Ronald Holley
Ronald Holley was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Lansing School District school board in Michigan. Holley was defeated in the at-large general election on November 8, 2016.
Biography
Holley earned his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University.[1]
Elections
2016
- See also: Lansing School District elections (2016)
Four of the nine seats on the Lansing School District school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. These seats included three seats with six-year terms and one seat with a two-year term. The race for the six-year terms featured incumbents Gabrielle Johnson and Amy Hodgin along with challengers Mark Eagle, Melissa Lilje, Ronald Holley, and Stephen Purchase. Johnson, Hodgin, and Lilje defeated Eagle, Holley, and Purchase. Incumbent Nino Rodriguez won a two-year term against Undra Brown III.[2]
Results
| Lansing School District, At-Large General Election, 6-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Gabrielle Johnson Incumbent |
23.72% | 19,165 |
| Amy Hodgin Incumbent |
20.57% | 16,621 |
| Melissa Lilje |
17.88% | 14,453 |
| Mark Eagle | 14.10% | 11,391 |
| Ronald Holley | 12.31% | 9,952 |
| Stephen Purchase | 10.69% | 8,637 |
| Write-in votes | 0.74% | 594 |
| Total Votes | 80,813 | |
| Source: Ingham County, "November 8, 2016," accessed December 14, 2016 | ||
Funding
School board candidates in Michigan were required to file pre-election campaign finance reports with their county election offices by October 28, 2016. Post-election reports were due by December 8, 2016.[3]
In Michigan, candidates are prohibited from receiving contributions from corporations or labor organizations. Within 10 days of becoming a candidate, candidates must form a candidate committee. Following the creation of the committee, candidates have an additional 10 days to register the committee with the school district filing official by filing a statement of organization. A candidate committee that does not expect to receive or spend more than $1,000 during the election cycle is eligible to receive a reporting waiver, which allows that committee not to file pre-election, post-election, and annual campaign statements.[4]
October 28 filing
Candidates received a total of $15,920.00 and spent a total of $10,306.70 as of October 30, 2016, according to the Ingham County Clerk.[5]
Six-year terms
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gabrielle Johnson (incumbent) | $4,060.00 | $3,575.42 | $484.58 |
| Amy Hodgin (incumbent) | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Mark Eagle | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Melissa Lilje | $1,570.00 | $698.00 | $872.00 |
| Ronald Holley | $5,255.00 | $3,470.20 | $1,784.80 |
| Stephen Purchase | $2,070.00 | $436.08 | $1,633.92 |
Two-year term
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nino Rodriguez (incumbent) | $2,965.00 | $2,127.00 | $837.23 |
| Undra Brown III | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Campaign themes
2016
Ballotpedia survey responses
Ronald L. Holley participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of school board candidates. In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on August 21, 2016:
| “ | I want to be part of a school system interested in being the best it can be. I want to be able to use my skills and expertise and experience to be a full participant in that effort. In so doing Lansing will become a greater community in which to live.[6][7] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Michigan. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
| Blank | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer nine questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. It would be better to ensure that the same standards to which the public schools are held be applied to charter schools. It would also be good to explore ways that the public schools could be used to supplement charter school programs, by offering some public school curricular offerings to the charter schools with cooperative funding as well. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| Yes. They can be, but they are only one way to explore student achievement and progress. |
| What is your stance on the Common Core State Standards Initiative? |
| It is a national attempted to work with the states to ensure that students all over the country are exposed to common curricular areas so that high school diplomas have better carry over from district to district and state to state. Each state was to develop its own curriculum guidelines in keeping with the national standards. I spent some days with the Michigan Department of Education implementation work group to develop such guidelines. The whole issue has become blurred and over politicized by politicians playing to the drama and suspicions of the few. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. Management evaluations of new teachers is critical. Teachers all receive university training in their chosen areas of instruction. They are then extensive screened and examined and granted certification teach. How they are evaluated, how often and what further professional development opportunities is then up to the district, state and federal programs to see that the teachers are properly updated to teach in the classroom. I think most performance problems can be traced to lax or poor evaluative tools being used by school managers. Teachers want to excel in their work. They need to be motivated and informed to do so. Best practices in successful programs reflect the respect, professionalism and full participation of teacher representatives to produce great results. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. It should be negotiated in the teacher/district contracts. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsions should not as a rule be to the streets. That results in speeding up the pathway to prison. Rather the schools are mandated to educate those in their charge. Unless the student is being formally adjudicated or confined to mental health facilities, they should be in school, perhaps some form of alternative school, but nevertheless in school. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers. I believe that teachers hold key and provide the most critical spark. Research documents that the amount of time students spend with professional classroom teachers is the most reliable factor in student success. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Ronald Holley Lansing School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Lansing State Journal, "Millage spending, test scores key issues in Lansing school election," October 20, 2016
- ↑ Ingham County, Michigan, "Ingham County Candidate List," accessed August 31, 2016
- ↑ Michigan Bureau of Elections, "2016 and 2017 Campaign Finance Filing Schedule," January 12, 2016
- ↑ Genesee County, "Filing Requirements under Michigan's Campaign Finance Act," February 7, 2014
- ↑ Ingham County Clerk, "Document Search & Online Marriage Application," accessed October 30, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2016, "Ronald L. Holley's responses," August 21, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| 2016 Lansing School District Elections | |
| Ingham County, Michigan | |
| Election date: | November 8, 2016 |
| Candidates: | Six-year terms (Three seats): Incumbent, Gabrielle Johnson • Incumbent, Amy Hodgin • Mark Eagle • Melissa Lilje • Ronald Holley • Stephen Purchase Two-year term (One seat): Incumbent, Nino Rodriguez • Undra Brown III |
| Important information: | What was at stake? |
