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Ryan Schambers
Ryan Schambers was a candidate for Trustee Area 7 representative on the Modesto City Schools school board in California. Schambers was defeated in the by-district general election on November 7, 2017.
Schambers participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to read his responses.
Elections
2017
- See also: Modesto City Schools elections (2017)
Four of the seven seats on the Modesto City Schools Board of Education in California were up for nonpartisan general election on November 7, 2017. In their bids for re-election, incumbents Cindy Marks and Chad Brown ran unopposed for the Trustee Area 1 and 3 seats, respectively. Those races did not appear on the ballot, and the two incumbents won re-election by default. Rickey McGill, Michael Scheid, and Charlene West ran for the open Trustee Area 5 seat, and West won election to the board. The race for the open Trustee Area 7 seat included Matthew Harrington, Adolfo Lopez, and Ryan Schambers, and Lopez won election to the board.[1][2][3]
The 2017 election was the first time the school district used the by-district election method. Prior to 2017, school board members were elected at large.[4]
Results
| Modesto City Schools, Trustee Area 7 General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Adolfo Lopez |
65.08% | 932 |
| Ryan Schambers | 19.62% | 281 |
| Matthew Harrington | 15.01% | 215 |
| Write-in votes | 0.28% | 4 |
| Total Votes | 1,432 | |
| Source: Stanislaus County Elections Office, "Official Results," accessed November 21, 2017 | ||
Funding
The Stanilaus County Registrar of Voters does not publish and freely disclose school board candidate campaign finance reports. If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Endorsements
Schambers was endorsed by the Stanislaus County Republican Party.[5]
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia survey responses
Ryan Schambers participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates.[6] In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on September 20, 2017:
| “ | I hope to achieve to involve the community such as families more in their child's education. I hope to reduce wasting spending and ensure that the school board prioritizes spending on the more important things first, which is education over bells and whistles. I intend to ensure that we reduce teacher turnover and prevent a strike by paying teachers fairly and making it so that they do not have to pay for supplies out of their own pockets. Lastly I intend to change the culture of the school board of rubber-stamping everything and not being analytical enough and not asking enough questions.[7][8] | ” |
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 California. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| “ | We need to evaluate every budget decision closely so that we have the money to spend on things we need. I want to close the achievement gap between Trustee Area 7 and that of other more wealthier-area schools.[8] | ” |
| —Ryan Schambers (September 20, 2017) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer eight 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. I think we have enough charter schools for this district to choose from. I feel from experience that non-charter schools tend to be more organized and test scores seem to usually be higher. I know Delta Charter for example closed two schools recently in Stockton for under-performance among other issues such as budgeting. I do support the right for parents to take their kids to charter schools, but currently we have a lot. |
| 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? |
| No. Standardized tests are often not very valid. In other words they do not accurately measure what they claim to measure. Also students may misunderstand the questions or not know what certain words in the question mean. I think there is a huge opportunity to reform our current standardized testing. I believe some standardized testing may be helpful for measuring progress, but the results should be open to interpretation. |
| 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? |
| Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| No. It is extremely difficult/impossible to accurately compare the performance of one teacher to another. The merit system is very controversial and often leads to verbal fighting between workers of who did a better job than who. The ways merit-based pay is based on often do not take into account all the variables necessary to accurately compare teachers. This is endless, and I believe that it is near impossible or impossible to make accurate comparisons, however if there is merit-based pay it should be based on progress, not simply their end test scores. |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. I support the freedom to choose charter schools, but I believe that the non-charter public schools tend to outperform them and be more organized. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Expulsion should be a last resort. Sometimes students are required to expelled by law for a year if they bring a gun to school for example. I would promote Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports in order to reduce expulsions and suspensions. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| Teachers. I was taught that teachers are clearly the most important factor by far and I believe it. There is currently a huge difference between highly-skilled teachers and new teachers, sometimes 2 or 3 times more efficient. I am currently going through the multiple-subject credential program at CSU Stanislaus. |
Candidate website
Schambers highlighted why he ran for school board on his campaign website:
| “ | Education and politics have always been a big interest of mine. I am concerned with the lack of resources teachers, administration, and support staff have when it comes to ensuring students are successful.
Being a substitute teacher for over 2 years and a tutor for about 3 years in the Modesto area I have seen how teachers are frustrated with their lack of supplies, student-to-teacher ratios increasing, and their salaries.[8] |
” |
| —Ryan Schambers (2017)[9] | ||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Ryan Schambers Modesto City Schools school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Modesto City Schools, California
- Modesto City Schools elections (2017)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters, "Consolidated District Election - Tuesday, November 7, 2017: Unofficial Candidate List," accessed September 20, 2017
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Stephanie Lopez, Modesto City Clerk," August 14, 2017
- ↑ Stanislaus County Elections Office, "Unofficial Results," accessed November 8, 2017
- ↑ Modesto Bee, "Measure F wins approval, gives Modesto schools option to elect by area," June 7, 2016
- ↑ Stanislaus County Republican Party, "Endorsements," accessed October 25, 2017
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2017, "Ryan Schambers's responses," September 20, 2017
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ryan Schambers for Modesto City School Board Trustee Area 7, "What Are My Stances on the Issues?," July 29, 2017
| Modesto City Schools elections in 2017 | |
| Stanislaus County, California | |
| Election date: | November 7, 2017 |
| Candidates: | Trustee Area 1: • Incumbent, Cindy Marks Trustee Area 3: • Incumbent, Chad Brown Trustee Area 5: • Rickey McGill • Michael Scheid • Charlene West Trustee Area 7: • Matthew Harrington • Adolfo Lopez • Ryan Schambers |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Additional elections on the ballot • Key deadlines |
