Mike Falkofske

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Mike Falkofske

Prior offices

Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education At-large

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Elections and appointments

Last election

April 3, 2018

Education

Bachelor's

University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

Personal

Profession

GIS specialist

Contact

Campaign Facebook

Mike Falkofske was a member of the Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education At-large in Wisconsin. Falkofske assumed office in 2015. Falkofske left office in 2018.

Falkofske ran for re-election to the Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education At-large in Wisconsin. Falkofske lost in the general election on April 3, 2018.

Falkofske previously ran unsuccessfully for the board in the general election on April 1, 2014.

Biography

Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this biography.

Falkofske earned a B.A. in geography and history from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1995. He has worked as a mapping specialist for MGP Inc. since 2000. Falkofske has three children who have attended or will attend district schools.

Board membership

2016-2017

The members of the Kenosha Board of Education voted unanimously on 95.4 percent of their agenda items from April 25, 2016, to January 12, 2017. The voting data indicated that Tamarra Coleman, Gary J. Kunich, Mary Snyder, and Dan Wade were the governing majority, just as they were from April 2015 to March 2016. The other three members of the board—Mike Falkofske, Tony Garcia, and Rebecca Stevens—did not vote together consistently enough to be considered a minority faction.

2015-2016

The Kenosha Board of Education voted unanimously on 92.08 percent of its agenda items between April 27, 2015, and March 22, 2016. The voting data indicated that Tamarra Coleman, Gary J. Kunich, Mary Snyder, and Dan Wade were the majority faction on the board. The other three members of the board—Mike Falkofske, Kyle Flood, and Rebecca Stevens—did not vote together consistently enough to be considered a minority faction.

Elections

2018

See also: Kenosha Unified School District elections (2018)

An at-large general election was held for three seats on the Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education in Wisconsin on April 3, 2018. Incumbents Tamarra Coleman and Mary Snyder did not file for re-election, leaving two open seats. Four candidates filed to run in this race. Incumbent Mike Falkofske faced candidates Todd Battle, Tom Duncan, and Mary Braun Modder in the election. The three challengers defeated Falkofske for the three seats.

General election

General election for Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education At-large (3 seats)

Tom Duncan, Mary Braun Modder, and Todd Battle defeated incumbent Mike Falkofske in the general election for Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education At-large on April 3, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Tom Duncan (Nonpartisan)	27.0	8,310
✔		Mary Braun Modder (Nonpartisan)	26.2	8,082
✔		Todd Battle (Nonpartisan)	24.6	7,580
		Mike Falkofske (Nonpartisan)	21.7	6,688
		Other/Write-in votes	0.5	168

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 30,828
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

2015

See also: Kenosha Unified School District elections (2015)

Three at-large seats were up for election on April 7, 2015. Mike Falkofske and Tony Garcia challenged incumbents Carl Bryan, Tamarra Coleman and Mary Snyder in the general election.

Bryan withdrew from the race as he was moving outside of the district, but the withdrawal was not in time to have his name removed from the ballot. If he had won in the general election, the vacancy on the board would have been filled by appointment. Such an appointment was avoided as Falkofske, Snyder and Coleman won the election.

Results

Kenosha Unified School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Mike Falkofske	23.7%	6,724
	Nonpartisan	Mary Snyder Incumbent	23.2%	6,583
	Nonpartisan	Tamarra Coleman Incumbent	20.7%	5,874
	Nonpartisan	Tony Garcia	20.4%	5,784
	Nonpartisan	Carl Bryan Incumbent	11.2%	3,184
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes*	0.6%	179
Total Votes				28,328
Source: Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Stacy Busby, Executive Assistant at Kenosha Unified School District," August 7, 2015. *The write-in votes total provided here comes from the unofficial results reported by Kenosha County on election night. The official report of canvass provided by the school district did not include write-in votes.

Funding

Falkofske began the race with an existing account balance of $1,402.23 from his previous campaign. He reported $4,780.58 in contributions and $3,209.48 in expenditures to Kenosha Unified School District, which left his campaign with $1,571.10 in cash on hand in this election. Incumbent Carl Bryan gave his remaining campaign fund balance of $116.42 to Falkofske after announcing his unofficial withdrawal from the race.

Endorsements

Falkofske was endorsed by Wisconsin Progress and Kenosha Educators Politically Active and Concerned (KEPAC).

2014

See also: Kenosha Unified School District elections (2014)

Mike Falkofske ran against five other candidates in the February 18, 2014 primary election. The top four vote recipients advanced to the general election on April 1, 2014.

