding, school vouchers and policies related to transgender students. Elections in our spotlight districts are also impacted by structural changes for their school boards.
Spotlight districts
Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District
Community group YES for Oak Creek Schools used Wisconsin's tradition of annual school board meetings to expand the district's composition from five members to seven members. The group gathered 553 signatures prior to the annual meeting on July 23, 2015, meeting the minimum signature threshold to place board expansion on the agenda. YES for Oak Creek Schools advocated for a seven-member board to increase the amount of input from the community and match the number of board members elected in a majority of Wisconsin's 50 largest districts by enrollment.[1]
Board members Mark Verhalen and Kathleen Borchardt joined some community members in opposing the measure, but the proposal prevailed and will go into effect following the 2016 election. Verhalen argued that the current board managed its business effectively without the need for additional members.[2] District residents will vote on four board seats in April 2016, with the top two vote recipients earning three-year terms, the third-place finisher earning a two-year term and the fourth-place finisher earning a one-year term. The two-year term holder will join Borchert and Sheryl Cerniglia as board members facing election in 2018, while the one-year term holder and Verhalen face election in 2017. All board members will serve three-year terms once this modified election cycle is complete.[1]
YES for Oak Creek Schools issued a candidate report card prior to the primary with letter grades based on knowledge, vision, experience and leadership. Incumbents Jonathan Jossart and Frank Carini joined challenger Amy Mlot with grades of A- or A, with Carini and Mlot advancing to the general election. Four candidates who received a C+ or lower were defeated in the primary: Elizabeth Sparks (C+), Sean Kingston (C), Rosemarie Annonson (F) and Thomas Kroon (F). Jeffrey Gassenhuber received an F, but advanced to the general election.[3]
Racine Unified School District
Racine's school board politics drew attention from state legislators in 2015, leading to changes in how the board is elected starting in 2016. An effort by the villages of Caledonia, Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant to separate from the district led State Sen. Van Wanggaard (R) and State Rep. Tom Weatherston (R) to propose a bill to change Racine's elections from at-large to by-district. Wanggaard and Weatherston suggested that by-district elections would ensure representation for all areas of the district. This bill was included in the 2015-2017 state budget and required the school board to create electoral districts for future elections. Board members clashed over election district proposals in October 2015, with a 5-4 majority selecting Proposal 5 (pictured right).[4][5]
School board members were also divided over appointing a successor to Lisa Parham following her resignation from the board in June 2015. The board was unable to select a replacement after 24 rounds of anonymous voting during a meeting on July 2, 2015.[6][7] Another 11 rounds of voting were unable to select Parham's replacement on July 7, 2015. Board minutes from July 7 showed a board divided between supporters of John Koetz and former board member Wally Rendón, with neither candidate earning approval from a majority of the board.[8]
State law provided no remedy for Racine's deadlock until the signing of Assembly Bill 325 by Gov. Scott Walker (R) on October 23, 2015. This legislation, introduced by Wanggaard and Weatherston, allowed the board president to fill vacant seats if the board cannot select a replacement in the 60-day period following the vacancy's creation. The law expired on April 12, 2016, and included a provision requiring districts to develop their own policies for filling vacancies by July 1, 2016.[9]
Board President Melvin Hargrove used the power created by Assembly Bill 325 to appoint Koetz to the vacant seat on October 26, 2015. Hargrove said that the public's frustration with the board deadlock and the need for a full board to deal with district issues led to his appointment of Koetz.[10] Naomi Baden of the Racine Education UniServ Council criticized the appointment in an interview with The Journal Times. "It’s a sad day for democracy when a school board president gets to stack the deck on the Board of Ed...The only real solution to this kind of autocracy is for the citizens of Racine to elect a new school board in April," said Baden.[10]
Candidates
Note: An (i) next to a candidate's name indicates incumbent status.
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Holmen School District
Kenosha Unified School District
Marshfield School District
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Neenah Joint School District
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Oconomowoc Area School District
Racine Unified School District District 7
West Bend School District
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See also
- Wisconsin school board elections, 2016
- School board elections, 2016
- Wisconsin school districts: 2015 in review and a 2016 election preview
- Wisconsin school districts
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Yes for Oak Creek Schools, "Increased Board Size," accessed July 29, 2015
- ↑ Oak Creek Now, "Oak Creek-Franklin School Board receives voter approval to add two more seats," August 24, 2015
- ↑ Yes for Oak Creek Schools, "OC-F School Board Candidate Report Card," accessed February 12, 2016
- ↑ The Journal Times, "State legislature eyes changing Unified board, related to separation movement," May 20, 2015
- ↑ Racine Unified School District, "Official Proceedings," October 27, 2015
- ↑ The Journal Times, "Racine Unified secret ballot vote was apparent violation of state law," July 17, 2015
- ↑ The Journal Times, "Unified School Board will again try to pick a new member," July 6, 2015
- ↑ Racine Unified School District, "Official Proceedings: July 7, 2015," July 7, 2015
- ↑ CBS 58, "Walker signs bill allowing Racine School District President to fill Board Vacancies," October 23, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Journal Times, "Tiebreaker: Hargrove Appoints John Koetz to School Board," October 26, 2015
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