Alexandria City Public Schools elections (2015)
 |
Method of election Elections What was at stake? Key deadlines Additional elections External links |
Alexandria Public Schools Local ballot measures, Virginia |
 |
Nine seats on the Alexandria City Public Schools School Board were up for general election on November 3, 2015. The seats of all nine incumbents were up for election.[1]
Incumbents William Campbell and Karen Graf and challenger Harold Cardwell ran unopposed and won the three District A seats. District B incumbent Kelly Booz lost her seat after facing challengers Cindy Anderson, Mimi Goff, Margaret Lorber and Veronica Nolan for three seats. Anderson, Lorber and Nolan won the three District B seats. The District C race for three seats featured incumbents Ronnie Campbell, Patricia Hennig and Christopher Lewis and challengers Darla Dillard and Ramee Gentry. While Campbell and Lewis won re-election, Henning lost her seat to Gentry.
Two of the 13 candidates in this election participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 school board candidate survey. Check out the "What was at stake?" section to see survey answers.
About the district
- See also: Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia
Alexandria City Public Schools is located in northeast Virginia in Alexandria. Alexandria is an independent city and therefore does not belong to a county. This city was home to 150,575 residents in 2014, according to estimates by the United States Census Bureau.[2] In the 2011-2012 school year, Alexandria City Public Schools was the 23rd-largest school district in Virginia and served 12,396 students.[3]
Demographics
Alexandria outperformed the rest of Virginia in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 61.4 percent of city residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 35.2 percent for Virginia as a whole. The median household income in Alexandria was $85,706, compared to $63,907 for the state of Virginia. The poverty rate was 8.4 percent, compared to 11.3 percent for the entire state.[2]
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Alexandria City School Board is a nine-member board elected by district to three-year terms. There are three districts on the board with three board members per district.[5] The last day for candidates to file for the school board election was June 9, 2015. The general election was held on November 3, 2015.[6]
Elections
2015
Candidates
District A
William Campbell 
|
Karen Graf
|
Harold Cardwell
| |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
District B
| Kelly Booz | Cindy Anderson
|
Mimi Goff | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Margaret Lorber
|
Veronica Nolan
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
||
District C
| Ronnie Campbell
|
Patricia Hennig | Christopher Lewis
| |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Darla Dillard | Ramee Gentry
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
||
Election results
| Alexandria City School Board, District A, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Karen Graf Incumbent |
36.2% | 7,131 |
| William Campbell Incumbent |
32.4% | 6,371 |
| Harold Cardwell |
29.3% | 5,770 |
| Write-in votes | 2.12% | 418 |
| Total Votes | 19,690 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General", accessed November 3, 2015 | ||
| Alexandria City School Board, District B, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Veronica Nolan |
26.2% | 5,986 |
| Cindy Anderson |
20.9% | 4,761 |
| Margaret Lorber |
18.6% | 4,239 |
| Mimi Goff | 16.8% | 3,828 |
| Kelly Booz Incumbent | 16.5% | 3,755 |
| Write-in votes | 1.07% | 245 |
| Total Votes | 22,814 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General", accessed November 3, 2015 | ||
| Alexandria City School Board, District C, General Election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Christopher Lewis Incumbent |
25.4% | 2,808 |
| Ronnie Campbell Incumbent |
22.8% | 2,520 |
| Ramee Gentry |
17.5% | 1,938 |
| Darla Dillard | 17.2% | 1,910 |
| Patricia Hennig Incumbent | 17.2% | 1,900 |
| Total Votes | 11,076 | |
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November General", accessed November 3, 2015 | ||
Endorsements
The following is a list of endorsements made in board elections in Alexandria City Public Schools in 2015:
| Candidate endorsements | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Alexandria Political Action Committee for Education[7] | Alexandria Times[8] | ||
| District A | ||||
| William Campbell |  |
|||
| Karen Graf | |
|||
| Harold Cardwell | |
|||
| District B | ||||
| Kelly Booz | |
| ||
| Cindy Anderson | |
| ||
| Mimi Goff | ||||
| Margaret Lorber | | |||
| Veronica Nolan | |
|||
| District C | ||||
| Ronnie Campbell | |
| ||
| Patricia Hennig | |
|||
| Christopher Lewis | |
| ||
| Darla Dillard | ||||
| Ramee Gentry | |
| ||
Campaign finance