Results

General

Kenosha Unified School District, At-large General Election, 3-year term, April 1, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Dan Wade	28.2%	6,858
	Nonpartisan	Gary J. Kunich	26.1%	6,346
	Nonpartisan	Mike Falkofske	23.4%	5,688
	Nonpartisan	Jo Ann Taube Incumbent	22.3%	5,423
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.2%	43
Total Votes				24,358
Source: Kenosha County Clerk, "Spring Election," April 1, 2014

Primary

Kenosha Unified School District, At-large Primary Election, 3-year term, February 18, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Jo Ann Taube Incumbent	19.7%	1,917
	Nonpartisan	Gary J. Kunich	18.7%	1,826
	Nonpartisan	Mike Falkofske	18.1%	1,764
	Nonpartisan	Dan Wade	17.3%	1,688
	Nonpartisan	Robert Nuzzo Incumbent	13%	1,271
	Nonpartisan	Michael Kehoe	12.9%	1,255
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.2%	21
Total Votes				9,742
Source: Kenosha County Clerk, "Spring Primary Election," accessed February 18, 2014

Funding

Falkofske began the pre-election reporting period with an existing account balance of $3,793.55 from a previous report. He reported $3,720.00 in contributions and $2,353.22 in expenditures to the school board secretary, which left his campaign with $2,426.77 on hand.

Endorsements

Falkofske was endorsed by the Kenosha Education Association ahead of the February 18, 2014 primary. He earned the endorsement of the Kenosha News for the April 1 general election.

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Falkofske participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	My top priority is to create a new strategic plan, new mission statement, and new vision statement by using the information contained 2013 District Curriculum audit. The district will never be able to fix it’s problems if it doesn’t know how to define itself. The districts needs to have a clear vision of where it will be in the future and a roadmap for getting there. The district needs to stop being a reactive organization and instead become a proactive organization that can successfully navigate all the challenges it will face.	”
—Mike Falkofske (2015)

Ranking the issues

The candidate 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 Wisconsin.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Closing the achievement gap
3	Expanding career-technical education
2	Improving education for special needs students
4	Improving college readiness
5	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
6	Expanding arts education
7	Expanding school choice options

Positions on the issues

The candidate 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
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"They should be implemented."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"Yes."
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"No."
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"No."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"The first step is prioritizing where the money is spent. We need to spend more money at the building level and less for administrative travel and conferences. Smaller class sizes will also help students at both ends. We need to strengthen our community partnerships to bring more mentors into the school to work with our students. Finally we need to be a strategic plan based of the 2013 district wide curriculum audit. The audit was full of suggestions on how we could improve learning for all students."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Expulsion should be used for serious offenses to ensure the safety of other students as well as the integrity of education at district schools."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"The school board should interview administrations, teachers, parents of students at the school, parents who moved their children to a different school, and the community organizations that work in the neighborhoods near the school. The school board must find the real causes of the issues, so that real solutions can be created. The school should also be given the highest priority when the district hires new teachers or increase money for other resources. They should also work with community organizations to leverage additional resources to help these schools."
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"For groups of teachers not individual teachers."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"The community will never trust any organization if it doesn’t view that organization as being transparent. I will visits schools to talk with teachers, parents, and students to gauge how well the school working for it’s students. I will send out monthly newsletters and use social media to communicate with constituents about the ongoing priorities in the district. Most importantly I welcome criticism as we can't improve the district unless people are willing to give honest feedback about how policies are impacting them."

2014

Falkofske's campaign website listed the following themes for 2014:

“	I believe that the School Board Members are elected to be the voice of the electors of the District and the Superintendent is the executive hired by the School Board. I will work to provide students with truly personalized learning programs where the high fliers are just as challenged as the students who struggle to learn. I think that the local schools need to be empowered to resolve their own issues and provide learning environments best suited to their students of that particular school. I will push the district for consistent enforcement of the code of conduct as well as stronger policies that discourage bullying at all levels. I will monitor the District finances to ensure that taxpayer money is being used in the most effective manner to provide our students with excellent education they deserve.	”
—Mike Falkofske's campaign website, (2014)

See also

• Kenosha Unified School District, Wisconsin
• Kenosha Unified School District elections (2018)
• Kenosha Unified School District elections (2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• Kenosha Unified School District
• Office website
• Campaign Facebook page
• LinkedIn profile
• Archived campaign website