Candidates received a total of $114,713.67 and spent a total of $63,857.15 as of October 26, 2015, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections.[9]
| Candidate | Contributions | Expenditures | Cash on hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| District A | |||
| William Campbell (incumbent) | $675.31 | $185.00 | $490.31 |
| Karen Graf (incumbent) | $8,759.37 | $3,353.34 | $5,406.03 |
| Harold Cardwell | $50.00 | $0.00 | $50.00 |
| District B | |||
| Kelly Booz (incumbent) | $6,194.83 | $1,630.63 | $4,564.20 |
| Cindy Anderson | $5,530.00 | $3,359.53 | $2,170.47 |
| Mimi Goff | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Margaret Lorber | $11,174.60 | $10,525.64 | $648.96 |
| Veronica Nolan | $41,907.09 | $23,004.94 | $18,902.15 |
| District C | |||
| Ronnie Campbell (incumbent) | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Patricia Hennig (incumbent) | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Christopher Lewis (incumbent) | $35,133.89 | $18,367.20 | $16,766.69 |
| Darla Dillard | $3,509.63 | $1,935.36 | $1,574.27 |
| Ramee Gentry | $1,778.95 | $1,495.51 | $283.44 |
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What was at stake?
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Two candidates out of 13 total candidates in this race participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following section displays the responses to the survey questions from District A incumbent Karen Graf and District C candidate Darla Dillard.
Top priorities
When asked what her top priorities would be if elected, Dillard stated:
| “ |
Reducing class size; Retaining and training our staff; Empowering our parents to get involved in their child's education. [10] |
” |
| —Darla Dillard, (2015), [11] | ||
When asked what her top priorities would be if elected, Graf stated:
| “ |
My top priority would be to support our districts budget, capacity and academic strategies so they are better aligned. We are redistricting and challenged with building schools, while still building academic supports for all our students. [10] |
” |
| —Karen Graf, (2015), [12] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidates were 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 the candidates' rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Virginia. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | ||
|---|---|---|
| Issue | Dillard | Graf |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | ||
| Expanding career-technical education | ||
| Closing the achievement gap | ||
| Expanding arts education | ||
| Improving college readiness | ||
| Improving education for special needs students | ||
| Expanding school choice options | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidates were asked to answer 10 multiple and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. A link to the candidates' responses can be found below.
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Alexandria City Public Schools election in 2015:[6]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| June 9, 2015 | Last day for candidates to file nomination documents |
| October 13, 2015 | Last day to register to vote in the general election |
| October 27, 2015 | Last day to apply for an absentee ballot by mail |
| October 31, 2015 | Last day to apply for an absentee ballot in person |
| November 3, 2015 | Election Day |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Virginia elections, 2015
This election shared the ballot with races for mayor and city council.[13]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Alexandria Public Schools Virginia. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Alexandria City Public Schools | Virginia | School Boards |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
|
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Alexandria City Public Schools, "School Board Members," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 United States Census Bureau, "Alexandria city, Virginia," accessed January 29, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 22, 2014
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Election Results," accessed January 29, 2015
- ↑ Alexandria City Public Schools, "School Board," accessed September 17, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Virginia Department of Elections, "2015 November Election Calendar," accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ AlexandriaNews.org, "Alexandria Educators Endorse Candidates," July 13, 2015
- ↑ Alexandria Times, "Alexandria Times Endorses Local Election Candidates," October 23, 2015
- ↑ Virginia State Board of Elections, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Darla Dillard's responses," September 28, 2015
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Karen Graf's responses," October 18, 2015
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "List of Candidates," September 9, 2015
